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# Room in the Air
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/oktember/
- Published: 2022-10-01T22:44:15.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:48:52.000Z
- Description: The real heroes of this blessed land are the short-order cooks at Chinese takeout joints who manipulate fire, oil, and steel like gods.
- Author: James A. Reeves
- Tags: Notebook

Obscenely red skies over the Middle West this evening. The real heroes of this blessed land are the short-order cooks at Chinese takeout joints who manipulate fire, oil, and steel like gods. It’s the first of October, and I give praise for the arrival of proper autumn at last. Deeper nights. Sharper weather. There’s room in the air to think.

Saw [*Barbarian*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr89pmKrqkI&ref=jamesreeves.co) at the multiplex, and it’s a brilliantly effective horror movie. At one point, I shrieked like a child. More importantly, it was *fun*, succeeding because we’ve become so blunted by the deadening rhythm of thrillers that its refusal to play along keeps us edgy. *Barbarian* understands what kind of movie it is, preferring the absurd over the ponderous or, god forbid, exploring themes. And it delivers a brilliant approach to haunted real estate.

Currently reading *[The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-bright-ages-matthew-gabrieledavid-m-perry?variant=40826412597282&ref=jamesreeves.co)*, which recasts the Middle Ages as a knotty, polyglot time with all kinds of gods—and points towards better possible futures.