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Artistic hibernation
what I've been intaking while I conserve energy
Tristan Willis
January 16, 2025
Most winters I find myself doing something akin to artistic hibernation: I slow down my output, conserve energy, and intake without agenda or urgency. I often find myself reading, watching movies and TV, checking out comics and visual art, putting on albums, playing games a lot more during this time. And inevitably that intake will ignite a little spark, which I’ll make a note of and then leave for spring Tristan who will have the drive and energy to address it.
If it’s something you can do, I highly recommend a period like this. I find myself enjoying others’ work more and analyzing it more deeply, as well as just feeling more rested and content during this time. And I need that - I need the intake, I need the boredom to create those little notes in my notes app that become bigger things like plays or performances or games or poems or books (???)
So anyways, here’s some stuff I’ve been doing (selected), maybe you’ll enjoy it too.
Watching
Vanya (Simon Stephens’ adaptation with Andrew Scott playing all the roles) - I went into it suspicious of the gimmick and was completely won over except for the scene with him grinding on a door, but maybe that’s just me being immature and giggly
Hard Truths (Mike Leigh with an incredible cast, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste) - must watch, and while it is difficult at points I promise it is funnier and more joyful than you expect
Grand Theft Hamlet (Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls, Mark Oosterveen) - I wish I liked it more than I did, but the beginning and end were strong. ParTeb fan club unite.
Severance Season 2 - I don’t think anyone needs me to sell them on Severance?
Also laughed my ass off at Cunk on Life and rewatching Spy
Reading
In His Hands (Benjamin Benne) - truly lovely, great bit of Theatre theatre, and it resonated with me a lot as a former preacher’s kid
The Serviceberry (Robin Wall Kimmerer) - an essay about reciprocity, gift economies, how people of all species can share wealth, “I store my meat in the belly of my brother”
Absolution (Jeff Vandermeer) - this book is fucked up in the best Southern Reach ways and is succeeding at creeping me out more than the trilogy and Annihilation movie combined
Online Reading
Mostly I’ve been watching 2020-era TikToks as people revive and repost them, mourning the likely shutdown, but also there are some great threads on Bluesky. There’s too much to include here, but click through if you’re interested in critical thought about the primacy of “conflict” in plot.
I've been talking in more interviews about my antipathy towards the concept of 'conflict' as the base unit of plot, and how I think Aristotle's very old idea has actually damaged us because that quickly becomes story = plot = conflict = violence. I say that as a fan of fictional violence.
— Tobias S. Buckell (@tobiasbuckell.bsky.social)2025-01-13T01:39:41.257Z
OK. So. This is a thing I've been chewing on lately so you're all gonna hear about it. All those "rules" and the thing about "story has to have conflict" & stuff? That's Theory. As in, it's an attempt to explain why and/or how stories do what they do (or fail to).
— Ann Leckie (@annleckie.com)2025-01-13T14:09:37.973Z
That last thread was getting long, and this is a slight veer in topic, so. The other thing about frames being movable and also invisible is that when you use frames to judge art, you can just...move the frame so that something you like fits, and somethin you don't like, doesn't.
— Ann Leckie (@annleckie.com)2025-01-13T14:22:17.665Z
These threads made me think of that ever-annoying playwriting advice “everyone wants something/what’s their motivation,” which reminded me of the below moment in Mishima’s play Sotoba Kamachi which of course resulted in me pulling out his Nō plays and reading those again.
POET
Oh! And tell me old lady, what is your reason for living?
OLD LADY
My reason? Don’t be ridiculous! Isn’t the very fact of existing a reason in itself? I’m not a horse that runs because it wants a carrot. Horses, anyway, run because that’s the way they’re made.
I also really loved this great piece about 2024 movies that explored passivity and self-actualization, written by my partner Pete. Highly rec the read!
Listening
Alright, if I’m being totally honest it’s still mostly the Arcane Season 2 soundtrack but also I consistently throw on Japanese Breakfast.
Playing
It’s just Hades all the way down. And recently some Marvel Rivals.\
Finally, I find winter a good time of year to consider what’s important to me, and plan for enacting those values or goals consistently throughout the year. This is less new year’s resolution and more “what do I want to put into the world” and “what do I want to be open to receiving from the world?”
