we’re nearing the end of the year, and here’s another CSIF fresh off the press! i just watched the latest (and perhaps last) Miyazaki film, and feel strongly about writing what i’ve witnessed. if you’re allergic to spoilers, read this after watching the film. if not, know that i’ve tried my best to keep the spoilers at a minimum to none.
without further adieu
I’ve just finished “The Boy and The Heron,” and I’m back in my seat here writing this newsletter. And while I was going to let it simmer some more, I felt it best to strike when the iron’s hot. Especially as one of the friends I watched the movie with shared a tweet that commented on this excerpt of a review,
Much like many other Miyazaki films, it’s a coming of age story. This movie, particularly, focuses on dealing with the grief of a loved one. A young boy, Mahito, struggles to return to normalcy after having lost his mother in a hospital bombing and having a new step mom in his life. Mahito embarks on a grand adventure alongside a weird ass looking Heron into a fantastical, beautifully animated world with pelicans, parakeets, and so-cute-you-want-to-die Warawaras (see above).
There’s layers here as Miyazaki films usually go. On one hand, the core message of healing and dealing with grief is readily available to grasp. The excerpt above explains this well. What this review omits, without too much of a spoiler, is after Mahito chooses the pain of the real world — he manages to keep some keepsakes from the fantasy world. Of those keepsakes is a mini building block, think jenga, that he takes out of his pocket. It’s a reminder of the decision he made: “to build without malice.”
People much smarter than me identified that small detail as a sort of allegory of how Miyazaki’s trying to tell us that we should hold on to the fantasy worlds, like the ones he makes, as a means to build in the real world. It sounds like youtube content fodder, but I do genuinely believe this.
As we are living simultaneously through the midst of another technological revolution colored by AGI (Artifical General Intelligence) and VR/AR, the line between fantasy and reality is blurring at a frightening rate. Simultaneously, we are witnessing a live genocide in Palestine, in Sudan, and in many other places in the world. It’s now, more than ever, that our forays into fantasy aren’t just a means for us to abandon cause where we actually feel the stakes. Rather, we take the magic, the hope, and the inspiration from the worlds built by greats like Hayao Miyazaki and Echiro Oda, and go onto building in this world — without malice.
special thanks to Rabee for sharing the excerpt
Pain is not the unit of Effort
I’m definitely a fan and product of hustle culture to a degree. Call it toxic masculinity or capitalism or whichever pejorative label you desire, but I had always believed in this sort of “you just gotta have a lot of grit.” That’s until I burnt out, a few times over. Nowadays I try to design my life to arc toward simplicity, joy, and patience. Good things come to those who wait, and especially for those who can just get lose in their work. This essay does a really good job of carving an argument for that.
https://schoooool.com/
i was creating a moodboard for a client, and that lead me down this beautiful rabbit hole of fun websites!! below is a really fun website that i encourage you to checkout for yourself. it’s so fun and interactive, and it just brought me absolute joy.
Elmiene - Someday
Thanks for reading this edition. Share this with your friends, your grandma, or your neighbor. And if you made it to the end of this essay and you didn’t just scroll, dm me a 🥁 on either twitter or instagram. or leave a comment! As always,
Sincerely,
Haroon
P.S. Check out my previous newsletter if you’re curious: Cool Stuff I Found #27