Moving Forward...
Hello readers, I am back after a brief writing hiatus. In response to a few changes in my life over the past few months, I plan to change The Left-Hand Path schedule moving forward. Instead of churning out 4,000-5,000 words a month, divided up into parts, I am going to give each subject the time it deserves. When I began publishing on Substack a couple years ago, one of my goals was to create a disciplined writing routine in which I would meet weekly and monthly deadlines I set for myself. Doing this made me poised for taking on new and unexpected commission work, since my mind was perpetually flexing the writing and research muscles. I also considered that writing regularly about cinema was a way to know that my mental health was in a good place, as depression was equated with a lack of creativity and artistic engagement in the past.
Throughout the first half of the year, I felt like the self-imposed deadlines began to get in the way of the best writing that can be done. Truncating paragraphs and ideas in order to fit a general word count and publishing schedule is actually sometimes harmful to whatever points I am trying to get across. Because of this, I intend to give each subject the time it needs and publish the essays as they are naturally completed, at whichever word count they land on. This might mean that a few weeks could go by without posting anything, but when the work arrives, it will be the best that it can be.
I’ll be continuing on with a look at Beatnik Pictures, both the Hollywood kind and the true bohemian articles. William S Burroughs is a natural segue into the work of David Cronenberg, but depending on the depth of my research, some other subjects might come in between. I am open to suggestions from readers on subjects to write about, so feel free to get in touch. At some point I will focus on the work of the somewhat forgotten French actor Patrick Dewaere, although many of his films are hard to find with subtitles in the US. If you have any leads on where to find subbed Dewaere movies, please speak up! I also plan to eventually write about the larger theoretical frameworks that inform my approach to film criticism, such as anti-repression (psychoanalytically speaking) and by extension anti-fascism. Sometimes it is a good idea to re-articulate the basis of any approach to life as a reminder of why we continue.
For now I will keep the voluntary monthly pledge price at $6, but I plan to publish almost all of the work without paywalls. This is simply because I want people to read the work, although any kind of financial assistance is appreciated.
Moving forward, good luck to you all.
