{"id":5610,"date":"2024-09-17T02:21:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T02:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/algorithms-and-arts\/?p=5610"},"modified":"2025-03-10T17:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T17:47:13","slug":"confusion-paranoia-and-empathy-in-the-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/algorithms-and-arts\/2024\/09\/17\/confusion-paranoia-and-empathy-in-the-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusion, Paranoia, and Empathy in The Terror"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Note: this is an example of a post that is not yet fully revised. I drafted, then added new things, but didn’t totally finish everything up (yet).]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to start with a little story so you can fully understand how I came to find the show I’m going to tell you about. In graduate school, I became obsessed with maritime literature and history. It started because I was really interested in the practice of amateur theatricals in the Victorian period (these performances, sometimes called “parlor theatricals,” provide key moments in many of the novels I was reading, and I wanted to know what they were actually like in reality). In a course on Herman Melville, I discovered that sailors in the nineteenth century also enjoyed putting on their favorite plays aboard ships during their many months at sea. This led me on trips to various archives, where I found many fascinating artifacts of these shipboard performances. One of those artifacts was a handwritten shipboard newspaper called The Illustrated Arctic News<\/a><\/em>, which was produced in 1850 aboard one of the ships hunting for the lost Franklin expedition<\/a>, years after it had left from England in search of The Northwest Passage<\/a>. The newspaper was fascinating to me because there were detailed reviews of the plays performed aboard the ships as they were trapped in the ice over the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News published on board HMS Resolute. Held at The National Maritime Museum. Public Domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did The Terror Find Me?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite my obsession with maritime literature and culture, I heard nothing about The Terror<\/em>, a show that premiered on AMC in 2018 and offered a story about what life was like for the officers and sailors of the Franklin expedition as they got trapped in the ice and died of disease, violence, and starvation. So, how did I learn about this incredible show that was already wildly popular and totally relevant to my interests? Through an e-mail to an academic listserv. This summer, a colleague sent an e-mail to the C-19 listserv<\/a>, encouraging scholars in the field to consider submitting a paper to a conference that was created by fans of the show. The conference is called TerrorCamp, and I imagine it will be a blend of a literature conference and a Comic-Con event (I’ve proposed a presentation so I might be able to tell you all about it in December!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what Hester posted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hi all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following CFP may at first seem far afield to C19 interests, but I encourage you to take a look if you are into environmental humanities and\/or having your academic conferencing mind blown. I attended last year’s Terror Camp and the event was electrifying and transformative. It made academia feel new, and made different intellectual futures seem possible. (This great article on the conference gives a glimpse of what I mean: https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/articles\/the-terror-amc-camp-fandom<\/a>). Outside of C19 it’s the best conference I’ve ever attended and I hope some of you will be interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

yours,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hester<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to watch the show instantly, but I was frustrated to find it wasn’t available on any of the channels I subscribe to. So, I went on Amazon and BOUGHT THE DVD. I haven’t done that in many years, but it seemed to be the same cost and then I’d have it forever (I was sure I’d be re-watching it). When it came in the mail, I got the DVD player out of the drawer where it had been living since we moved three years ago, and hooked it up to the TV. I then had to search the house to find the remote for the DVD player, which was inside a box in a chest that my husband thought he remembered having random remotes. It was pretty frustrating. I had the DVD in my hand, but couldn’t get at The Terror<\/em>!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I overcame these challenges and watched a few episodes via DVD (navigating the totally not-intuitive interface of the DVD player to turn on the closed captions because I definitely couldn’t understand what anyone was saying). And then, my husband said at breakfast one day, “Oh, guess what’s coming to Netflix?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched the rest of it on Netflix. It was just easier. Also, now it’s in my viewing history so maybe they show me some other cool things related to interests they didn’t know I had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My point in sharing this story is that this new thing that I watched found me<\/em>. I finished my dissertation and published a few articles on shipboard performance, but mostly thought it was an EXTREMELY niche interest that the rest of the world (even the world of literature and theater historians) didn’t really care about. I had filed it away and wasn’t actively looking for films and shows that represented the sea. But then Hester’s e-mail to the listserv found me and I went hunting for a way to watch it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Experiences During The Terror (and the features prompting them and the techniques used to create those features)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Confusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ll flesh this out in my revised draft, but the first emotion I felt was confusion because I didn’t know what was going on and I could understand what anyone was saying. The show opens with a scene that isn’t explained in any way, and I just sort of settled into the feeling of confusion (part of it was intentional, I think), but I did turn on the subtitles so I could at least figure out what the characters were saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is a technique of narration. The story has a particular timeline, but we experience a scene that happens after it is all over and then we’re transported to the beginning of the expedition, and then get flashbacks from time to time (or insight into what’s happening back in England as people are starting to worry because the expedition hasn’t returned). Another feature of narration is the choice to have the characters speak fast and make it challenging to follow everything that’s happening. The technique that causes this feeling of confusion is that everything is not explained to you. You get a part of the story, but not all of the pieces.<\/strong> And this confusion actually prompted me to feel curious. I need to mention that. It didn’t make me quit. It made me keep going so I could understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paranoia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are some characters in this show that I can’t figure out. There’s something just a little off-putting and I can’t figure out what they are or what they’re doing. This makes me feel on guard–always considering in my mind another way of interpreting their behavior. There is a story, but I feel like there’s an author making a point through his telling of this story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lady Silence<\/strong> Early in the season, the ships get stuck in the ice and one of the groups sent out to find leads accidentally kills a Netsilik man (mistaking him for a bear). His daughter comes aboard the ship with him as they try to treat his wounds, but he winds up dying. She speaks at first to a few officers who have learned her language in previous voyages to the region, but eventually cuts out her tongue as she assumes the shaman role her father once held. Her interaction with other characters is fascinating and I am still trying to figure out what she thinks about these ridiculous British people who shouldn’t be where they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Creature<\/strong> At first, the crew thinks men are being killed by a polar bear. But then when they set up a blind to trap the bear, it ambushes them and drags the captain’s body into the spot where the shaman’s body was unceremoniously buried–a very deliberate move that makes it clear that it’s not just a bear. I’ve spent the entire show trying to figure out how I’m supposed to interpret the creature (is it supernatural or an illusion created by the Netsilik people?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the technique in all of these cases is allegory, but it’s not the way allegory typically works<\/strong>. There are plenty of stories in which characters are meant to represent something and things are fairly straightforward. This is allegory where I don’t trust my interpretation of what things are supposed to mean. I think the creators of this show are messing with me and I’m constantly trying not to be duped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empathy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There is a depiction of alcoholism in the show that makes it easier to understand the perspective of someone who suffers with addiction. There are lots of little narrative techniques that work together to make this effect. It starts with establishing that his behavior is shameful to him and his fellow officers (we see them talking about him when he’s not around). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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