With everything going on, I’ve realized that I’ve gravitated towards what I call my comfort media, especially in the last few months (before the current RT nightmare which has overtaken my thoughts).
When I talk about “comfort media”, I specifically mean the pieces of entertainment that bring me comfort in some way. Now I’ll be the first to admit that some of my… choices (for lack of a better term) are quite odd. But there are reasons I come back to them, time and again.
For video games, it’s easy. I’ll turn on a Kingdom Hearts game, usually KHII. I have been slowly replaying KHIII so that I can blast through the DLC, but I’m not rushing through this time. I’m trying to enjoy every minute. But when I play KHII, I’m taken back to high school, where I spent three days in the middle of the week blasting through the entire game, sobbing in the finale. (Not unlike KHIII, as it were.) Remembering how I used to play with some of my friends, how my first collaborative fiction was a KH/anime fusion with an old friend. It brings back memories that I love.
Books are different. There are certain books that I will reread every year, such as Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. I shouldn’t like this book, simply for the content (38 students battle for survival). But there’s something in the fact that all but a few of the characters get a chance to have their own voice, with distinct personalities, that just catch me. (And please don’t get on the “Hunger Games copied it” train. It’s totally possible to have two pieces of media with similar plotlines. So hush.)
Another book, or rather, book series that I consider “comfort media” is the Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Aime Kaufman. I really love how these two authors used different styles of media to bring the story to life, from emails to audio transcripts and so on.
The final books I come back to often are Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (thanks to an early Owlcrate box) and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Both books feature strong female voices, and they empower me to keep moving forward.
(As an aside, the Harry Potter series would have been on this list at one time, but then the author announced herself as a transphobic sub-human, so I cannot in good conscious touch that series right now. So, yeah.)
When it comes to movies, it’s different. I can watch the Battle of New York in Avengers any day of the week, but I have to be in the mood to watch the whole movie. I can (and have, lately, THANKS RYAN) watch The Old Guard in it’s entirety, as well as The Italian Job (studied to this in college) and Now You See Me (before the sequel killed the franchise). If I need an immediate pick me up, I’ll through on the President’s speech from Independence Day, but if I have hours, it calls for Galaxy Quest, The Princess Bride, and/or Push.
Comfort media in film is so odd to me, as it just depends on what I need. Lately, it;s been a mixture of epics (Inception) and not-so-epics (I have a quiet love for Valerian. Shut up about it. It sucks and I love it.) And if I’m in the mode to mentally debate a film that is better than the book, I’ll throw on Nerve and spam text my mom that I’m gonna be loudly comparing the two again. (It’s a thing. She just mutes her phone and goes back to work.)
My rule for comfort media is that it has to make me feel. Now, I don’t mean “feel better” because some times I just need a good cry. But it just have to make me feel… something.
I’ve been breaking out my comfort media more and more in recent weeks. If you need to do something like that too, go for it. There’s a reason why it exists.
Until next time!
