John Higgs's Octannual Manual #48

A Christmas Carol

Happy Midwinter everyone!

We are back, once again, to the shortest day in the northern hemisphere - the day of maximum darkness. And it does feel dark, given what is happening in the world. At maximum darkness it can feel like there will never be light again.

The winter solstice reminds me of the talk about hope in Ian Broudie’s autobiography Tomorrow’s Here Today, which I worked with him on earlier this year. In that book it says, ‘In your darkest and lowest days, there may only seem to be despair and hopelessness. Yet that never lasts. At some point, sooner or later, that little flame of hope will start to flicker. It may be a tiny, fragile thing to start with. But still – it exists. [...] Hope is just a fact of life. It’s like death and taxes. You can stamp it out as much as you like but wait long enough and there it is.’

Tomorrow I’m seeing Christopher Eccleston in A Christmas Carol. I make a point of reading, watching or listening to a version of A Christmas Carol every midwinter. The Muppet version is the best, obviously, but every version has something to offer. It is a miraculous story - a man enters the world of the spirits, sees the past, present and the future together, and experiences a transformation of the soul. It’s blatantly shamanic, but that’s easy to miss under all the Dickensian Victoriana.

It’s also a tale of good things happening to a terrible and undeserving person - which is not a very common story! Yet it tells us that, if even someone like Scrooge can step into the light, then there is hope for all of us. I intend to write about A Christmas Carol at depth, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Currently, however, I’m writing about Doctor Who. If you missed the announcement, my next book is EXTERMINATE/REGENERATE: THE STORY OF DOCTOR WHO. It’s a book about change, mystery and the role of fictional characters in our lives - there’s more details here, along with a pre-order link. Doctor Who and A Christmas Carol fit together well, in my mind at least, so seeing Eccleston in the role will mean a lot.

In his interview with The Big Issue, the new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa talked about the role of hope in Doctor Who. He was talking to showrunner Russell T Davies about the state of the world, and how he could not see things getting better. Davies insisted that there was always hope, and that this was the essence of the programme.

You will see the name Ncuti Gatwa a lot over the coming years. That an immigrant who fled a massacre and came to the UK as a child has grown up to become celebrated and loved as the Doctor, that most central figure in British popular culture, is profoundly symbolic. Given current political discourse, the fact that he came from Rwanda of all places feels incredibly significant.

Gatwa’s full name is Mizero Ncuti Gatwa. His mother named him ‘Mizero’ because it means hope. When you see the name Ncuti Gatwa, on billboards and in headlines, it probably won’t include the ‘Mizero’. You cannot always see the hope. But still - it exists.

So happy midwinter, embrace this point of maximum darkness, and enjoy our new Doctor this Christmas Day. As the Doctor Who episode A Christmas Carol perfectly described this point of the year - we are halfway out of the dark.

---

MISC OTHERNESS

The East Sussex Psychedelic Film Club - ESP FC - is something I’ve been putting together with Andy Starke of Anti-Worlds and musician Richard Norris. It starts on 26 January with a screening of Performance plus Kenneth Anger shorts at the Westgate Chapel in Lewes. Tickets are available here but be quick, it’s not a big venue and will sell out soon.

Other cult classics, obscurities and wonders will follow, including director Q&As. There will be a bar run by local brewers BEAK, a DJ and a little shop. If you’re in the area, keep an eye on its Instagram page for details of future screenings. Should be fun!

The end of the year also means that the latest edition of The Mycelium Parish News is now available. If you’ve yet to see one of these wonders, it’s a yearly compendium of books, events, podcasts, interviews, music etc that originated from, or is of interest to, the Discordian-adjacent counterculture. If you’ve missed any great stuff, basically, you’ll find it listed here. Available from Etsy for £2.30.

And finally - I don’t do a lot of interviews specifically about The KLF but I could not resist talking about them to Mark Ellen on the Word In Your Ear pod recently - you can find that here.

Have a great Christmas! See you on the other side!

jhx