Haunted Palace
[Wind howling]
Katsukawa Shunsho 勝川 春章, “The actors Ichikawa Danjuro V as a skeleton, spirit of the renegade monk…” 1783
This is the last Crisis Palace before Halloween so it will be a very special frightening edition a holiday spooktacular you might say. If you are faint of heart consider yourself warned.
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In May of 1845, the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus set out for the Arctic on a mission to chart the last unknown section of the Northwest Passage. For centuries, European explorers had been trying to complete a route between the Atlantic and the Pacific by meandering through the treacherous waters north of Canada, and Sir Jon Franklin was going to be the guy to finish the job.
The expedition sailed into the Baffin Bay that July and was never heard from again. All 129 men aboard died presumably grisly deaths by disease or starvation or exposure, some resorting to cannibalism. It was the worst tragedy in the history of Arctic exploration. It was also a huge mystery, as the shipwrecks weren’t even found for another 170 years.
Arctic and Antarctic expeditions have always been a little obsession of mine, so I was excited to find out that AMC’s The Terror would be a supernatural horror story imagining what could have happened to the Franklin Expedition. Based on the book by Dan Simmons, it’s also the only modern example I can think of depicting this era of exploration, much less with such painstaking detail.
If this is your kind of aesthetic, you will probably enjoy The Terror.
The story is told over a single season and while not perfect, it is, as the kids say or maybe said like two years ago, extremely my shit. It goes to great lengths to recreate these Royal Navy missions from that time, and the costumes, sets, and CGI environments are incredible. While there are some unfortunate tropes that still make it in, the show also highlights the interactions the Netsilik Inuit had with these expeditions, something often left out of the story.
There are some fun splattery scenes, but I find the show actually works the least well when the supernatural element shows up (no spoilers), and is most effective in the depiction of the crew’s natural demise. Men with sunken eyes and bleeding scalps from scurvy but still wearing epaulets that kind of thing. It can be quite gross too, with archaic medical practices and little creepy moments like a spyglass sticking to an eyelid. It’s horror, not so much in the sense that it’s frightening, but that it is horrifying.
Some of the uplifting imagery you can expect from AMC’s The Terror.
People sometimes wonder why there’s not more art about climate change, but I find that a lot of fiction these days, while not about climate change, is about climate change. The Terror feels like one of those to me.
For one, it’s a story about colonialism, and even pollution (no spoilers). Thematically, it’s a story of arrogance in the face of the environment, hurtling people to an inevitable demise. And how each person responds to that fate, be it denial, depression, violence, or kindness. All villainy here derives from hubris, and all virtue from humility.
There’s also this sense of slow-moving catastrophe. One of the most effective touches kicks in after the ships become trapped in the ice pack, a deadly fate that not only carries a ship wherever the ice decides to drift, but can also crush a ship’s hull. Throughout much of the show, we hear this steady, dull creaking and groaning of the ice pressing against the hull, a reminder of what horror is to come.
You get the idea.
There’s a chapter in Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction where she explores what set modern humans apart from our prehistoric relatives like Neanderthals. Evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo brings up one distinction which is that we just can’t sit goddamn still.
Kolbert calls it our “Faustian restlessness.” See, unlike neanderthals, it’s only modern humans who started to migrate by venturing out onto open water with no sight of land.
“How many people must have sailed out and vanished on the Pacific before you found Easter Island? I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Pääbo says. “And why do you do that? Is it for the glory? For immortality? For curiosity? And now we go to Mars. We never stop.”
We never stop.
He hypothesizes that there could be some “madness gene,” an evolutionary quirk that makes humans compulsively explore, and has ultimately led us to alter the ecosystem of the whole planet.
And yet, Kolbert also explores in that chapter another thing that sets humans apart—our skill at reading social cues, which gives us the unique survival advantage of “collective problem-solving.”
The Terror made me think of that part of the book, these human tendencies and the tension between them, particularly in the context of climate change—of conquering versus collaborating. You might describe it the way Eric Holthaus did in the last newsletter—the divide between colonialism and “relearning our interdependence.”
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One final side note, there’s currently an Arctic expedition underway on a vessel called the Polarstern that, like the Erebus and the Terror were, is one of the most technologically advanced ships of its time. This ship will also get itself stuck in the Arctic ice pack, but this time deliberately, drifting along with it as a way for a team of climate scientists to better understand how warming is affecting the region. So you know, better motivations, and I’m sure they will be just fine. Still.
