[ SECRET POST #2486 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2486 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 024 secrets from Secret Submission Post #355.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You know, I'm going to step out on a pretentious, over extended limb here and say that I think the majority of (at least Tumblr) WtNV fandom can't reconcile a normal Cecil with a bizarre Night Vale for at least one big reason: because they aren't clever enough.

To be able to accept distinct cognitive dissonance like that-- normal looking people, behaving strangely, accepting an extremely strange reality, a concept that is just bizarre enough for you to feel intensely uncomfortable about-- is extremely difficult. They can't reconcile these two extremities.

So instead, they have to alter the fabric of the characters to match the environment of the characters; they have to be just as bizarre, just as out of place, just as Other as their world, and then they can accept it and move on with it.

Because as much as Tumblr likes to bitch and whine about there not being enough diversity or what the fuck ever in WTnV, the sad truth of the matter is: they are the venomous, dull shitheels who are unable to reconcile their own unfortunate inability to hold inherently contradictory concepts together and enjoy them.

So they jump to point out perceived flaws in the material, and shape it to their own accepted version of Other-- rather than stopping and examining what is already there in the source. I think a lot of us here would agree that there is nothing creepier than watching a normal looking guy interact with the terribly strange, with a mix of ease, fear, and reverence.

Watching a guy with tentacles do it divorces him from us, and removes the need to reconcile that cognitive dissonance. It creates distance between normality-- something we would arguably define as centered around ourselves, and therefore human-- and abnormality, which is essentially Night Vale in a nutshell.

Sure I may be over reading fandom's tendencies to a large degree, but I maintain that hey-- listening to a guy who isn't quite human isn't quite the same as listening to a guy who is entirely human. And therefore, you don't need to engage with him or the depth of the material as much, because you don't identify with that person.

So yeah-- it's fandom's way of trying to fix their own inability to deal with cognitive dissonance. Make the guy more bizarre, and you don't have to deal with the dawning horror that in this universe, regular people are dealing with absolutely terrible shit.

/steps off soapbox and immolates self

[(Anonymous)]

^This. It also takes away all the humor and weight of the source material. The show's supposed to be scary. Human Cecil dealing with freaky shit is much more emotionally engaging than giving him Loony Toons!mortality.

[(Anonymous)]

All this is beyond perfect, but this part:

Make the guy more bizarre, and you don't have to deal with the dawning horror that in this universe, regular people are dealing with absolutely terrible shit.

Made me love you forever.

[dragonimp]

Well I think you've nailed it.

I dunno, for me part of the appeal is regular-human-dealing-with-freaky-shit. Depictions that are more out there kinda ... ruin it a bit.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, you are probably 90% right about this (and I agree on most of it; Night Vale fandom as a whole really does miss the point that so much of Night Vale is based on contrasting things that are part of our "normal" with things that aren't) but I think you are leaving out a very important factor, and that is the appeal of tentacle porn.

(and tattoo kink.)

...I wish even more people doing the tentacle porn would include the tentacles as something that *happened* to normal human characters as a result of night vale, that they take in stride, and not some sort of inherent alienness of the human characters, though. if you specifically want aliens with tentacles there are several other fandoms out there right now...

(which is just to say: I blame homestuck. :P)

[pts]

Nailed it.

[(Anonymous)]

Brav-fucking-o.