Beautiful Comics, Free Lit, and The Purge
Add it all up and it means you should read more <3
Hoo buddy, it is difficult to get motivated with… ya know… everything happening. Getting out of bed is really starting to feel like a bridge too far, and it’s been difficult for me to get this newsletter out. Not because I don’t want to do it, but because it feels like any words I could possibly write would be drowned out by the overwhelming silence of the abyss.
I’m not going to be a downer, though–regardless of how that opening paragraph went (and how my movie review is going to go). I still want to be the bright spot in your inbox that you can look forward to. I still want to be that port in the storm. I still want to bring you jokes and reviews and little essays about human life, but I also want to be honest with you about where I’m at. I don’t consider talking about how you feel to be an inherently depressing act. In fact, I believe that when we talk about these things, it can lift a weight from the shoulders of others. It’s nice to know we’re not alone.
Obviously, you should continue to be aware of your surroundings and do whatever you can to be safe, but you can do these things and still find beauty in the darkest of places (America).
So keep your head up, bestie. There are people ready and willing to fight for you. Get your passport (I hear the offices have a backlog, so the sooner the better), tell your friends you love them all the time, and keep creating beautiful things. Your art will be here long after the empire and all of her generals have fallen.
Let's get to it.
OH LOOK! A FRIEND MADE SOMETHING INSANELY COOL
My friend Alex Quintas is an incredibly gifted queer illustrator who just released a comic collection called Answers Without Questions on Gumroad! 53 pages of hand-drawn goodness that contains poignant reflections on anxiety, how your childhood shapes you, life in the modern world, and so so much more. These comics are funny, heartfelt, relatable, and so authentic to the person I know Alex to be.
Ten dollars is a steal for something like this, and if you’re reading this newsletter, I know that you know how important it is to support indie artists. They’re the people who give the world its color, and when you’re in a position to support that, it should be a no-brainer.
So go buy her collection and let me know which comic is your favorite!
Thank you for putting yourself out into the world, Alex <3
REVIEW: The Purge (2013)
What’s more American than ignoring the suffering of others as long as you yourself are able to exist in relative comfort? This is the question asked by 2013’s The Purge, and the answer is exactly what you’d expect, whether you want to admit it or not.
I’m almost certain you’re familiar with the plot of The Purge, but on the off chance you aren’t, here’s a little rundown:
America is a country now all but free from crime and poverty thanks to a new, yearly tradition known lovingly as The Purge; a 12-hour period where all crime including murder is legal. The film follows the story of a wealthy security system salesman (Ethan Hawke) and his family as they find their home under assault by a group of masked, WASP-y murderers who want to kill the homeless man hiding inside.
The Purge is a home invasion film. You’ve seen those. Think The Strangers or When a Stranger Calls. It’s about the place you feel the safest and the most at ease being violated and dirtied, which is the standard for these kinds of films. The only difference with The Purge is that the sanctity of the home comes at the expense of thousands of lives every year in a government-sanctioned, nationwide bloodbath. Their lives are inundated with propaganda that tells them the only way to maintain the peace and prosperity they’ve grown accustomed to is to feed poor and brown people into a meat grinder, and to the surprise of no one, they accept this cost.
Because it doesn’t affect them.
They say things like, “I know it’s bad, but it’s necessary.” They buy special symbolic blue flowers to put in front of their houses to show that even though they’re safe behind their metal plating, they still support all the good the Purge does for them. For everyone.
Unfortunately, there comes a time when your complicity all but guarantees that the things that don’t affect you will come back and start affecting you.
In the film, James Sandin (again, Ethan Hawke) sells high-end security systems so that rich people don’t have to worry on the night of the Purge. He even sells them to his neighbors, but because he uses the money he makes off of them to build onto his house, those neighbors resent him. When Purge night comes, his family sees the people around them for what they really are.
None of us like to think the people around us are capable of violence. We see them every day. They bake us cookies. We wave to them as we drop our kids off at school. Why would they hurt us? Because when violence is normalized against anyone, it becomes normalized period. Not just against the group it was originally lobbied against.