From the New York Times:
Mr. Lauber said the sound of the ice pressing against the hull — a scraping noise that can reverberate throughout the ship — could bother some less-experienced members of the expedition. But they should be confident that the Polarstern will stand up to the conditions, he said.
What I Wrote
Continuing with the community foundation climate change series I’ve been working on, I really liked this one, about the work of Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico. Here you can just read some of it for free no charge:
During the month following hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, the Puerto Rico Community Foundation was responding to between 10 and 15 walk-ins every day—individuals and nonprofits acting as de facto first responders to their communities. Their requests included basic short-term recovery needs such as equipment for cleanup, food, water purifiers and gas-powered generators.
Before long, just as the storms would change the lives of everyone in Puerto Rico, the foundation began to evolve. The team at FCPR (Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico) soon began learning more about energy and water systems, and began funding sustainable, community-controlled infrastructure projects. […]
Made possible in part by a surge of philanthropic support for the U.S. territory after the 2017 storms, the foundation has become a champion for equitable rebuilding and making infrastructure on the island more resilient. That includes helping to establish solar communities with their own renewable energy microgrids, adding solar infrastructure to dozens of health clinics, and improving aqueducts to provide clean water to individual communities.
Watching
Every October I watch almost only scary movies, have done so for many years. When I was a kid, I could never watch them. I got way too scared what a baby. Then I hit a point in adulthood when I sort of reconciled with horror. Now I just love them. So here are all the scaries I watched this year, ranked in descending order and with star ratings. (I have another week left so will probably fit in 3 or 4 more but I want you guys to have this as a resource if you want to watch some just before Halloween like a normal person).
Hereditary *****
Lake Mungo ****
Revenge ****
Mandy ****
Ravenous (Les Affames) ****
Happy Death Day ****
The Meg ****
The First Purge ***
Bird Box ***
Unfriended ***
Yellowbrickroad ***
mother! **
Downrange **
Ghost Stories **
Insidious The Last Key *
Killing Ground *
I’m going to say the big dark horse this year was The Meg. People really slept on The Meg that was a good ass movie. Please do not unsubscribe because I like The Meg thank you.
Waterloo Place, photograph by Leonard Misonne, 1899
Reading
Last week we talked about We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and this week I’m going to spotlight a modern Shirley Jackson disciple Paul Tremblay. I’m reading his latest book, a collection of short stories called Growing Things.
In horror fiction, there’s always a balance between the known and unknown, the explicit and the ambiguous. I find whether you like or don’t like a work of scary fiction depends on if it hits the right point for you personally. I find Tremblay’s stories to be just right, and they all have a nice sense of humanity at the core of them too. They will still mess you up though.
Growing Things would be a good place to start if you want to read some of Paul’s stuff, but you also can’t go wrong with A Head Full of Ghosts, his best novel. Ah jesus that book yikes.
Links
The big climate news this week was the start of a historic trial alleging ExxonMobil misled investors about the risks of climate change. The company knew since the 1970s, with remarkable accuracy, the consequences of its business model, and after that became clear, embarked on a misinformation campaign that still hobbles climate action.
Dal, shrimp chips, poke bars. The regional variations of Costcos are a nice reminder that culture grows in any container.
The utopian town design that makes Renaissance Fairs such a groovy experience.
A new study found that just 12% of Americans, who fly more than six round trips a year, are responsible for 2/3 of our aviation emissions.
Road fatalities are soaring for people who are not inside cars.
Dogs and other animals have rich emotional lives—imaginations, memories, preferences, and love, an ecologist says.
18 voices on how masculinity is changing. Plus, how about we encourage men to apologize more instead of telling women to apologize less.
Listening
Here’s a playlist with a bunch of spooky songs. Enjoy responsibly:
OK that’s what I got for you this week I hope you all have a great Halloween if you celebrate the holiday. Remember it is totally fine to be afraid sometimes. I for one still avoid being in a dark room that has a mirror in it because of that Bloody Mary story. Jamie borat voice my wife can never watch The Shining again. My dog is afraid of flies. So we all have our things the important part is to be in touch with your fear it is just another part of you.
Tate
P.S. Did you know you can reply to this email? It’s true and I will read it. So I don’t know maybe you have an opinion about those movies or about Arctic explorers you want to share feel free.