2024: Week 1

Out: Sunday Scaries. In: Literal Ghosts.

Jan 07, 2024

Well, well, well…if it isn’t the year two thousand and twenty four. The nerve! I was filming a Shabbat livestream yesterday morning and was reminded (while ON THE CLOCK) that it’s also 5784 in the Hebrew calendar. I know we’ve been using this old Gregorian calendar since October of 15821 but…well…maybe it’s time for a change?

Regardless of how we track it, time keeps stacking on top of time, a million different human-made-metronomes click away as the Grand Canyon gets a little deeper and the trees add another ring and Earth hula hoops around the sun for another year. In the midst of all of THAT it also happens to be time to send out another one of these Pillow Fort bulletins.

Wild how nicely that all lined up. What are the chances?

I just finished listening toLindy West’s amazing book SHRILL and I loved how she closes with this idea of world-building. My connection to world-building was, like West’s, primarily through the fantasy books I started devouring as a young reader — How does the magic system work? What kinds of weapons do these anthropomorphized squirrels use against those anthropomorphized stoats? And, crucially, how many fjords is too many fjords for the map on the inside cover?

West takes this pre-production-focused approach to world-building and repurposes it for our in-the-moment-day-to-day reality. How, through the myriad ways we move through our days, are we shaping the world(s) we live in?

“I will do this; I will not do that. You believe in my subjugation; I don’t have to be nice to you. I am busy; my time is not a public commodity. You are boring; go away. That is world-building. […] Fighting for diverse voices is world-building. Proclaiming the inherent value of fat people is world-building. Believing rape victims is world-building. Refusing to cave to abortion stigma is world-building. Voting is world-building. So is kindness, compassion, listening, making space, saying yes, saying no.

We’re all building our world, right now, in real time.” - Lindy West, SHRILL

Instead of relegating world-building to the domains of authors laying out a master-plan for a story AHEAD OF TIME, what changes when you and I can take an active role in shaping the world around us ~in medias res~? This year, I’m trying to take more of this Harold and the Purple Crayon2 approach to things. How will YOU shape your reality today?

Also, can’t nod to world-building without drawing a big purple soap box for myself to stand on top of and shout about how much I love Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, N.K. Jemisin and every other sci-fi writer making worlds that have fundamentally changed how I think about this one. Gotta any new good ones? Let’s collectively nerd out in the comments, shall we?!

HEY GOOGLE, TELL ME A GHOST STORY

There’s no way around it: I’m definitely haunted. Between the Couples Costume short I made in October and a short piece my partner Abby wrote and I directed/am editing called If I Go Before You Go, I’m practically SWIMMING in spirits and specters. I’ve got a major case of ghosts on the brain!

A still from a short I’m working on, “*If I Go Before You Go*” written by Abby Pajakowski (with additional writing from Cat Huck), originally written as a play for *The Infinite Wrench.*

So what’s with all the sheets? I think it’s a way to play with feelings of loss and grief and absence at a distance. To be blunt, people I love keep dying, so maybe ghosts are a way to sit more comfortably next to the big swelling mess of emotions that death brings up for me. But, you don’t need death for ghosts. You can throw a sheet over the absolutely haunting feelings of an old crush or ex, a childhood home that is no longer home, a friend moving, or anything else that you now recognize as singular, particular, and suddenly GONE/MISSING/ABSENT.

A couple of months ago I made a game to play around in this spooky sandbox. It was part of very cool non-linear game design class taught by my friend Cesca. The game is called HAUNT and all you need to play it is a deck of cards and access to Google
Earth on your computer. (OR you can also just read it like someone at a party recreationally flipping through a Dungeon Masters’ Handbook with no intention of starting a campaign.) It’s a DIY Open World Choose Your Own Adventure…so grab your purple crayon and read on!

HAUNT

THE RULES

The first thing that happens after you die is that Death hands you a pack of playing cards.

“I used to be more into chess, but now it’s cards!”

You’re a ghost, and the deck is how you move through the world. Your memory is fuzzy after departing from the ol’ mortal coil, so you need to figure out a little bit about yourself before you settle down and haunt somewhere forever. In order to play, you’ll need a 52 card deck of playing cards (with jokers removed…let’s take this seriously), a notebook or computer to write in and take notes along your journey, and an internet browser open on Google Earth.

When you run out of cards in the deck and don’t want to play any more of the cards in your hand, the game is over. CONGRATS, your soul will stay rooted to this spot for eternity and the real fun of haunting can begin!

