I remember a day in the late ‘90s when we found Princess Mononoke in the video store. My two oldest (maybe 7 and 10) were enraptured. I wondered about the violence, about … lots of things, but fell in love too. And then with so many more of his films. There’s so much here, Chris, and you work it all together with such care.
I'm good and living in the mountains of WNC now (still at Moody). Ha, yes, on Mononoke as a gateway Ghibli. As far as I'm aware, there weren't other options, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. How bad can a "cartoon" be, right? But oh how rich. It was good to read your words, Chris. @tabithamcduffee shared a link to your article, and I wept after I read it (for lots of reasons)...the hole to frog pond, the films, the rests. Just lovely.
I didn’t get a chance to read this until today, but it was providentially exactly what I needed. Thank you. I’ve been thinking a lot about the hero’s journey framework and am interested in digging down into the consequences of interpreting Scripture through that lens.
Oh man you really threw them in the deep end with Spirited Away! :) I kinda liked it the first time around, but I learned to love it on a rewatch. I've been wanting to revisit my childhood faves, Totoro and Kiki. I didn't really *get* them when. was a kid, but there was something so mesmerizing and true about them.
(Also... those poor programmers in that video, haha)
Chris, I shared the video with my son who is a 3D game designer in the making. We talk a lot about art here, the use (and misuse) of AI, and how to navigate this world when you’re a working artist. This whole post was like a generous exhale. Thank you for taking the time to write it. It is beautiful.
This was a wonderfully thoughtful read, Chris. And I appreciated the references to Miyazaki too. I want to study the four-fold style more. Maybe I’ll use it in some of my future novels! I haven’t really felt like a three act structure does quite what I want.
One of the things your post made me consider was the strangeness of families who pile on outside “work” to their busy home lives. From the outside, it must look like pointless mess to dig up a pond and wait for something to happen; after all, don’t you have school and laundry and cleaning and church and work and bathtimes and doctor appointments??? But families are going to be messy and chaotic and constantly moving regardless, so directing that energy toward life-bringing, curiosity-feeding experiences can help to beautify the mundane of daily chores and childcare. I love the idea and we are trying to lean into it as a family more this year (despite having a very humid summer to look forward to!)
It's a cool form, and I think it's rooted in Eastern poetic forms too. Definitely worth playing with. There's an organic nature to it, going with the flow of the character's decisions but also able to inject surprise and twists where needed.
And it's true - we do feel very crazy a lot of the time, haha. But you're absolutely right, the redirection of energy is key. When I come home from work in the evenings, there are five little monsters who need to burn off some steam, and Linnea is very happy for it to happen out of doors. And because I have a desk job, getting my hands dirty outside feels refreshing, like a different sort of creativity; instead of working with words as a medium, I'm working with soil or water or compost. It's always a mess, and there's always the possibility of failure - like what if a frog never comes at all? what if it's choked out by algae or just attracts mosquitos? But the point is that we tried, that we did something together that they were excited about.
We also NEVER wash our children. But now we have a pond so maybe we'll just toss them in and let them splash around.
I wasn't aware of Miyazaki's four-fold movement in his movies...this makes so much sense now! My brother's love for his films has rubbed off on me, and yes, there's so much breath and presentness to his films. (Our boys favorite is Ponyo, and mine is Howl's Moving Castle, and my husband's is Spirited Away :)
On another note (of rest), I've got a book of quotes from the Hungarian pianist György Sebök, and you reminded me of this quote: "From time to time you have to send the ears to the cleaners. (Play with no pedal)." I'm always tempted to make my playing sound prettier and grander (in life or on the keys), but after awhile it's just lazy. How i wish those "creatives" in the room with Myazaki could see the beauty of the notes without the pedal
I love that, play with no pedal. It's so revealing! It's why Bach is so exciting in his riskiness.
