40. I'm starting a company

Introducing HALLSONG.

40.

Today it is my pleasure to reveal a project I've been working on for months—or years, or decades, depending how you measure.

This is Hallsong. Hallsong makes media for mankind.

Hallsong is an experimental media workshop, developing content—starting with short films—that draws from history, philosophy, & mythology.

I want to quake at the might of Byzantium. An Aquinas biopic. Scifi that takes seriously the occult soul-physics of the Gallic druids. Milton's burning angels on screen.

The name HALLSONG draws inspiration from Heorot, the famous mead-hall in the epic of Beowulf.

Heorot is a gathering place for heroes. In the mead-hall, gifts are given, oaths are sworn, and friendships are strengthened.

Heorot is a bastion of civility in a violent world. Haunted by the monstrous Grendel, the mead-hall cannot be abandoned without abandoning the cause of society itself.

HALLSONG invokes the songs and poems recited in places like Heorot since the early days of man's history, reminding us of the role of stories and mythology in readying the soul for great and challenging deeds.

A number of you have been following my progress through this newsletter since as early as 2020 (!). I’m enjoying taking a step back, to trace out the breadcrumb trail leading to today. You’ll hear in Hallsong the echo of a mission I've been on for years:

• A hunger for artistic bravery:
  7. On heroic sincerity

• An interest in transformative multisensory experiences:
  8. On piercing experiential visions

• Knowing in my bones that history isn’t boring:
  9. History is boring because you don’t want to feel it

• Meditations on communication:
  10. The Holy Encyclopedia

• My first video, on experiential immersion in Jerusalem’s churches:
  13. CURZIISM goes to the movies

• A foray into visual aesthetics:
  15. Devising a conceptual palette

• Trying my hand at sci-fi:
  18. Two sci-fi vignettes

• More videos (now numbering ~100 on YouTube):
  20. A gigantic bushel of videos

• Instinct in content creation:
  23. Faith in the Muse

• Vibe reels:
  26. Seven more vibe reels

• Wanting better conceptualizations of civilization & what it’s for:
  28. How sweet & gentle life can be

• The woodworking sermons:
  38. A shelf-making sermon
  39. The Redemption of the NEET

• Believing that the ‘Great Books’ hold guidance for mankind:
  32. Which Great Books?

How things make sense in retrospect!

I’ve tried to boil some of these ideas into Principles on which Hallsong will operate:

Timeless storytelling has deep roots.

To educate and entertain.

Through Hallsong, I want to reify the conviction that stories & myths are not only critical, but perhaps central to our humanity. That when they strike the right harmonies, stories become treasure troves of timeless wisdom, sources of guidance and enlightenment, applicable in every era and area of human life.

I plan to work on Hallsong (or something in its spirit) for the rest of my life. I can bring the focus & vision— but the right financial support will save us years of effort. So if you or someone you know might want to fund a project like Hallsong, please reach out.

• Email: <my first name> at hallsong dot com

• Direct donations

And please do check out the site! Among other things, I've enclosed a rather schizophrenic diagram explaining more than you may ever have wanted to hear about how I'm moving forward.

HALLSONG will have its own mailing list, though I’ll try to keep Substack people in the loop somehow as well.

The graph might not have enough nodes.

It seems a propitious time for an invocation:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

—Brutus, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)

Time to swim!

— Michael Curzi

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