#and harry is so deeply intertwined with his setting (revachol and elysium) that it makes sense for inland to be a bit of both

[57sfinest]

inland empire’s portrait is so good to me for reasons that are hard for me to articulate but like. you can interpret it as a lot of things. the shape of the head reminds me of a globe and while i know elysium is a flat world, obviously we still recognize “round” as The World Shape. and the splatter pattern inside is reminiscent of the shape of the insulinde isola- it’s a massive group of islands that joyce refers to as “the freckled face of god”. and the world as the head of the skill just reminds me of this dialogue:

and the world as the head also makes sense because of a second thing i love: the head of the portrait is full of holes. it’s not just the splatter, there are big holes eaten into the pattern. maybe they’re meant to be the pale origins (like the 2mm hole) that are spreading across elysium. or maybe they’re meant to be the “holes in [harry’s] head” that he brings up with dros. 

but also, more morbidly, maybe it’s supposed to be bullet holes. inland always seems to have something to say when there’s a gun around:

and between that and the splatter on the background, maybe it’s also a veiled reference to harry’s suicidal tendencies.