A thought stemming from the "no pedal" idea: My second time through Spirited Away I loved it even more for all its wonderful oddities. And I think there's something more real and satisfying about the unplugged stink spirit or the vomiting No-Face being animated so viscerally. Most children's animation hides that stuff or pretties it up or deflates it with a joke. Hayao's like: nope, this is what throwing up looks and sounds like. Reminded me of the pimple-popping discussion on the Mockingcast recently, haha.
But it's kind of like he's playing without the pedal, right? He's not gussying up or blurring the notes, just like he's not filling in the silences. He's showing what he sees for what it is. And it hits a lot harder this way and sticks in your memory as a result.
Yes! 1,000 times. I've been mulling around some thoughts for an essay from Madeleine L'Engle's Walking On Water, and her chapter, "Do we want the children to see it?" There's a pure essence there, whether for evil or good, the children know and often times can handle it better than us conflicted grown-ups :)
Including that link to Miyazaki's AI reaction was a great choice. "An insult to life itself." As a copywriter, I use the machine to speak to the machine. For example, when filling out the Google business page for clients, we use AI to write all the service descriptions. Give it direction and input, and it mechanically writes complete and accurate information. However ... I've tried using it to write articles. It always answers with complete, accurate (mostly) articles that are transparently two-dimensional. No inherent style, unless you direct it to write in a particular style. And even then, it's a facsimile of human expression and I can tell. We write all of our clients' on-site content ourselves.
I do resonate with his sentiment that humanity is losing faith in itself – in terms of our ability to meaningfully create. It's no surprise that amateur poetry and prose are exploding on platforms like Substack. Especially among people of faith, because many of us are strongly aware of our God-breathed creative calling and find little satisfaction outside that framework.
Have you spent time in Japan? Your perspective seems shaped by the East. My own was deeply affected by my time there.
Co-sign, this is kind of where I am with AI too. I do a lot of copywriting for work, and I have to admit a LLM is really handy for things like pulling quotes from a bunch of video transcripts or mocking up headlines. But it's such a flat writer I feel like revising takes just as long as writing from scratch.
Mark, I agree - AI has many good uses, and I use it in my own work sometimes and find it helpful. But it's limits are so very clear that I admit to being a bit flummoxed that people are so bent on it making art, which requires a human soul to have any meaning. That's a leap I don't think any LLM will ever be capable of making.
With that loss of faith in ourselves, I think, comes a loss of happiness in meaningful work. We lose a sense of agency and purpose whenever we rely on tech to do our work for us, and we've been losing it for a long time. The electricity goes out, or the wifi, and we're at loose ends all of a sudden. Of course, I'm grateful for technology and use it regularly. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't know how to live without it, and that there's not great pleasure and meaning to be had in living without it.
I have not spent time in Japan, although I would love to do so. I did have a fairly formative experience traveling in China during a college trip, and I do have a number of friends from the Eastern part of the world. I work closely with East Asian folks in my day job. I find their perspectives to be a necessary foil to a particularly ingrained Western mindset, and thus: refreshing. Like Wendell Berry, I also am deeply indebted to the Amish, my neighbors here in Indiana, for their perspectives on technology and place. I would love to hear about your time there. Have you written about it somewhere?
That being said, it was truly a coincidence that the last two Tethered Letters have had to do with Japanese cinema. I wondered if people would notice, haha!
I remember a day in the late ‘90s when we found Princess Mononoke in the video store. My two oldest (maybe 7 and 10) were enraptured. I wondered about the violence, about … lots of things, but fell in love too. And then with so many more of his films. There’s so much here, Chris, and you work it all together with such care.
Amanda! How are you? It's been a minute. :)
Mononoke is amazing, such a rich and immersive story. Never gratuitous, but definitely gruesome! Quite the Ghibli film to start off with, haha...
