Oh Holy God, this is absolutely amazing. You have no idea how deeply your insights have resonated with me. Reading this post was like a shotgun blast of synchronicities.
The Coen Brothers are geniuses. Their films communicate something deep that I'm trying to decipher. I recently watched The Big Labowski, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and No Country for Old Men. The existential underpinning of all these movies is strikingly profound. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is my favorite Coen Bros. movie so far.
The last 2 weeks of my life has made me ask; what is the universe trying to tell us about story tellers?
It all started with Kevin Spacey's recent video which made me begin to question Netflix's artistic reach. Netflix's boundary between art and reality is..... blurred. Then Bandersnatch came out. The bandersnatch is a creature created by Lewis Carroll. There is also a book called Bandersnatch (not the book in the movie since that book is not real) which is about the book club called "The Inklings" which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. This concept of the bandersnatch has something to do with fiction story tellers and I'm not sure what the universe is trying to communicate with this bubbling up in our world. Is Buster Scruggs the embodiment of the bandersnatch? Is there a certain insanity associated with Tolkien's creation of Middle Earth (seriously, he wrote, like, an entire history of that imaginary place). I am floored that you brought up Lewis Carroll...... psychedelics certainly help us connect the dots and you're connecting some serious dots.
Also, I hope all goes well with the whole marriage proposal! There are few things in life that are more sweet than marrying your best friend and getting to wake up at their side every morning. I'm very happy for you my friend! Life is beautiful!