"To Be Taught if Fortunate" and "Late Night with the Devil"

So I thought I’d share some thoughts on two pieces of media I’ve recently experienced that have stuck in my mind. It’s pretty rare these days for a movie to be thought-provoking enough to warrant even a few seconds of reflection from me after the credits roll. I feel like I’ve become harder and harder to impress over the years when it comes to movies, so it really stands out when I find something that feels genuinely interesting and original. I expect this is just a “me thing,” so don’t take it personally if you feel differently. Art speaks to us all differently. Likewise, when I’m nearing the end of a book, there’s often a part of me that is excited to be done and move on to something else, so when I find a book that keeps me riveted all the way through, it is significant. Both these pieces have stuck with me, their layers continuing to unfold in my mind, days after being finished with them. That has to be the mark of good fiction, right?

To Be Taught If Fortunate is a science-fiction novella by Becky Chambers. It may seem like a bit of a weird title, but it makes perfect sense when you get to the end, which shouldn’t take you long, as it’s only around 40,000 words, or 176 pages in the paperback edition. As I mentioned above, I often find myself looking forward to being done with a book, even when I’m loving it. This is partially because I’m a fairly slow reader, so when I see an ending coming, it tends to feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve had the thrill of starting something new. This may also be because I’ve been reading 1000+ page fantasy tomes for a while. Either way, that was not at all the case with this book. The ending really snuck up on me, and left me feeling a little sad that I was finished.

The book takes place over a century in the future (I don’t believe an exact year is given) and follows four astronauts who are exploring four distant exoplanets and documenting extraterrestrial life. That’s basically the entire plot. I won’t go into what the planets are like and what the astronauts go through, as I found the joy of this book is exploring and learning right along with the characters. I will say though, that it all feels very believable and interesting. The story is told in first-person, in a journal-style format, which made me feel like I was right there with the astronauts. I’ve often found that I have trouble connecting with first-person stories, but here it sucked me right in.

The understanding of human nature in this story is impressive. The mental journey of these four people who travel through interstellar space, knowing that everyone they’ve ever loved will be long dead by the time they return, feels very real. The motivation for them to go on this trip is believable, partially because they are doing this for the OCS, a publicly-owned citizen-powered space exploration organization. It survives through funding from donors, and is not influenced by governments or corporations. Those involved truly believe in the organization and its mission, and even though this is only explored fairly briefly, you can feel the passion the characters have for being a part of it. That feeling of being inspired and excited by the idea of space exploration is something to which I think many people can relate.

To Be Taught If Fortunate is a short, easy, tense, funny, and emotional read, and I can’t recommend it enough. The sci-fi technology on display, particularly with how the astronauts adapt their bodies to the alien environments, is super cool and feels well-researched. Plus, the life forms they encounter are profoundly weird, and I really appreciated that.

Next up, Late Night with the Devil. Horror movies can be hit-or-miss with me. There seem to be two, unofficial categorizations for them: supernatural horror, and humans-being-fucked-up horror. The latter, which often bleeds into the thriller genre, tends to be more unsettling for me, and while there are some absolute masterpieces in that style, I don’t always love it. Likewise, supernatural horror movies can go either way for me too. I tend to really like these when lean more into the fantastical side of things. Shocking, I know. Some that I really enjoy are the Alien movies, Krampus from 2015, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Nope.

Late Night with the Devil falls into the other side of this category, the demon-possession horror movie. This sub-genre can feel pretty played out these days. No movie is going to feel better at it than The Exorcist. Every trope that these movies use started there, and it’s impossible to not think, “Oh, they’re doing an Exorcist thing,” when you see someone with whited out eyes and a low, guttural voice levitate off the floor and spasm in the air. There are some good ones, to be sure, but that element of the derivative is always there. Late Night with the Devil leans into this and becomes something truly original in the process. The found-footage approach to horror is nothing new, with The Blair With Project and Paranormal Activity probably being the biggest examples. But this movie takes that idea in a very different direction.

The footage with which the viewer is presented, is said to be the original master tape from the set of a fictional late-night talk show from the 1970s. Right away, the video style perfectly mimics those old broadcasts, and the art direction feels really immersive, because if you’ve ever watched old episodes of the talk shows of the time, you’ve seen this exact thing before. What you haven’t seen is a demon-possession themed psychological horror movie play out on one of those shows. The sense of dread that builds up is huge, as you know some messed up stuff is coming, but the movie takes it time getting there. The restraint shown here is pretty impressive. I can’t remember there being any jump scares, although I could be wrong about that.

That all being said, Late Night with the Devil could be classified as a straight-up comedy as well. It’s hilarious. The actors (none of whom I was familiar with) are giving 100% here, and the seriousness with which they are playing some ridiculous characters had me laughing the entire time. When a horror movie can be equal parts a comedy, and be effective at both, you know you’ve got something special. Evil Dead 2 is the example of this that always comes to mind, and this is right up there with it. Some pretty gnarly stuff happens throughout, which I could never forgive myself for spoiling, so I’ll just say, watch this movie ASAP. I believe it’s on Crave in Canada.

Both Late Night with the Devil and To Be Taught If Fortunate felt like breaths of fresh air to me. They’re the types of original pieces of art that can be rare in a sea of manufactured content, so I always try to support this stuff. Check them out if they sound cool to you.