I just saw
on twitter a question about Eleven, the psychic little girl on “Stranger
Things”. (MILD SPOILERS are ahead). The question was, “Why do
Eleven's (and Eight's) nosebleeds always start with the left nostril? This has never made sense.” (Generally speaking, you should still follow
Beth Elderkin on twitter, I come off super condescending to her question in
this blog, but she writes articles that are frequently good).
Now, before
I get to answering the question I am going to spell out something
important. This is the sort of detail
that DOES NOT MATTER. It is a visual
signifier that has no actual narrative impact beyond telling you, the audience,
that a character is doing a thing. It is
no different than Superman’s eyes glowing a different color when he uses his
X-Ray vision. Why that color? The color doesn’t matter, it is just there to
tell you what is happening.
I would
also like to point out that I have not seen the second season of “Stranger
Things” yet, I am still watching “Mindhunters” and have a life. Maybe don’t put things like “… (and Eight’s)
…” in your Twitter. The show has been
out a week, that is a spoiler.
With those
two things in mind here is what I am going to teach my readers something the
education system should have tried to teach you when you were in school. I am going to try to teach you to use your
imagination.
"Hahahhahahahaha...." |
As far as I
know (again haven’t seen season 2) they do not discuss in any detail several
things about Eleven’s time in the government facility that gave her the psychic
abilities. Aside from big tanks of
liquid, a shaved head, dull looking underground facilities, and Matthew Modine
looking somehow both detached and invested the nature of Eleven’s time at the
government facility remains somewhat mysterious to the audience.
The
audience also does not get an explanation about how Eleven’s powers work. Sure, “PSYCHIC” is what Eleven is, but her
brain chemistry, whether there are implants in her skull, or if it is magic is
never explained. The source and
functional mechanism are unknown.
Since we
the audience have no answers as to what went on in the facility or how Eleven’s
powers work we are free to imagine our own scenario for what went down.
Here is how
you use your imaginations kids. Start
with the question, “Why do the psychic characters always bleed from the same
nostril when using their powers?” Now,
make up an answer to that. I came up
with two in the half second it took me to read that tweet.
Answer 1, “Eleven’s
powers manifest because of a tumor that rests on the front of her brain, it
pushes on her nasal cavity and causes bleeding when she uses her
abilities.” This one comes from my
experience with a previous movie about a psychic, “Phenomenon” starring John
Travolta. It is an imperfect comparison
because that movie also had the brain cancer make him super charismatic in
addition to his super intellect and telekinesis.
Answer 2,
“The facility would regularly do noninvasive brain surgery on Eleven to monitor
her abilities and health. To do this
they went in thru her left nostril and it is now a constantly reopening
scar.” This one is not inspired by any
other movie, book, or what have you. But
Answer 2 definitely fits with the tone of the show and makes more sense with
less explanation. Also, the idea that
her powers would have drawn no blood if not for the facility has a poetic
symbolism to it.
Or maybe her Indigo Chakra is out of alignment. Pick your poison. |
This whole
thing is perhaps moot. The Duffer
brothers may have a great idea for how to wrap this question up and just
haven’t dropped it on the audience yet. Like
fan explanations for the origin of the Borg, what really happened to Ichabod
Crane, and why kids like the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (actually that last
one has a canon answer), when things go unanswered the audience is free to make
up their own solution.
In fact,
offering your own answer to what, how, and why is often the most fun aspect of
being an audience member. When official products
and productions start filling in the gaps and removing that participatory
element, that is when much of a work’s mystique is lost (see all prequel movies
of “Star Wars”). That is why I am
generally down on prequels, side-quels, and other books or mini-series that
seek to show “what really happened” or “mystery revealed”.
Asking
questions of simple things that do not affect the plot can be a creative
exercise that kicks off a whole chain of strange and interesting ideas.
Let’s
answer those questions. Honestly, this
one is super easy for me, Pennywise the cosmic monster is just not as powerful
as he claims to be. He is perhaps some
grade C- cosmic asshole who picks on kids because that is all he thinks he can
handle. He is physically weaker, dumber,
and far more vulnerable than he leads people to believe. He very much needs a long wind up before each
pitch because he does suck.
The only
thing calling Pennywise the “worst thing ever” is Pennywise (and in the book,
there is a cosmic turtle, which I am partial to the interpretation that thing
might also be a big liar about how important it is). You are under no obligation to believe the
trickster spirit when he says, “Look, I am so totally bad ass you guys, for
reals, yo.” The monster is under no
obligation to tell the truth, and if his actions indicate limitations then you
should conclude that there are limitations.
I cannot
stress this enough: Don’t point to elements like this and say it is stupid or
lame. Again, none of this really
matters, and if you find yourself disliking these sorts of fine details I think
you are actually disliking something deeper and finer that you can’t put your
finger on and shifting the blame to unimportant but easy to identify
things. Don’t look for things to
dislike, instead look for why you dislike something.
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