Director's Notes – Episode 90

(NOTE: As always, Director's Notes contain spoilers)

Joseph and I talk a lot about flying. We both deal with flight anxieties while having to fly a lot for our job.

In talking about why flying is scarier than driving despite being overwhelmingly safer, I said "I suppose it's about control. You can control a car, but not a plane." Joseph countered that flying removes all illusion that we have control over our lives. There's an important distinction in his point. Illusion of control. Not actual control. 

We deal with existentialism a lot on Night Vale, especially the bleak point that we're all gonna die and it could happen at any moment. Despite a random and indifferent universe, we make up stories about why we die. Sometimes there are strong correlations of control: They were a reckless driver. She really loved BASE jumping. He liked trying to hug badgers. Sometimes not: Wrong place at the wrong time. Unlucky I guess.

We make up stories about why we live too. He was so determined to beat cancer. She was chosen by God. They are the luckiest person I know. 

In this two part episode, we're playing around with that very notion that we can prolong life/avoid death. The Strangers want nothing, need nothing, and ultimately are controlled by nothing. The town rallies. People take action. They pray. They fight. They sic their floating cat on the enemy. 

Night Vale suffers from an Illusion of Control. The Strangers cannot be fought off or bought off or prayed away. As the Faceless Old Woman says, Night Vale's efforts are all just noise.

But another way to say that previous paragraph is that Night Vale needs stories to survive. There are conflicting stories. Who's the hero? Tamika? Melony? The Erika? The spiritual coming-together? Maybe these stories are all self-deception, meaningless in the face of an indifferent universe. But these narratives help hide their lack of control. 

If we cannot explain why something bad happens or convince ourselves we can eventually stop it, then what's the point of any of this [points at all of human life]? 

I vote. I try to eat healthy. I read. I speak my mind about causes I find important. I knock on wood when watching sporting events. I don't drink and drive. I listen to Beyonce during every airplane takeoff and landing. 

My candidate won. I haven't gotten heart disease. No senile dementia for me. Social justice has made progress. The Red Sox won a bunch of titles. I won't be killed in a drunk driving accident. I have never died in a plane crash.

Are these illusions of control? Yes, most definitely. But they are narratives to help me cope with fatalism, to cope with the indifferent universe, to make me think that what I am doing makes a difference. I make up truths to feel sane. 

Stories cannot protect us from the void, but they can protect us from staring too long into it.

- Jeffrey Cranor
June 15, 2016