Lauren Sands loves Halloween because of “the invitation to be kids again, to remember what it means to play. To imagine. To indulge in the strangeness of becoming something other.” The layered fabrics and costumes of ingenuity, the otherworldly powers that draw from nature and spirits, the tight honest sisterhoods, the respect for the balance of the universe, the thin veil between the realms of life and death. I LOVE the gothic beauty of it all.
It could be argued that, with the dystopian death machine that is Israel/U.S.A eating up the world, we are in no need of additional sources of manufactured horror. Still, I am itching for the whimsical, moody magic of Halloween. I’m sure my love of this holiday is linked to being a preteen in 90s America during the peak of TV’s obsession with witches and the undead.
[I was going to share a picture here of all the magazine cutouts I taped to my bedroom wall but it’s too embarrassing and I can’t have that living on the internet. The only thing I’m proud of: all the Buffy posters.]
I see why capitalism pushes these seasons on us. They’re nostalgic distractions that revolve around decor and trendy fashion “cores.” I see how powerful the pull of escapism is. Put me (and Penny) in a Vermont landscape where genocides and ecocides aren’t happening. Of course, I want to be Lydia Deetz reading in an attic.
Since the start of October, I’ve been trying to come up with another daily series for paid subscribers for spooky season. The last seven days of October, Friday to Friday, one letter daily ending on Halloween. It’ll be a tad macabre and a tad cozy, I thought. I don’t need to buy bolts of velvet or host a candlelit dinner, I can evoke that feeling right here virtually and it won’t be about running away from the ugliness. It will be about the grief too. I can create that comfort in my little corner of the internet.
The squirrel in my brain shakes this acorn that promises succor and satiety. Can I crack it open? How about I try?
Day 1 will land in your inboxes later today so upgrade to paid to join the daily ritual.