GAME PLAY

You start in the Ghost Cloud which is, as we all know, the orbiting layers of spirits and souls that hovers a comfortable 10,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

To begin, shuffle your deck, pick up your soul (it’s the Google Street-view guy), and drop it onto the planet below. You can try to aim for a familiar spot or just spin the globe and drop back in wherever. You’re already dead so don’t sweat it – there are no wrong moves here!

When you land on Earth, you get your first memory. Take a look around. It’s all coming back to you...

This is where you died. What do you see? What’s around you? Make a couple notes about how it happened.

As you’re writing, Death appears besides you again, breathing heavily and a little flustered.

“Sorry, I didn’t really explain how the deck works, did I? Every time you see a person out here you can draw a card. Some places are pretty crowded, so if that’s the case, you’ll just draw a card every time you see a person in a new view. You can keep the cards in your hand until you have a more powerful combo or play them one by one as you go. When you run out of cards, uh, well, that’s it! You are where you are."

You wiggle a little to show you understand. Death appreciates the effort and kindly pats around where your shoulder used to be.

“I know some ghosts who play a full hand in a couple of minutes and some ancient Sumerian ghosts who are still floating around hanging on to a couple of raggedy aces.”

At this point it really just seems like Death doesn’t want to be alone...they keep talking.

“So, yeah, again, when you run out of cards, that’s the spot you’ll hang out in for the rest of eternity. You draw a card every time you see a person in a new view and then you have the choice of either playing the cards or hoarding them in your soul to keep with you in your final haunting spot. All cards can be played or kept. Death isn’t so different from Life,” says Death. “Picking one thing always means not picking something else.”

Go explore!

PLAYING CARDS

This action places your cards out of your hand and into the discard pile.

2 - 10 - This denotes how many clicks you can zoom out from street view to get a better view of the world. You can collect numbered cards and play them together. So, if you have a 3♥ and a 9♣ you could play them together and then zoom out 12 clicks to get a better view. Drop your soul o from this increased height without rotating or moving the globe.

Pairs - You can levitate to 300 km to get a better view. Drop your soul off from here without rotating or moving the globe.

Three of a Kind - Levitate to 1,000 km to get a better view. Drop your soul off from here without rotating or moving the globe.

Four of a Kind - Levitate to 2,000 km to get a better a view. You can spin or rotate the globe and drop yourself off from any height.

Face Card - Click the “I’m Feeling Lucky Button”

Ace - You can use the search bar to visit a specific address or place.

Discard - the top five cards without looking at them to hold down the “Zoom out” function, return to the 10,000km view, spin the globe, and return to earth.

HOARDING CARDS

This lack-of-action-action holds onto cards in your hand until the last possible moment.

2 - 10 Cards - Add up this number at the end of the game. Multiply it by 100. These are the number of years you will remember who you are and what you’ve experienced during your life and death. At the end, you will continue to haunt the space but even the memories of memories will have turned to dust. You won’t remember, but you’ll be YOU. And that? That’s spooky.

Pairs - Two of a kind lets you hold onto a pleasurable or interesting smell. Ocean spray? Sulfuric springs? Pine trees? Concrete after the rain? This smell can be conjured up whenever you need it and living-souls who walk through you for thousands of years will sometimes catch a whiff. You can have as many smells as you have pairs.

Three of a Kind - Three of a kind is for a sight. If you see something breathtaking during your travels through Google Earth you can log it down and write the pair next to it. Again, you’ll remember it for the total number of years that the numbered cards add up to.

Four of a Kind - Is a companion. You don’t have to be alone. You can pick a person, animal, or object you encounter along the way to join you on your haunt. We don’t talk about it much, but inanimate objects obviously have souls too. Don’t be shy from picking a Volleyball with a handprint on it.

Face cards - You can pick an audible phrase or phrases to whisper. Jacks are two words, Queens are three, and Kings are four. So if you had one Jack at the end of it all you can moan, “Save yourself” to any living soul. If you had two Jacks, a queen, and a king, you could groan, “Hello! It’s so nice to meet you. I am a ghost” OR you could spread out the options into 11 individual words. You’ve got options!

Ace - You can re-join the Earth. Dissolve into the dirt. Be a part of a tree or the ocean or the grass. Get eaten by a bug. Get pooped onto a flower. Be a part of everything and nothing. Be one and none. Who really knows what happens if you play the ace up your sleeve?

Here at the end, with a handful of your remaining cards take a moment to reflect on your journey, where you’ve been, where you ended up, and what you think is going to happen next. Whisper it into the wind and then hold down the “-” key to return to the 10,000km view of your home.

Did you play along? How was it? Haunt anywhere good?

PILLOW FORT

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?