In the mass market of modern horror films, where audiences pay for jump-scares and computer-generated monsters, the power of psychological horror is often underestimated.
While vampires and zombies can be linked back to real-life fears, such as home invasion, sexual assault and disease, we often forget one of the most frightening subjects of all: the human psyche. In addition to the fangs and claws of literal monsters, we can also find horror in the crowded corners of our heads where delusions, fears and unwelcome truths lay waiting in the dark.
In recent years, there has been no greater example than Janne Teller’s novel “Nothing.” A modern-day Lord Of The Flies, Teller’s story has drawn both acclaim and controversy. Marketed as a “young adult novel” (and believe me, the idea of this book falling into the same genre as “Twilight” is hilarious) “Nothing” has been banned in many European schools.
Teller shares the story of a group of Dutch middle-schoolers. In the middle of class one morning, as their teacher drones on about mathematics, Pierre Anton rises from his seat to claim that “Nothing matters.” School is meaningless, Pierre claims, because, “from the moment you are born, you start to die.”
With this announcement, Pierre climbs a tree near the school and takes his seat. Every day, as his classmates arrive, Pierre harasses them from above: “You’ll live to be a maximum of one-hundred. Life isn’t worth the bother.” Shouting at Pierre, and even throwing plums at him from below, are futile efforts to make him come down.
Ultimately, the students reach their breaking point. They simply can’t focus on their education with Pierre telling them that life doesn’t matter–and as a remedy, they decide each child will give up something meaningful. They will then present their objects to Pierre to prove that life matters.
The only catch is that when one child gives something up, they get to choose what the next child will sacrifice.
For most of “Nothing,” you wonder how this whole ordeal is going to resolve. You don’t expect a happy ending, but you dread the repercussions. A flaw in the novel, although debatable, is that very few of the characters are developed. Rather than realistic, the novel is allegorical. It turns a childish daydream about “skipping school” into reality. Teller uses the naive desperation of her middle schoolers to illustrate her message. While her philosophy does sometimes overpower her characters’ humanity (a lot of Pierre’s dialogue reads more like a Nietzschean lecture than the thoughts of a middle schooler), her themes and originality shine.
By the end, ethics and values are no longer applicable. What has been a war between two sides - Pierre and his classmates - comes together into a single resolution. What happens at the end. without giving too much away, is brutal and satisfying.
“Nothing” is not a book for everyone. The physical, sexual violence between the young characters is extreme, and upon turning the last page, you feel deflated – not in the sense of disappointment, but in the sense of witnessing something horrific: something that has tapped into a fragile core and should be kept safely in the dark.
“Nothing” argues that the meaning of life is fragile and should not be tampered with. Teller’s story is unique and polarizing. For better or worse, it will leave an impression.
