Weird Studies Mid-Break Bonus: The Quiet Earth
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Aug 21, 2024 Delve into the magic of storytelling as the conversation highlights the enchanting nature of fairy tales. Explore the eerie themes of isolation presented in the film 'The Quiet Earth' and how childhood memories shape our understanding of narrative. Discover the unsettling aspects of 'the eerie' in everyday life, from empty spaces to the duality of clowns. Finally, enjoy a journey through classic pulp sci-fi, where nostalgia meets genre tropes, enriching the appreciation of this beloved realm.
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Fairy Tales Reveal Another Time
- Fairy-tale logic reveals a different kind of time and possibility that feels more faithful to reality than news cycles.
- JF Martell argues fairy tales expose lawless, imaginative time where anything can happen for no reason, making them deeply meaningful.
Childhood Memory Of The Quiet Earth
- JF recounts seeing the New Zealand cult film The Quiet Earth as a child and being haunted by its opening: a single man waking to an empty world.
- The film's first act of an alone man looting mansions and driving cars lodged as an imaginal memory he never fully revisited.
The Eerie Of Evacuated Spaces
- Mark Fisher's 'eerie' captures why empty built spaces feel charged: places that should be inhabited but aren't.
- Phil Ford and JF link that feeling to De Chirico's metaphysical plazas and the uncanny aliveness of evacuated human architecture.