Isolation, Alienation, and Escapism: Observing Two Thriller Narratives: Background information when reading The Night Guest

Isolation, Alienation, and Escapism: Observing Two Thriller Narratives

This article relates to The Night Guest

It's 2024. COVID-19, while still dangerous, is no longer the unknown factor it once was, and extended quarantines are no longer mandated as in the earlier days, pre-vaccination. Though the world has never stopped talking about what isolation has done to our collective psyche, I think it's only this year that we're starting to see some of the most uniquely relevant narratives about how it feels to be utterly lonely. Not all these narratives are set since the pandemic; for some, the experience has dredged up past feelings, others have had to sit with their overall relationship to being alone. Global isolation has forced us to confront these emotions; at the same time, many have turned to escapism to cope. Two thriller narratives that came out this year and feel emblematic of how people grapple with isolation and alienation are the film I Saw the TV Glow, written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, and the novel The Night Guest, by Hildur Knútsdóttir.

Set in 1996, I Saw the TV Glow is a psychological horror film following teenage outcasts Owen and Maddy, who connect through their favorite television show The Pink Opaque. The show follows Isabel and Tara, whose common enemy is Mr. Melancholy, a supernatural being who has the ability to warp time and reality. Owen and Maddy have undesirable home lives, both of them navigating neglectful or abusive households that feel inescapable. The Pink Opaque, however, provides respite and connection between the pair, and what initially seems to be an innocent shared interest quickly becomes a dark obsession that swallows them whole.

Owen and Maddy are not only dealing with trauma in their homes, but through their individual identities in the world, too. Growing up is uncomfortable, and their experiences are no exception to the rule. In their lives teeming with uneasiness, The Pink Opaque provides them with consistent ease. Finally, something can give them safety, and, over time, it becomes more tempting to return to the show when every day feels tumultuous. Eventually, they are more connected to fiction than life and so disembodied by their daily human experience that their realities seem fictive. These realities become abstract, like long stretches of commercial breaks before they get to watch the show. The Pink Opaque supplies Owen and Maddy with the illusion of choice where their lives are stripped of true autonomy; they can fall in love with a fantasy that doesn't exist, at the cost of their everyday derealization. This directly feeds into their isolation; though they initially felt alienated, surrendering to the show pushes them even farther away from everyone and everything surrounding them.

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir sees Iðunn experiencing a similar alienation to isolation pipeline. Iðunn has a generally sad disposition, coupled with being at an awkward stasis. She is full of uncertainty and anxieties of unresolved tension — someone in her family has passed, her only potential lover seems preoccupied with her likeness to that other character, and her unsettling, violent, obsessive ex orbits her. She seems out of control, and once she begins to experience mysterious violent occurrences in her sleep, she isn't even in control of what happens to her body at night. The only aspect of her existence that she has actively tried to change is being able to sleep — once that has been disrupted, nothing else seems like a strong enough motivator for her to evolve as a person. Before this sleeping issue, Iðunn was surviving, but not living. Once her survival is jeopardized, she still doesn't really want anything more than to sleep. Perhaps sleep for Iðunn was her escape, and lack of it spotlights all the uncomfortable aspects of her daily life. Hyperfocusing on trying to sleep regularly again also speaks to her yearning to have control over her body during the only time she truly felt safe and like she had agency.

Iðunn chases sleep while Owen and Maddy chase a television show; in all the characters' alienation from society, they become reclusive and eventually desire detachment from reality over anything else. To some extent, everyone can relate to relying on escapist activities when life becomes overwhelming. Both Knútsdóttir and Schoenbrun delve deep into what it feels like to be on your own secluded island, and how much the human mind can really distance itself from everything around it. Ultimately, one of the horrors in both stories is how much of a difference having a loving, open-armed community would have made for these isolated people.

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to The Night Guest. It first ran in the September 18, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.