Coda: On Dante’s Inferno, Hozier’s Psychopomp (Abstract), and Jayvik

This essay is a reflection on this AMV.

Okay!!! So at the beginning of the month I was listening to Hozier’s Psychopomp (Abstract) late at night, as I am wont to do. Unreal Unearth is one of my favorite albums ever, with some of my favorite songs ever, so I’ve listened to it many times. HOWEVER, as one often does with art they love, I discovered something new. When I got to the bridge of Abstract (Psychopomp), I heard a specific line that went through me like a fucking bullet. I immediately thought wait a fucking second, rewound the track, and re-listened to it with my jayvik goggles on.

Plagued by these visions, I then proceeded to feverishly construct an AMV entirely in my mind as I lay there, facing my shadowed ceiling, feeling like I was receiving divine revelation. I’m talking—exact shots, beat for beat transitions, word for word scene associations. I woke up the next morning, downloaded Davinci Resolve, and over the course of a few sleepless nights, painstakingly transferred my Visions to video. Now, even after posting, I STILL have thoughts. Many of them actually came after I’d watched the thing on YouTube, pretending it was something I was seeing for the first time instead of something I’d stared at so long I got eyestrain.

So here we are. Welcome to the kind of essay I wished I could've written in college, complete with swearing and emojis and links to Reddit posts. Buckle up; I have no idea if this is going to cohere, but by God am I going to try (I still feel like I’m possessed, btw.)

(CW: animal death; discussions of death, depression, and suicidal ideation; brief mention of torture)

 

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