This Prompts Joy: Week of October 7th

The internet has long been accused of being a toxic, harmful place, full of conflict and anonymous trolls. It’s hard to deny that, in a general sense, but let us brag on ourselves a little bit. Because since our launch in September 2016, The Prompt has largely avoided that awful spirit, instead finding real personal connection through creative writing, good ideas, and good people. Honestly, it’s been quite a tonic to meet strangers on the internet that are so deeply earnest and good in their souls. 

To extend that positive vibe into your lives a bit more, we’re starting a new content segment called This Prompts Joy, in which we will each share something positive or worthwhile that got us through the week. Each week, we will publish a miniprompt of the things that filled our cold, bleak, post-apocalyptic hearts with happiness, pride, gratitude, peace, interest, amusement, and so on.

The Prompt Mag: Proof that the internet isn’t completely terrible™

Dilane Mitchell

My fall shows are back: Sister Wives, Great British Baking Show, Matlock (rebooted), Abbott Elementary! I am happy as a clam on my couch with all of my favorite characters again.

V. Buritsch

The return of autumn means the return of breathing out air like a grumpy, huffy dragon, and I am HERE FOR IT. The clouds of vapor are a lovely sight against the view of autumn trees. Rawr.

Josh Bard

There is a new film on Netflix called Will & Harper, which chronicles Will Ferrell and his friend Harper Steele (the former head writer of Saturday Night Live) on a cross-country road trip. Harper has recently transitioned to being a woman and Will wants to accompany her on a drive across the U.S. to familiar haunts, as Harper now sees them through a new lens. The not-quite-a-documentary-but-still-real-life-experience plays out over the course of many compelling scenes, fraught with honest emotion and hopefully authentic reaction. I loved Will & Harper and found it to be the rare content I wish was longer and had given me more. It left me with lots of curiosities, which—in this day and age—may be one of the highest compliments I can give something. Check it out!

Jillian Conochan

I am deeply skeptical of curating my media diet too closely to my interests. I am inclined towards compulsions, so I can quickly burn myself out on a celebrity I admire (See: why I don’t listen to the Always Sunny podcast), and I had to scrub my existence from Threads. Drinking my morning coffee, I am careful not to click on the AITA email journal from Reddit, because left to my own devices, I could very easily look up at 4 P.M. with the silhouette of my laptop burned onto my chest and my eyes seeping blood. But every once in a while, they get me.

This week, Reddit piqued my click with mention of Francis and the Lights. Yeah, I thought, where has he been?

This is a very long intro to say that yesterday I discovered Purple Tears, which may or may not even be Francis Starlite; it might be Adam Levine??? Both?? Neither? Either way, their album Tarzana, which features Swae Lee, a Goo Goo Dolls cover, and other melodic bonbons, has played enough these past to days that I already hate  ̶i̶t̶. Myself. I hate myself.

Sarah Razner

As someone who is part of a creative writing group, it is the least surprising thing ever that it is writing that brought me joy this week. But it was. Remember how it was as a kid, when your teacher would give you free time at the end of the day to put away your assignments and go into your art supplies, or your reading corner, or the costume closet and just play? After a busy month at work, having a few hours to lose myself in my own story made me feel like I was back in those classrooms again, getting to play in my favorite way possible.

Kelaine Conochan

On Saturday night, I watched Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet with friends, a nostalgic remembrance of when Leo DiCaprio was still a beautiful angelface, when teenagers saved their money to buy movie soundtracks on CD, when tacky neon crosses seemed like reasonable decor for a church funeral. Adding to the experience was the setting—an outdoor patio with soft lighting, nestled into blankets as the temperatures dropped into the 60s. Sometimes the best nights are the simplest.