Because when you say something is legal, it translates to something being good to many people. They’re not anti-violence, they’re anti-violence against them. They’re not against violence, they’re against vulgarity. The main antagonist of this film is an educated, white, well-spoken man of college age, and he describes his murderous intent in a calm, measured tone. In fact, he hates vulgarity and brashness so much that when his friend raises his voice to James through the door, he shoots him in the head immediately. He then apologizes for that. See, they’re respectful because it’s important to be respectful when you’re killing people.
People often mistake The Purge for a standard home invasion film, but when you get right down to it, it has a narrative that isn’t the same as the others in the same subgenre. The sanctity of the home is never truly violated because a house built on blood can never be sanctified. We learn that the security of the house was never real when James explains that the security systems he sells are deterrents that are never meant to defend against a direct assault. In home invasion movies you’re typically meant to empathize with the characters because that’s how you ratchet up the horror, but how bad can you really feel for these people when they spend the entire movie trying to capture the innocent homeless man hiding in their house and feed him to the devils at their door? The homeless man and the family’s youngest child (Edwin Hodge and Max Burkholder respectively) are the only characters we’re able to feel anything for as the aforementioned child was the one who deactivated the shielding on the house to allow the bloody stranger inside, and he is admonished for this action. For helping someone in need.
In the end, James Sandin is killed by the invaders, who are also killed in the process. The family is then taken hostage by their jealous neighbors and are almost killed, but they catch a break when the homeless man they’ve been trying to sacrifice the entire time intervenes and they ride The Purge out until the final siren makes crime illegal again. The poor person of color–despite suffering at the hands of people like this and their awful politics and policies–still does the right thing, pulling their asses out of the fire until the next time when those same politics and policies will undoubtedly put them in danger again. Tale as old as time…
The reason I marathon these movies every 4th of July and election day is because, despite being heavy-handed, they represent the dark side of America that people on both sides of the aisle refuse to admit exists. They’re not predicting the future, they’re ruminations on America’s past and present. It’s why when you see a crumbling octogenarian in a blue or red tie tell you that your safety is dependent on the annihilation of people in some far-off country, you believe them. If it happens there, that means it won't happen here. They tell you that and you believe them, even though all these pieces are in place to make it happen here. Shit, a lot of it is happening here already, it’s just not happening to you, so why would you care?
But this safety isn’t real. American exceptionalism is a farce. We’re five bloodthirsty corporations in a trench coat with an army of puppets telling you that all of this is necessary.
So put those blue flowers outside your home, lock up tight, and rest well knowing that tonight it won’t be you. The Purge reminds us that tomorrow could be different.
(The Purge is available basically wherever movies are. There are probably a few blu-rays in the Walmart bargain bin if you don’t mind digging around.)
YOUR WEEKLY MISSION
I think you should read a book. I know that as a lot of people have gotten older it has become harder to find the time to read, so this week I want you to make a go at it! I don’t care if it’s a book you’ve already read or whatever. Just do LeVar Burton proud.
If you need something to read, Haymarket Books is offering TEN FREE EBOOKS for getting free. These are books focused on collective liberation written by some of the finest activists and visionaries. I feel like many people don’t explore these perspectives too often, but with our country in a state of upheaval (that didn’t just start, btw), it’s important that we learn from those who fight all the time for a better world. Snap them up before the promotion ends (which may be today, but I’m not 100% on that). Go grab ‘em!
Or just read Animorphs, which is also hella valid <3
SNAPSHOT OF THE WEEK
I’m fully aware that this isn’t the greatest picture ever, but it was my first time experimenting with Cinestill 800T and I really didn’t know what to expect. I have a much better idea now and will be making WAY more use of a tripod when working in lowlight conditions. 800 ISO only gets you so far. I still think it’s cool. though.
Taken with my Minolta SRT101
Have a lovely week. Hang in there <3