I'm good and living in the mountains of WNC now (still at Moody). Ha, yes, on Mononoke as a gateway Ghibli. As far as I'm aware, there weren't other options, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. How bad can a "cartoon" be, right? But oh how rich. It was good to read your words, Chris. @tabithamcduffee shared a link to your article, and I wept after I read it (for lots of reasons)...the hole to frog pond, the films, the rests. Just lovely.
I didn’t get a chance to read this until today, but it was providentially exactly what I needed. Thank you. I’ve been thinking a lot about the hero’s journey framework and am interested in digging down into the consequences of interpreting Scripture through that lens.
Thanks Tabitha, glad it resonated!
This is such a masterful essay, Chris.
Thank you, Deidre. So lovely talking with you tonight!
Oh man you really threw them in the deep end with Spirited Away! :) I kinda liked it the first time around, but I learned to love it on a rewatch. I've been wanting to revisit my childhood faves, Totoro and Kiki. I didn't really *get* them when. was a kid, but there was something so mesmerizing and true about them.
(Also... those poor programmers in that video, haha)
So many things like that! Watership Down was the same way for me - I remembered something true and good about it, enough to reread.
We're going to do Kiki next!
Your essay reminded me of this book I stumbled across today: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691204357/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A2E0CHYEXDW1VC&psc=1
This looks very intriguing! I'll have to check it out.
Chris, I shared the video with my son who is a 3D game designer in the making. We talk a lot about art here, the use (and misuse) of AI, and how to navigate this world when you’re a working artist. This whole post was like a generous exhale. Thank you for taking the time to write it. It is beautiful.
Very cool, I'm glad it was a good conversation starter! Can't wait to see what he creates in that world.
This was a wonderfully thoughtful read, Chris. And I appreciated the references to Miyazaki too. I want to study the four-fold style more. Maybe I’ll use it in some of my future novels! I haven’t really felt like a three act structure does quite what I want.
One of the things your post made me consider was the strangeness of families who pile on outside “work” to their busy home lives. From the outside, it must look like pointless mess to dig up a pond and wait for something to happen; after all, don’t you have school and laundry and cleaning and church and work and bathtimes and doctor appointments??? But families are going to be messy and chaotic and constantly moving regardless, so directing that energy toward life-bringing, curiosity-feeding experiences can help to beautify the mundane of daily chores and childcare. I love the idea and we are trying to lean into it as a family more this year (despite having a very humid summer to look forward to!)
It's a cool form, and I think it's rooted in Eastern poetic forms too. Definitely worth playing with. There's an organic nature to it, going with the flow of the character's decisions but also able to inject surprise and twists where needed.
And it's true - we do feel very crazy a lot of the time, haha. But you're absolutely right, the redirection of energy is key. When I come home from work in the evenings, there are five little monsters who need to burn off some steam, and Linnea is very happy for it to happen out of doors. And because I have a desk job, getting my hands dirty outside feels refreshing, like a different sort of creativity; instead of working with words as a medium, I'm working with soil or water or compost. It's always a mess, and there's always the possibility of failure - like what if a frog never comes at all? what if it's choked out by algae or just attracts mosquitos? But the point is that we tried, that we did something together that they were excited about.
We also NEVER wash our children. But now we have a pond so maybe we'll just toss them in and let them splash around.
(jk! we do wash them! I promise!)
I wasn't aware of Miyazaki's four-fold movement in his movies...this makes so much sense now! My brother's love for his films has rubbed off on me, and yes, there's so much breath and presentness to his films. (Our boys favorite is Ponyo, and mine is Howl's Moving Castle, and my husband's is Spirited Away :)
On another note (of rest), I've got a book of quotes from the Hungarian pianist György Sebök, and you reminded me of this quote: "From time to time you have to send the ears to the cleaners. (Play with no pedal)." I'm always tempted to make my playing sound prettier and grander (in life or on the keys), but after awhile it's just lazy. How i wish those "creatives" in the room with Myazaki could see the beauty of the notes without the pedal
I love that, play with no pedal. It's so revealing! It's why Bach is so exciting in his riskiness.
