Let's think of the Truman show for a second, does anyone recall wondering how Truman didnt know his whole life was a lie? Didnt he wonder why certain people said one thing, but clearly felt another? You can hear something someone says and it rings through your mind, but the impact is lost when their emotions and body launguage say the opposite.
People often blame father's for having the words but not the actions. Its a common trope that a lot of people might settle on. Loving somebody with the love they understand is a difficult thing for most. Most people prefer actions but words are easy.
Coming back to the Truman show, did he ever get a "sign" ? Obviously no one ever said it to his face , or the whole movie would be busted. Did any compassionate and/or cruel soul place a flimsy but whimsical sign? Obviously, I havnt seen the movie, but think of a shirt going missing, or a marker that you used to have 4 of. Are these awnsers? Or do they just muddy another sense that you need to count the world as true? See, the thing about Truman is he, as it stands, is a perfectly mentally healthy man. He doesn't hear voices or see anything that isn't there. But he does notice patterns, loops, these loops are the actors running low on script. If you talk to a person for long enough their verbal memory bank of words they have acquired gets old. It gets dry to the point where people are predictable, give someone 100 people to listen too and it takes 2 years. After that time you will notice things being uncanny, they will give you a sense of deja vu.
I'd consider Truman lucky, there are points in the movie, of course. Where Truman sees something that doesn't make sense. A light falling from the sky? thats some cold hard evidence there, but, thats what else Truman has, a set. This set is a dome, meant to contain Trumans world through road blocks and an illuminated sky, hence the light falling from the sky. Now what if Trumans world wasn't contained? What if Trumans life was somehow worse? He goes to work downtown, he lives in a two bedroom downtown. His girlfriend is a cheating whore, paid to sleep the night at Trumans place. His mother is smoke and mirrors, empowering but full of fears. Scared of what he could do or who he could become if the mental cage she is pushed through entrancing him in wasn't so strong. This cage is infinite, it spans the globe. No matter where he goes or who he talks to, its the same game. No one knows... They don't treat Truman like he's aware of the camera that follows him day by day. People gawk and stare from behind his back, but just like DOOM, Trumans world only exists where he can percieve it. Trumans vision is like a projector of another reality. What he sees is one reality, but behind his back, its another.
Now imagine in Trumans world, he isn't followed by video cameras, he doesn't catch little red lights in the corner of book stores. Truman, as it turns out IS the camera. In his head, instead of voices or his own internal monolouge, he has people's words, conversations. He is a man walking around with his head stuck in an aquarium. The people tap on the glass, sometimes they throw rocks and vitriol. But no matter where Truman goes, they are there. Watching.
Now why are those people here? They witness his actions everyday, they hear more than he hears. The noises they play into his head, a cocaphany of tinnitus and radio fuzz, drown out the ability to understand conversation on the other side of Trumans walls.
They are here only to cause Truman harm. People with no rhyme or reason. He's an emotional scapegoat, a human server. They boast and bicker about Trumans lack of money, about his status, and even about his failed relationships. They talk amongst themselves and use Trumans head as an underground chat room. Feeding on Trumans brain power for videos made on imagination.
Now back to the point we missed, how do they "see" Truman? Well only when he looks in the mirror, as they see Trumans world through his own eyes.
This is why Trumans world is only where he can see it, because those who know, know exactly where he has looked, or ever will look.
But here's the thing, Truman, is not a mentally healthy man at all. At least not to himself. Truman as he is aware is a schizophrenic, diagnosed and hospitalized multiple times. Trumans mobile set moves so fluidly because everyone around him is aware he's not a schizophrenic at all.
Yet day by day, he is treated like one.
