Madness

A day of catching up, cleaning up, getting things done... toward evening, rather than getting back to my research or writing (sorry about that), I read the beginning of Lydia Salvyre's The Lecture, and then saw – unexpectedly – the last episode of season one of the television show Dollhouse.

The Lecture is funny, bizarre, ridiculous; an inept minor functionary giving the most clueless and ludicrously self-revealing presentation imaginable. Although thorough-going satire, it really is amusing and not terribly unpleasant – it doesn't take the nasty digs at existence, etc. that much modernist humor often does. Of course he's clearly a bit off-base, not completely coherent or in control. (And clearly it compares rather closely with Chekhov's monologue play, the one about birds where he talks about his wife – in fact the Chekhov might have been her model.)

But that last episode of Dollhouse – the infamous 'Epitaph One' – was arresting, appallingly realistic, vertigo-inducing, and so nightmarish as to now be keeping me awake. Because normally, in the broad world of the speculative arts – science fiction stories, novels, television, movies, even comics – when you have some sort of dystopia, some version of the world gone completely mad, you start there, or at least you lead into it fairly quickly, and we know that's what it's going to be about. And we treat it as sort of a parable, because that is easier psychologically....

But to start with twelve episodes (and yes, it's true, they should have used the original pilot – it makes much more sense than what Fox forced them to use) of personal relationships, close-knit problems, and a world where things are getting subtly, and a teeny bit, dangerous, just at the edges – and then to jump to an awful, apocalyptic extrapolation/result of that same context, one where everyone's minds have been blown to bits and existence has become almost impossible – is really rather frightening... and gives the feeling of being much too, almost unpleasantly much too, real.

As if this world, the world we actually live in now – the world where I go to the corner shop (not just a shop, or some set that resembles a typical shop, but the one I actually use), the world where I talked to my neighbor today, the world where I pay rent and walk down the street and e-mail my sister – as if this one could tilt over into disaster, madness, apocalypse....

Disturbing. But impressive.

And yes, I can see the slight, very slight, metaphorical resemblance to recent events in my own life.

It seems to be slightly difficult to get to sleep....

Comments

[Cathy]

I had to watch that Dollhouse episode a second time, so as to force myself to watch it without covering my eyes at any point! Fantastic programme....