Preferring It Darker

I just finished the recent Stephen King short story collection, You Like It Darker. It features some of King’s best work. “Rattlesnakes” was the standout story for me. The collection is aptly titled for its readers. Yes, I prefer fiction suffused with darkness.

I watched Smile 2 in theaters on Halloween night. It might’ve been the first film I’d seen in awhile that was too dark. It was downright nihilistic. I need a shred of hope for my characters, but they were given none. I can only take so much unease when I’m paying money for entertainment. That said, it’s a well-made film. I don’t know whether I enjoyed it or not.

I took a walk through my neighborhood yesterday, on Halloween, and a light breeze sent leaves showering over the world around me. Every organism needs to shed something occasionally. Watching the trees rid themselves of dead foliage, I thought about time, in general, and about how I’m approximately halfway through this thing called life, give or take a few years. And that’s being optimistic, assuming the millions of potential maladies don’t destroy me first.

What a brief time we have, I thought, and yet there are millions of organisms allowed much briefer time (and some lucky ones, such as the trees we walk by each day, that may still stand when our great grandkids are on their deathbeds).

When my mind veers that direction I think of the importance of prioritizing your own time. If you don’t, someone else will prioritize yours for you. And life’s too brief to allow much of that.