Something When You Thought There Was Nothing (Draft)

This past year I have finally gotten into a piece of media that I had seen on people’s t-shirts in high school. Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast that started in 2012 and in written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, the person who is the main voice is Cecil Baldwin and I could happily listen to his voice for an eternity. The show is in the form of a radio broadcast that tells the surrealist, horrifying, beautiful, and absurd tales of a town called Night Vale. The first lines give a perfect description of this quirky town, “a friendly desert community, where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep… welcome to Night Vale.”

The format of this work, in addition to the media is very unique, as it is all auditory and has to paint a picture in the listener’s mind. In addition to the fun day to day reports on the terrifying and fascinating things that go on in the town, Cecil will often go into very gorgeous and deep monologues, some with obvious purposes, some that leave you confused and stunned for a good hour after listening. They do an excellent job of balancing the humor and the absurd, with the deep and meaningful. What I will be analyzing is a perfect example of this.

This poem (and I believe it to be poetry, fight me) is from the second episode of the show, when it was just finding it’s footing and voice. When I first listened to it, it moved me just as other great writing I’ve read. Every sentence was its own story, commanding your mind to go somewhere, to wonder its purpose, and the implications of what you find. I would suggest listening to it before you read the rest of my post, since part of what characterizes it is how Cecil reads it. Takes place 17:45-19:10

Even if you chose not to listen, part of this media and community around Welcome to Night Vale is the fan art. It may limit the work since you are now perceiving it through someone else’s imagination, but I also think it reflects a shared experience that is an integral part of this medium.

There is no context given as to why he is listing these things, or what exactly these “things” are. It starts off very powerfully as it makes the listener think of the emotions they feel when viewing a sunset, and why they wouldn’t understand them. It catches the listener off-guard, and addresses us directly. The listener is put into a state of confusion, but then the list continues with no answers.

Not only is there an instant change in subject, but the wording is strange and provoking. What does it mean for a pet to be unfound? What are the implications? The illustration certainly has ideas, but why are we talking about pets? I loved the power that 6 well placed words can have.

Remember the absurdity I was talking about? The suspense that was built by the unfound pets is just destroyed by this idea. Your confusion about what came before is distracted by this weird and funny idea.

This portion seems to play into different forms of paranoia to create an unsettling feeling. Playing into people’s fears of dark forests and unwanted listeners. Whatever your feelings are about space, nothingness, vastness, to have something large and mysterious have thought, how can that not be frightening?

More terrifying images presented with no context. The feelings it produces are so tangible, I just eat it right up as a shiver is sent down my spine. Of course, we then break character, unless you don’t know what they are, it’s hard to have spooky feelings about sandwiches. With how it is read by the narrator, the hands are not reaching for the sandwiches either, they are simply a part of this list.

I like the images that this artist used to depict this portion, because the drawings don’t convey sound or the lack thereof.

Continuing with the juxtaposition of situations, but this one seems very personal, it has been awhile since “you” were addressed. This imagery seems almost tactile as the poem plays very real human feelings very real human feelings.

The random objects, the repetition of such a strange word as “sheets,” to me it is just as funny as it is confusing. A common tactic in this piece and other narratives in Welcome to Night Vale is putting random, modern, material objects into places where they don’t quite make sense.

Single words end this poem, and they are very much concluding words as following this they episode finishes. However, the questions it provokes do not end. Is this simply the end of list? Or do these words indicate some sort of ending that we don’t understand? Now that the list is done we must process what we have listened to or read.








Some people might discard it as just a weird little thing that a teenager posted. Or maybe people have a response similar to mine where I sit back and think on all the feelings that just ran their course in my body in a manner of seconds. It is obvious that authorial intent was to get you to feel something as they worked so hard to bring up things that elicit a response from the listener. Having it in text does lose some of the intonations and pacing of when it was originally spoken and the music that accompanies it, I think that adds to the nature of poetry being oral. However, the imagery still manages to paint a picture whether they're reading or listening. What I think is even more special is that their are mediums by which those who experience poetry like this can share their feelings, such as fan art in this case, it is truly wonderful.

All Hail the Glow Cloud!