POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome to Pop Culture Spirit Wow, the Substack that survived the earthquake of 2024. It’s been a weird week! This one’s looking pretty strange, too. Let’s get into it!
THE WOWND UP
That’s right, New York had an earthquake. Actually much of the Eastern seaboard did, after a 4.8 tremor happened slightly north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. (To which everyone in New York said, “****** Jersey.” And one of my friends from New Jersey replied, “I’m pretty sure it was actually Philadelphia.” Which is absolutely the most Jersey thing that you could say.)
“The One Where Our House Shook but it Wasn’t Because of Construction or the Person Upstairs” is only the 7th earthquake of magnitude 4.0 or higher to have been logged with 250 miles of New York City area by the US Geological Survey since it began keep tracking in 1957. Cool cool cool. As another friend noted, we’ve got nothing to worry about, as long as the skies don’t also go dark.
In other news, today New York City will experience a 90% eclipse of the sun. It’s the first partial eclipse we’ve had since 2017 and the last eclipse we will have in this area until 2079, which makes it maybe kind of a must see for a lot of us. I have friends who live upstate, where the eclipse will be total, and they tell me it is an utter madhouse, as more than a million people are pouring in to big and small towns to experience four minutes of eerie eclipse darkness.
As cosmological phenomena go, I have to say eclipses kind of baffle me. To a quote a certain holiday, How is this night different from any other? But I am more than a little fascinated to see what it’s like living through one in the New York City.
For anyone out there checking it out, be sure to dress warm—it will get cold and possibly windy. Also, be sure to look not just up but around, because the shadows thrown by objects can end up including cool little rings of light.
ECLIPSES: A HISTORY
I think we’ve all probably heard stories of eclipses freaking old timey people out. But what exactly has that involved? I went looking. Here’s what I found.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
In the early 6th century BC, the Medes and the Lydians were in the sixth year of a war with one another when a solar eclipse happened on the field of battle. Both sides immediately stopped fighting, and quickly made peace.
I love the guy standing there in blue who isn’t even looking up. He’s like, Guys, Umm, not to yuck your yum or anything, but you’re really not supposed to look at an eclipse.
You’re Welcome, Europe
In the 9th century, Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious, who ruled much of Europe and also felt really bad about some of the choices he made along the way, like blinding his nephew for mounting a rebellion, witnessed a solar eclipse in 840 and interpreted it as a sign that God was very much not cool with him. It made him so upset he apparently got sick and died.
After his death his three sons turned on each other to try and become the next emperor. Their war would eventually split Europe into the areas we know as Germany, Italy, and France.
Thomas Edison, Eclipse Influencer
Thomas Edison already had the idea for the incandescent lightbulb when he headed to Wyoming for a full solar eclipse with a new invention that would supposedly measure the heat from the sun’s corona. But according to author David Baron, his trip west was key in the development of the lightbulb in another way. Having just created the phonograph, Edison was hot hot hot. The press lapped him up. And he learned how to work that to his advantage. His corona device actually didn’t even work in the end, but he was so good with the journalists on the trip, he still got nothing but glowing reviews.
The incandescent bulb would be much the same—he announced its success long before he actually knew how to make one work for more than a few minutes. But because by that point he knew how to charm the press, he was able to get the time (and money) he needed to make it a reality.
Dead Hungry Space Jaguars
I just love the imagination on this one: The Toba people in South America believed that an eclipse was the result of the spirits of the dead taking on the form of jaguars, you know, like they do, and somehow flying into space to devour the Moon. (Because Jaguars love cheese, I guess?) In order to save the Moon, the Toba people would shout and make their dogs bark at the sky to try and scare off the jaguars.
SONGS TO SING AND DANCE TO WHEN DEMONS ARE EATING THE SUN
If you are going to be out there soaking in the mostly-darkness today, here’s a couple tunes to inspire you.
My absolute favorite: “Ain’t No Sunshine,” Bill Withers
For those digging the weirdness of it all: “Space Oddity,” David Bowie
For those watching the sun go out with a special someone: “Light My Candle,” Rent
For those who want an Audra twist: “Moonshine Lullaby,” Annie Get Your Gun
And of course: “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Bonnie Tyler
THE STAIRS OF TOM RIPLEY
As a writer I love it when a show or movie finds a visual metaphor to express a truth about a character. It can be such a smart and effective way to help us understand a character.
This weekend Netflix launched a new series, Ripley, a gorgeous black and white retelling of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Starring Andrew Scott (aka Fleabag’s Hot Priest), the 8-part miniseries recounts the story of how a small-time hood in 1960s New York ends up in Italy using the wealthy Americans with whom he comes in contact to reinvent himself as one of their own. If you’ve seen Saltburn, it’s in some ways a similar story, but with the twist that rather than simply taking over the lives of the people he meets, Ripley steals identities, as well.
At the beginning of the series, Tom goes to Italy, supposedly to talk an old school friend to come home and get a job on behalf of the friend’s parents, but really to start a new life of his own. When he arrives in the small resort town where the friend has a villa, he discovers he has to go up many flights of stairs to get to it. But then once he gets to the top, he’s told that actually his friend is down at the beach, so he has to troop all the way back down again. And pretty soon after meeting up with his friend they go back up again.
It’s a humorous beat. But it tells us the two key things we need to know about Tom Ripley. First, he has enormous desire. It doesn’t matter how much effort is involved, or what obstacles or humiliations are put in his way, he’s going to do what it takes. He is quite literally a climber.
Second, Tom is not your typical antihero. In storytelling there’s that basic idea that when you’re starting a story, you want to give your protagonist some kind of win, a moment that establishes that they’re worth caring about. It’s often described as a “Save the Cat” moment—the character does something good early, and consequently we’re on their side.
When your main character is a villain or antihero, the Save the Cat is often some brilliant evil deed. We admire the character because they’re so much smarter than the “good guys.”
Because of that, con artist or serial killer stories often turn on the genius of the main character. The writer made them better than their opponents to establish their cred, and so now that’s their thing. They’re an evil mastermind.
In Ripley, the stairs underline the fact that Tom is not like that. He has desire, sure, and he is pretty smart, but he’s not some sort of godlike figure (even though he himself thinks he is). In some ways the dramatic tension of the series lies not in whether his antagonists are smart enough to catch him, but whether he can survive the unavoidable ups and downs of reality.
And in Tom’s staircase world you’re never out of the woods. Throughout the series, we keep seeing him (and others) having to deal with stairs. Each reoccurrence tells us again, here is a man of infinite hunger, grasping for what he wants in a world that refuses to ever simply roll over for him, or anyone.
There’s a lot coming this week for subscribers: A spicy little Spirit Wow tomorrow, and interviews later in the week with the set designer and lightning designer of the fantastic off-Broadway show Dead Outlaw. The show’s in its final week in New York. If you’re nearby and haven’t seen it yet, run don’t walk. It’s really good.
MOMENT OF WOW
The time Grandma got a little into the solar eclipse.
Have a great week!