hal/zine

Essays

Long-form — arguments, attention, the rooms we read in.

essay 07 Jul 2026 · 10 min

A New Position for the Eye

Why the search for the most disturbing film leads nowhere — and how found footage puts you where someone was already looking.

I watched a lot of movies. Especially horror movies. I believe several essays from the blog show my fascination with horror. And over the years this fascination evolved from general all-things-go horror to more specific areas. While in — continue reading →

essay 02 Jul 2026 · 11 min

Alive

I truly dislike the question "what is the meaning of life." Not because I don't see its importance, but because of the word buried in it that nobody checks. Life. What do we consider alive? How do we — continue reading →

essay 01 Jun 2026 · 8 min

A flood is just water

The flood has no malice and the water no morality — it was never the water's fault, and it never will be

Sometimes it rains for days. You go outside and everything's a puddle, the sewers can't take it and push the water back up into the street. Annoying, nothing worse than that. Other times it rains hard enough that — continue reading →

essay 17 May 2026 · 11 min

The absurdity at the dinner table

An ethical position tested three times a day — between Camus, Genesis, and the cow that saw the sky.

The most honest ethical position I hold gets tested three times a day. Or at least it used to be tested; for me, the meals now represent not only a way to get the nutrients in and satisfy — continue reading →

essay 14 May 2026 · 6 min

Horrors beyond comprehension

On the kind of dread that resists description — from Humbaba to Ezekiel's wheels.

The idea of horrors beyond human comprehension bothers me. You've heard of Lovecraft. But who described it first? Firstly, it made perfect sense that the Mesopotamians were the first ones, with the Epic of Gilgamesh. The monsters described — continue reading →