A thought stemming from the "no pedal" idea: My second time through Spirited Away I loved it even more for all its wonderful oddities. And I think there's something more real and satisfying about the unplugged stink spirit or the vomiting No-Face being animated so viscerally. Most children's animation hides that stuff or pretties it up or deflates it with a joke. Hayao's like: nope, this is what throwing up looks and sounds like. Reminded me of the pimple-popping discussion on the Mockingcast recently, haha.
But it's kind of like he's playing without the pedal, right? He's not gussying up or blurring the notes, just like he's not filling in the silences. He's showing what he sees for what it is. And it hits a lot harder this way and sticks in your memory as a result.
Yes! 1,000 times. I've been mulling around some thoughts for an essay from Madeleine L'Engle's Walking On Water, and her chapter, "Do we want the children to see it?" There's a pure essence there, whether for evil or good, the children know and often times can handle it better than us conflicted grown-ups :)
Including that link to Miyazaki's AI reaction was a great choice. "An insult to life itself." As a copywriter, I use the machine to speak to the machine. For example, when filling out the Google business page for clients, we use AI to write all the service descriptions. Give it direction and input, and it mechanically writes complete and accurate information. However ... I've tried using it to write articles. It always answers with complete, accurate (mostly) articles that are transparently two-dimensional. No inherent style, unless you direct it to write in a particular style. And even then, it's a facsimile of human expression and I can tell. We write all of our clients' on-site content ourselves.
I do resonate with his sentiment that humanity is losing faith in itself – in terms of our ability to meaningfully create. It's no surprise that amateur poetry and prose are exploding on platforms like Substack. Especially among people of faith, because many of us are strongly aware of our God-breathed creative calling and find little satisfaction outside that framework.
Have you spent time in Japan? Your perspective seems shaped by the East. My own was deeply affected by my time there.
Co-sign, this is kind of where I am with AI too. I do a lot of copywriting for work, and I have to admit a LLM is really handy for things like pulling quotes from a bunch of video transcripts or mocking up headlines. But it's such a flat writer I feel like revising takes just as long as writing from scratch.
Absolutely! It's all the tweaking afterwards that makes the whole enterprise a wash as far as efficiency goes.
Mark, I agree - AI has many good uses, and I use it in my own work sometimes and find it helpful. But it's limits are so very clear that I admit to being a bit flummoxed that people are so bent on it making art, which requires a human soul to have any meaning. That's a leap I don't think any LLM will ever be capable of making.
With that loss of faith in ourselves, I think, comes a loss of happiness in meaningful work. We lose a sense of agency and purpose whenever we rely on tech to do our work for us, and we've been losing it for a long time. The electricity goes out, or the wifi, and we're at loose ends all of a sudden. Of course, I'm grateful for technology and use it regularly. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't know how to live without it, and that there's not great pleasure and meaning to be had in living without it.
I have not spent time in Japan, although I would love to do so. I did have a fairly formative experience traveling in China during a college trip, and I do have a number of friends from the Eastern part of the world. I work closely with East Asian folks in my day job. I find their perspectives to be a necessary foil to a particularly ingrained Western mindset, and thus: refreshing. Like Wendell Berry, I also am deeply indebted to the Amish, my neighbors here in Indiana, for their perspectives on technology and place. I would love to hear about your time there. Have you written about it somewhere?
That being said, it was truly a coincidence that the last two Tethered Letters have had to do with Japanese cinema. I wondered if people would notice, haha!
I have written about my time there, yes! You can read my Japan series here: https://mimesiskinesis.substack.com/t/series-osaka-2003 (just fill that last bit in with any of the forms if you'd like to read Japanese poetry that doesn't directly relate to my time there, like https://mimesiskinesis.substack.com/t/boketto or https://mimesiskinesis.substack.com/t/choka for example).
Thanks! I'll enjoy these. :)