I mean, they’re scary, yes, in the sense that they can be dangerous, but human beings are both terrifying and dangerous, too. Flying in an airplane is dangerous. The fact that humanity has smallpox stored in a vault in the Center for Disease Control is outright horrifying. But it is exactly for that reason our responses should not be panic. Do you let the fear of a car wreck prevent you from ever traveling? Of course not. Most of us buckle our seatbelts, get insurance, and drive defensively.

We must face our fears, or be ruled by them. This is the theme of The Black Tapes Podcast.

Marie Curie provides adequate perspective here:

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

Compare this to Strand in 211:

“[The Gospel of Thomas] describes how it is knowledge, rather than faith, that grants salvation, which constitutes eternal rest, describing ignorance as a nightmare.” 

When Richard Strand maintains that he created the Strand Institute to continue his father’s work, I suspect what he meant is that he, like his father, wants to free humanity from its fear of the unknown. I don’t think he wants to take away our fears-- he strikes me as sensible enough to understand that fear is necessary to our survival. He just wants to show us that most things we fear, when we see them for what they are, can be overcome.

People bitch all the time that Strand doesn’t show empathy or compassion, but I go back to the Strand Institute letters, and I do hear a man capable of compassion. What he doesn’t offer to Maria Rodriguez or Robert Torres, though, is pity, or telling them what they want to hear (like Alex does). Neither of those things will help them, and the first is outright insulting.

That’s one of the many reasons why I mostly don’t get supernatural horror-type entertainment. Sure, there are ghosts and spirits everywhere, including demons. Why should that be frightening? Why do we need to have an exterminator mentality: “Ghosts in my house! OMGWTFBBQ221111!!!!1eleventy CALL AN EXORCIST!” when it can just be, “Look, just don’t sneak up on people or break shit, and stay out of the bathroom when my kid is in there, but you’ve got the run of the place, and let me know if you need something.”

I suppose it’s frightening if you believe as Clara Simone and Alex do, hemmed in by Christian hegemony: that’s it’s humanity’s world, that it was made for and given to us, because we’re the special beings chosen by its creator. But is leaving that belief behind such a terrible thing? Are we so greedy that we can’t share the universe with innumerable other entities?

I don’t know if it’s canon, but early in the TBTP universe, Alex interviewed Aaron Mahnke, the creator of Lore (and the even better show, Unobscured; I left Lore for Unobscured quite awhile ago). I can’t quite find the point exactly where it was mentioned, but they both talked about how fear of demonic possession can be a stand-in for fear of loss of control. I suspect at the heart of Alex’s fear of demons (she also seems to have a mild blood/injection fear) might just be a fear that, as a matter of fact, the world as she’s taken for granted isn’t what she thinks it is. That there might actually be things she doesn’t know, can’t explain...

That she might be capable of things she thought impossible.

That’s honestly terrifying, when you think of it. I’ve mentioned on my blog elsewhere, but the idea that you’re actually in control of your life is rarely a pleasant one. “The devil made me do it” is a surrender of agency, an excuse. If you’re in charge of your life, that means you actually have to fix the shit you broke, be it yourself, an object, a relationship (Alex, and her friendships with Nic and Strand), or a family (Strands, both pére and fils).

Strand has to do this, too, of course-- the entire workings with DaivaCorp (DaevaCorp? Whatever. Thomas Warren’s Project for World Domination.) and it being wrapped up with a supposed “family ability” that got him singled out and that he may have been denying for years means that, sure, his paradigm is broken, too. But the existence of his black tape collection indicates he knew something like this was on the horizon anyway. He was already fixing his shit, however he knew how.  Alex, on the other hand, had to confront her own misconceptions and fears, fast and out of nowhere.

And that? That, my friends, is fucking overwhelming.

And it’s why I think Alex’s personal drama, Alex’s struggle against her own fears, is the most compelling story of TBTP. It’s why this podcast is Alex’s story, not Strand’s. It’s honestly why I don’t want to believe Strand is a Big Bad: because early on, he sees that in Alex, and that’s why he likes her.

Give ‘em Hell, Alex.

In his Strand Institute office, he has his old violin, and occasionally plays it to clear his head, in the fashion of Sherlock Holmes. In fact, Ruby’s been with him so long, she can gauge his mood based off of the music coming from the other side of the door:

Romantic-era sonatas ( Brahms, Chopin, Mendelssohn, etc.): Bored and/or near a stopping point, would welcome an interruption.

Classical and Baroque Period sonatas and pieces (Haydn, Mozart, Purcell, etc.): Working on a thorny problem, only helpful interruptions welcome.

Modern and/or Minimalist works (Glass, Pärt, Shostakovich, etc.): Either delighted or ticked off by something. No need to interrupt; he’ll eventually tell Ruby himself.

Atonal works (Bartok, Prokofiev, Schopenhauer, and, incidentally, Scriabin): Nope.

Also, from his teenage years? Embarrassing garage band photos, people.  Think of the possibilities.