The Comfort of a Eldritch Infested Radio Show: Welcome to Night Vale
If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, or have ever asked the internet for any kind of recommendation, the name “Welcome to Night Vale,” has surely come up at least once. The large cult following a testament to the quality of the voice acting, writing, and comedy the show provides on a bi monthly basis. The strange story line of the show accompanied by descriptions of oddities and worrisome creatures in the town of Night Vale is enough of a deterrent for most people averse to the horror franchise, but under it’s glowing, mystifying, and perhaps scaly surface lies something far more than it’s initial eldritch label.
Though definitely hard to understand at moments, and difficult to piece together at other times, Night Vale has still managed to create something of a cohesive narrative that draws in those that are bewitched by it’s curious description. A sense of familiarity comes as the radio host, known as Cecil Palmer, describes his personal life amidst his other responsibilities of describing the town’s less than normal events. A segment of describing the citizens fear of street cleaners and Valentine’s day being lead into a personal discussion of an abnormal experience at the local Arby’s. All written to feel as if somehow we have a connection to someone we have never met, in a town that does not exist, with characteristics and qualities that cannot be. It’s what many would argue makes this podcast so endearing to the large following it has gathered.
“Be proud of your place in the Cosmos. It is small and yet it is.”
The whole existence of the podcast feels as if it is something more than just a show to describe a narrative about a abnormal town and the people within it, quotes and phrases pass on a sense of odd comfort contrast with an existential crisis waiting just past the consolation. We are told of our small existence but that it is nothing to fear, that we should take joy in the idea that we are able to have lived at all despite the fragment of a chance we had to have even existed. But in these moments we have we should make of them what we can, eldritch infested or not we ultimately have the decision of what our lives will be.
“Believe in yourself. You are an ancient, absent god, discussed only rarely by literary scholars. So if you don’t believe, no one will.”
But describing all of this is just a drop in the bucket that entails what the podcast truly represents. It’s something that perhaps is arguably indescribable with the amount of creativity, care, and consideration put into it in both writing and voice acting. It’s something that everyone may experience differently, that will resonate harder with others than it will with some. For me it is the equivalent of something unknown, and I delight in the idea of being able to delve into the strange and frightening narrative it provides, both comforting and terrifying. Which leads me to say that if you are in need something almost otherworldly and new, Welcome to Night Vale might be a good fix for your needs.
“Stay tuned next for me saying “Good night, Night Vale. Good night.”
