The Part where I talk about Welcome to NightvaleIt was roughly around junior year of college or so that I really started getting into Welcome to Nightvale. A friend had mentioned it in passing at one point, and me, still trying desperately to fit in, so I decided to give it a try. I almost immediately became attached to the weird characters and strange storylines that would take place. It used to take me a good two hours to drive home from school, so I’d just download a good three episodes or so and listen to them as I made my way down I-85, and past the sign advertising “Georgia Peches.” So, if you’ve never heard of Welcome to Nightvale, it’s a serial podcast about what has to be one of the most interesting towns in the country. The entire thing is presented as a local news program about various bits and pieces of life in the titular town with the occasional lovecraftian horror or takeovers by vague yet menacing government agencies. It’s the sort of world in which librarians are malevolent predators, vague yet menacing government agencies aren’t just common but also a part of everyday life, there’s faceless old women who lives in your house and who ran for public office against a five-headed dragon and the idea that mountains exist is a point of political contention. One of the things that I latched onto when it came to show, not to mention what makes it so unique in my book, was how modern if felt. You see, most fictional podcasts take the form of the old-school radio dramas, such as the Shadow or similar such “tales of suspense.” Lots of clomping about or slamming doors to simulate the idea that the door is being closed or opened. While I’d be lying if I didn’t have a special place in my heart for the Shadow (who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows. Hehehehehehe) they can definitely feel a bit… dated. Like they’re making fun of something that only older folks and complete nerds will know anything about them. So, it’s like they’re trying to tell a joke, but two things end up happening; Those who aren’t knowledgeable will miss the joke, while those who get the joke won’t think it’s particularly funny. Not only that, but there’ve been so many parodies of old radio serials that there are more of them then there are actual radio shows. It’s like how The Artist was quirky and fun, but ultimately forgettable because references to old silent flicks aren’t few and far between (also Mel Brooks did it better several decades earlier). Don’t get me wrong, some of them can be pretty fun (take the Thrilling Adventure Hour for example. Something a decent number of people have listened to in modern times is, of course, NPR, if only because we took rides with parents. Nightvale, therefore, is relatable to us because it’s making fun of something that we experienced ourselves, i.e. public radio news. The Part Where I Talk About Other People Who Talk About NightvaleNow, like most of the stuff I write about, I’m not the only shmoe who’s written about the fine desert town. In fact, I know for a fact that at least two other internet commenters wrote about it waaay before I did, in particular, One being Rantasmo, a commenter on queer themes in various forms of media who approaches his work "with all the subtly of a machete" (his words, not mine) and the other being from Mike Rugnetta courtesy of PBS idea channel about how Nightvale takes the idea of the indescribable as horrifying and makes it humorous. The first talks about how Cecil (the voice of Nightvale proper) and Carlos the scientist are in a relationship and this is treated as just another fact of life. The latter discusses how the show uses Lovecraft's style of being unable to describe the indescribable not to scare us but to comment on how crazy our current society is, as interconnected as we are, not to mention how it uses it's format of to the best of it's abilities by not describing most things with any clear detail. Needless to say, I recommend both videos, hence why I put both videos below.
The Part where I Add onto Rantasmo's Assessment.If I were to add anything to Rantasmo’s assessment, it’s that, in a way, Nightvale is following in the tradition of Star Trek in using a setting that’s already pretty out there to normalize something society may see as taboo. I’m not sure what African American celebrity it was who got real excited when she saw Uhura and that she wasn’t, you know, a servant of some kind. After all, in the world of Star Trek, we as a society had supposedly gotten our shit together and therefore everyone was working together and there was no more prejudice (even if some of it was a little sexist looking back). Something to Keep in mind about Nightvale was that during the early years of when it was still being produced, we as a society were still a little iffy about the whole “gay” thing. Having Cecil and Carl be a thing was very cathartic, especially seeing as how we hadn’t quite gotten around to having at least one gay character in every episode. Cecil and carl don’t even feel all that token. They’re just a couple who happen to be a town where shit gets weirder than weird. The Part Where I Add onto Mr. Rugnetta's AssessmentAs for PBS idea channel, I’d point out thatI think the thing that separates Lovecraft from Jeremy Fink and Jeffrey Cranor is that one was a xenophobic, perpetually scared mommy's boy and the other two appear, at least to my understanding, to be fairly worldly, open people willing to accept the foreignness of others as opposed to fear it. It's telling that at least two of Lovecraft's works used the combination of human and otherworldly beings as a metaphor for intermarriage while the latter has a basketball coach with a pretty Arab sounding name not to mention a young woman who also just so happens to be a middle-aged man's hand, oh, and a gay main character who's homosexuality is naught but a cliff note. In essence, it is clear that what was once used to justify the idea of diversity as scary is now being retooled into it being something pretty common. There's also the fact that, at least in my book, Nightvale is the best at recognizing that it's a naught but an auditory tale. Unlike books on tape or those old radio shows I talked about, it uses the vague descriptions to it's advantage, and only occasionally indulges in weird sound effects nonsense. It's format as a radio show also justifies Cecil's constantly describing what was going on, as opposed to, say, the Shadow, who regularly told the baddies who's minds he was clouding that he was hiding from them and could be found in the same room. Where I direct you to some other cool stuffIt would be remiss of me to point you to The Official Welcome To Nightvale website. If you're interested in the podcast proper, here's a link their "how to listen" page. Oh, and if you liked those videos from Rantasmo and Mr. Rugnetta, here and here are links to their respective channels.
Stay tuned next for the sound of your computer's hard drive churning away and of your internal organs working. Good night, Night Vale. Good Night.
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AuthorHello all and Welcome to Jacob's Latter. Here I will be giving my opinions on everything from movies, video games and books to my general outlook on the world. Archives
January 2018
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