things the ghandom might find enjoyable / should check out imo, in no particular order:
the netflix miniseries midnight mass, because it is everything an excellent take on profound gothic horror and the intricacies of religious fanaticism and trauma should (imo) be. excellently written characters that feel like real people and not just narrative tools. also, there's a morally corrupt puppy-eyed middle-aged priest. the trailer dropped four years ago and i still think about it/rewatch it sometimes. and like. i promise, unless you've already heard about it and know the lore, it's not what you think it is.
gustave doré's prints ⇦ you've likely seen his illustrations for milton's paradise lost
i'm not saying you should check out paradise lost. because you know about paradise lost + it can be a tiring read. but,
anatole france's the revolt of the angels!! and if not the book itself, then some type of analysis of it. it's like paradise lost's cynical little sister without milton's fierce denial lmao
ALSO. VERY IMPORTANT. charles baudelaire's flowers of evil. terzo's songs openly referenced parts of baudelaire's poems!!! and it goes beyond that!!! for example, à une madone is pretty much just the lyrics/"plot"/aesthetic of umbra, lmao
ryan gosling (YEP) and zach shield's incredible 2009's music project / rock duo dead man's bones. i swear they put poe's poems + crack + cemetery air into that thing. every song is so distinctive + feels like a gothic short story. the album has ghosts, choirs, howling and monsters of all making, and sometimes it gets very groovy.
speaking of music—luciferian light orchestra. i could go on and on about their songs, but basically imagine an alternative universe in which the ghurch is... different, and the main vocalist is female lmao. their music sound like early-era gonst to me, very opus-coded. and they know their shit!!!! it's not just luciferian references for the sake of #thespooks only; they actually use old testament and pagan references very deliberately. church of carmel is basically sister of sin recruitment propaganda... other songs, such as serpent messiah, sound like satanic worship hymns. the vocalist is great and the guitars are very tasty.
valencia grace's most recent works. i've mentioned her very recently—she's basically like a tradgoth european chappell roan?? different vocal range and more electronic-opera-adjacent. her newest mv opens with about three minutes of a silent film backstory and then turns into glittery camp.
the met's 2018 heavenly bodies exhibition—basically an art/fashion collab with the vatican museums, lmao
not necessarily a hot take. very possibly the opposite of a hot take. iced matcha latte with coconut milk take;
terzo emeritus was a semi-high-functioning disaster. terzo emeritus wished to be the person his flock believed him to be.
or maybe, in a more nuanced way, he was both of these things.
i do think his charisma, whether used as a smokescreen or a tool for guidance, was a genuine gift. i do think his interest in art and literature was absolutely, undoubtedly sincere.
i also think he had fallen asleep on the floor without getting changed into proper pajamas more times than he could count, and not for the lack of a proper bed, but simply due to the emotional and physical weight of Everything.
i think he'd have been the type of person to stay up for vague reasons despite exhaustion and 1. never get anything done in the end + 2. end up passing out. i think if he'd stayed up, it could have been due to ruminating. i think he probably had bouts of regret and romanticising his younger self's potential.
i think he was much more likely to order out than cook. i think he could cook; knowing how to do something and having the willpower and energy to actually Do It are two entirely different things.
i think terzo's love for his community was authentic and one of the main reasons he stuck around. i also think he was prone to internal brooding whilst meeting people (especially outside of performances), and to external assholery whenever said people would get too pushy on one of his worse days—and likely very little of that upset would be caused by them, and more by himself and his own assumptions because going through life feeling like a fraud and impostor while everyone seems to praise their idea of who you are. can make a bitch out of a person. so i think he might have been difficult to be around sometimes. and probably had few genuine friends.
i think it was easy for him to disregard warning signs. i think it is easy to go through life with a severely failing immune system and addiction issues and sleep deprivation and falling on stage, and keep repeating the same song and dance with the assumption that you may be lost but, as long as you serve some higher cause (by which i do not mean the devil the way old hymns described him, but rather art and knowledge and liberation), there is a chance that you may lead others towards a better life; towards the very idea that they deserve to stick around and see how this weird mortal theater ends, if it does.
anyway, this was sparked by his Canon and Frequent eye infection.
