For our next review, let's muddy our feet in the mire of teenage anxiety and isolation, with Charles Burns' 1996 release, Black Hole.
Set in the middle-class neighborhoods and teen haunts of a 1970s Seattle, Black Hole immediately faces the reader with the the protagonists' dilemma: there's a bug going around the high school population and you get it by having sex. Well, obviously, right? But this is no ordinary burning case of jock-itch; once you've got the bug, you're done for. That's because this STD turns kids into monsters with grotesque physical deformities, each one unique and terrifying. If you're one of the lucky few, you'll be able to hide yours with clothes, or make-up. Maybe even carry on some semblance of a normal life. More often than not though, hiding is impossible, and your life is forever changed.
Enter Keith and Chris, two teens caught in the middle of the outbreak. He's a sweet, shy guy, with eyes only for Chris. She's proud, beautiful, and in love. But not with Keith. Together or apart, they'll have to find a way to survive this ordeal, finding themselves along the way. But things will get worse before they get better, especially when murder is thrown into the mix.
Warning: Slight Spoilers Ahead
I'd have to say that when I first began reading this book, I didn't like it. It starts off a little slowly, and it took awhile for me to get into the nostalgic 70s vibe that emanates from every little detail. Not to mention that early on it the book, Keith, the first main character presented, spends a lot of time drugged out with his friends. The result is disorienting and psychedelic, even for the reader. Which I suppose is a credit to the writing, that it can make you feel the way that Keith feels. But it did make me a bit hesitant about completing the book.
I'm very glad that I picked it back up.
You soon find that the main cause for Keith's drug use has to do with the prevailing sense of anxiety and desperation shared by the teens in his high school. The yearning for acceptance and physical pleasure coupled with the phobia of becoming infected causes stress levels and feelings of isolation to sky-rocket. Many take refuge in bacchanalian excesses and parties, drinking, smoking, and yes, having sex, to forget about the fear. Maybe it seems irrational to combat the fear of an STD in the arms of a lover, but you have to take into account the confusion, loneliness, and hormones that are also at work. Keith constantly complains of "wanting to be somewhere else" no matter where he goes, a trait that his friends find quite annoying. It is only in Chris-beautiful, popular, and untouchable- that he sees a chance of salvation. His devotion to her is immediate and whole, even after she contracts the "bug".
Chris too seeks solace in love. Her crush, Rob, tries to warn her of his infected status, to no avail. They consummate their attraction, and for awhile it seems that love will be able to shield them from the injustice being done to the infected. At this point, they begin to stay at the campground, the most important and prevalent site in the novel.
The campground exists in a ravine on the edge of the town, and houses a community of infected teens whose deformities cause them to be unable to function or live in the larger society. In town, anti-infected sentiment grows, and these teens are no longer welcome in most establishments. These infected, largely nameless, are poor, living in tents, surviving off of stolen gas station food and garbage, and congregating nightly around a campfire. They are no longer welcome at school or home, and so seem to disappear off of the map. They become their own community, and support one another in survival. It is here that Chris and Rob take sanctuary. But under this much pressure, someone was bound to break, and the chaos that ensues is a nightmare the infected will be lucky to survive at all.
Overall, Black Hole, is a fantastic, though rather obvious, metaphor for teen isolation, anxiety, and drama. The journey of adolescence, from innocence to adulthood, as traveled by Keith and Chris, once stripped away of the science fiction horrors of the "bug", is typical of many. Parents and adults are scarce mentioned, and never shown. It is as if the intensity of the pain felt by the characters simply leaves no room for adult interference. Which from my experience, is pretty accurate. The fear of being different, of being seen as ugly or unattractive, whether from acne or extra eye-balls, is universal. Chris seeks safety in the arms of a boyfriend, hardly suited to handle the crisis himself, a mistake that many young women make. Keith turns to drugs. Both leave them alone, vulnerable, and confused. Both characters survive (as most teens do) but they come out the other side much worse for the wear. In reality, the scars from the battle of adolescence run deep, and take many years to heal from. I feel that things for Keith and Chris will be no different. Many of the infected do not survive, a real-world correlation that is also accurate. Every day teenagers give up the fight and "opt out" due to anxiety, bullying, and an inability to cope with the multitudes of problems that seem insurmountable.
The second obvious metaphor deals more directly with the issue of sex and sexuality. It would be easy to see, especially set in the 1970s, how the infected and the "bug" are metaphors for homosexuals and those infected with the AIDs virus. The intolerance and discrimination, bordering on violence, faced by the infected is much the same as that faced by the LGBTQ community during that time. Unfortunately, this attitude persists even today. The paranoia surrounding the "bug" and the ease of its transference (once is enough) is very similar to the tone of the AIDs epidemic. Though I do not feel that the infected 100% for sure equate to gays and AIDs sufferers, I think that the correlation is apt. But it also works for any minority you can think of, where persecution has been part of their history. Hell, vampirism and zombification correlate to it.
Narrowing the infected down to correlating with one group really destroys the universality of the message. I felt like this as a teen. My peers felt like this too. Many had it worse. I see teens that feel like this today. Teens of every race, gender, orientation, ethnicity, and religion will probably go through a point in their lives when they will feel like this. And though it may be a little bit R-rated to house in a high school library, I feel that it is a book that many a level-headed teen could benefit from reading. The message is positive: yes being a teen sucks. It's confusing, and you'll make mistakes. Many of you will attempt to use distractions (sex, drugs) to try and escape. Often times, these escapes become impossible to handle. You will seek solace in your peer group, and you will feel alienated from your parents and all other adults. But in the end, you can survive. You're gonna be ok.
That's the end of my review. But in closing, I would like to say, that if there are any teens out there reading this, feeling the same isolation, fear, pain, or anger, I have just described, please direct yourself to the It Gets Better Project. Because it really does.
www.itgetsbetter.org
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