Matt Haig

Contrary to appearance I am happy. I am in Ibiza. The place where I tried to take my life a long time ago. We just drove past the hospital where I once was detained for a few hours while spaced out on diazepam. I remembered the feelings. The physical and mental prison of myself. The feeling of being trapped in a cave with unlimited darkness. I was collapsing in on myself in the scariest way imaginable. This idea of ‘self’ is just an idea and when it crumbles you end in a world of terror. But here is the flip side: if you survive the infinite things a mind can throw at you, then you end up with a self that is beyond a ‘mind’. Something we could unfashionably call a soul. And it is forged and strengthened in the heat of survivable pain. I wanted to die so badly because I had no future and yet this is the future, you young idiot. I am extremely grateful I am alive. I am extremely grateful for my family, friends, and anyone reading this indulgent post. It is just good to go back to the places you once couldn’t return to. It’s good to expand your possible. It’s good to face up to yourself. You can do far more than you think. Life is ugly. Life is hard. Life is wonderful. Sorry about the selfie.

Midnight and embarking on a sequel to a book I wrote.

Elon Musk is the world’s dumbest critic but he makes up for it by also being a terrible human being

À Lyon avec le Bruce.

The Guardian covering our plans for @thegoldenbookshop

Wow. A masterpiece. Genuinely. Something happens while watching this film and I don’t know how he did it. A stirring. An awakening. What I mean is it feels as close as a movie can get to conveying the ancient. Something timeless is being untapped. Handmade. Human. Samantha Morton as Circe - astounding. Her scenes are UNFORGETTABLE. Robert P and Eliot P - two other standouts. The sound is incredible, which fits a tale that was heard before it was ever written/read. The music, the mixing. Even one of the most controversial casting choices - rapper Travis Scott as a bard - makes sense. A rapper’s voice being the first words of dialogue nods to the fact that The Odyssey was meant to be HEARD and by ALL. Nolan has opened up Homer. The classist classicists aren’t happy. Boris Johnson says the poem is ‘much better’. Ancient Greek literature has mainly been the preserve of people who went to expensive schools. More so than, say, Shakespeare. And yet, the thing Boris is forgetting is The Odyssey was originally just stories being passed down. And now cultural gatekeepers tell people the ‘right’ way to experience it. What Nolan does in some ways is truly, originally Homeric or pre Homeric. Even down to the use of informal dialogue like ‘dad’ which is no more out of place than ‘father’ would have been. (Ancient Greeks didn’t speak English. Not even formal English.) It’s beautiful. Even, somehow, the Cyclops. Like something out of Goya. And yes, it is annoying to think of thoroughly modern celebrity words like ‘Matt Damon’ or ‘Tom Holland’ while watching an Ancient Greek tale that modern Greeks should have appeared in but they again are perfectly cast in ways that their former work actually adds meaning to their roles. I hate long films and this is nearly three hours and yet I wanted it to be LONGER. It builds and builds. And there have been moans that some poetry has been lost. Sure. But some has been added. Visual poetry. The sirens, the cave, the lotus flowers, the sea and the sky. Immense art. Deeply human. Told, as it always was, for everyone.