Now, in a moral standing, who's responsibility is it, to "break" Truman from this gaslighting? Is it his mothers responsibility? The mean things she's done might make a mother feel worse than most. Actors who don't care might feel less guilty, but are they important enough to Truman to fully grasp the seriousness of his reality changing? What about the radio? It gives news to Truman everyday, but does he see it, or rather hear, it? If Trumans world is soaked in lies, does he not reserve the right to ignore the radio? The very world it reported on was a lie, so how does he, trying to break his gaslighting, objectively guess whether this broadcast is real and the others are fake? He can't.
What about a mental health nurse or psychiatrist? The same ones that treat him for his schizophrenia?
Again, what more could I bring up? Can we read his mind too? I hope not...
So what does Truman do? He hears people everyday, if he could recall it would probably be about 25 separate weekly visitors. Not a huge amount but enough to keep Truman in a consistent conversation everyday. He eats Ramen and drinks water, He a diagnosed schizophrenic who gets the food bank delivered to him. He no longer drinks coffee as he is distracted all day. These people trick him into calculated conversations, they want his mind.
But these people know Truman, they are his past life. His friends and family sap his intelligence, knowing they have a brilliant person in a mental cage. They use these ideas and knowledge to there advantage. Claiming it as their own. They claim to want the best for Truman, and they were nice, or good listeners, at times. But they don't seem to value Trumans life. They would rather suck the life from him for entertainment.
Do they really love Truman? They tell him he was meant to die, meant for a sad life. Does this even sit with Truman? Obviously he is entitled to his life and any control he can manage, but emotions are high.
Does he call the cops? He has heard them on his head before. Enough said.
Does he call a government agency? Tough break, who do you think is probably turning his head into a human-server based chat room?
Does he write? The story itself is absurd. I haven't even got half the story down, and they are still in my HEAD.
I obviously have a lot of rambling to do, but some stories are just to crazy...
So, WHO TALKS FIRST?
Okay, so far, Trumans already fucked. Let's breakdown where we are so far:
- Truman has lived his whole life under the impression that everything was normal.
- Truman has believed that his close friends and family were normal.
-Truman has recently stopped working as he is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
- Trumans life isn't normal, he feels he is being watched.
- Trumans friends, family, and government are watching his life through HIS eyes.
- Truman doesn't hear voices, he hears THEM.
- Truman doesn't have a set to escape from, his cage never ends.
- Trumans "voices" like to tell him stories of danger and thrill.
- Truman hears a cacophony of noise, screeching tinnitus and loud TV fuzz.
- Truman can no longer think in his own head.
- Truman has become reclusive.
- Truman is screamed or talked at 24/7.
- Truman sometimes doesn't sleep for 3-5 days in a row.
-Truman has found weak signs that toy with his mind.
- Truman, with no ability to tell if people in his eyes are lying or not, so he thinks everything thats being said through his eyes is real.
- Trumans ideas for science, technology, and art, are stolen through his head.
- Truman is told he is living on borrowed time, he is worthless and meant to die.
- Truman can't go to the cops or any "agency."
- Trumans government is refusing to help.
- Truman struggles to get by on disabilities.
- Truman is fucked.
Not only is Truman fucked, but now, everyone but Truman knows. His daughter he never met knows. She's one of the knew hit shows biggest fans. But mean and rude to say the least. Evil, maybe as she cranks the noise the loudest.
One of Trumans only wins is the "death" of his father. I know, words are easy but actions are hard. Tough luck. Going 200km down a back country road, his father's death would be his stupidity. Cell phone in one hand, gun meant for Trumans head in the other. Truman would hear of him making his way across the country and with perfect timing. Jump scares him... yeah thats it, 6 flips later and unbeknownst to Truman he would take down one of his country's worst serial killers, through his own head, in his own bed.
Truman doesnt get wins though, he's still stuck. In fact we have forgotten some things. But thats the problem, I can't tell you my whole story, you'll scream at me to go back to r/nosleep, if you havnt typed that in the comments already. Even THEY might be to creeped out. We can go back over somethings but, you've gotta be forewarned this story, is balls to walls insane. It may change your life more than mine. Its stranger than fiction...