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# A Mystic Allure
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/october-8-2021/
- Published: 2021-10-08T23:04:18.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:49:19.000Z
- Author: James A. Reeves
- Tags: Notebook

New York City. Sunset: 6:26pm. A waxing crescent moon. Sunny skies and a high of 75 degrees. The weather is too chipper. I crave gloom, damp leaves on the sidewalk, and a chilly breeze.

I’m almost done with Margaret Atwood’s *[MaddAddam](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/books/review/maddaddam-by-margaret-atwood.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=0&ref=jamesreeves.co)*, the last book in her apocalyptic post-plague, post-human trilogy that swings between the poignant and bonkers. She writes wonderfully about technology: “As the online world became more and more pre-edited and slicked up, and as even its so-called reality sites raised questions about authenticity in the minds of viewers, the rough, unpolished physical world was taking on a mystic allure.” Will this happen to us? Is it happening already? It’s difficult to imagine a society that has willfully abandoned its technologies. Maybe we can only romanticize life without them.

Atwood also writes about talking with the dead. “But it was a reassuring story: that the dead were not entirely dead but are alive in a different way.” And why shouldn’t this be true? I wonder if believing we can communicate with the ones we’ve lost makes us better people. It must provide a sense of comfort, which is no small matter. Sometimes I look at a photo of my parents and wonder what it would feel like to believe such a thing. Or where to begin.

[Ravedeath, 1972 by Tim Hecker](https://timhecker.bandcamp.com/album/ravedeath-1972?ref=jamesreeves.co)