Over a year ago, I completed a script titled “Strangers,” a
psychological thriller in which the lead character, Joel, visualizes a
world where everyone wears a mask on his face. Joel is unable to relate
to anyone because the only face he can see is his own. Amid the Covid-19
pandemic, the world has found itself in an eerily similar scenario.
Nearly every person in Manhattan wears a mask these days. What was once
my creative fantasy has become a terrifying reality.
The crisis has changed the concept of “stranger” in New York. Seeing
another person’s face usually sets us at ease, allowing us to learn
something about how the other person is feeling, his personality, and
his intentions. That’s gone. We have become fearful of one another. We
make sure to stay far apart not just because of the virus but also
because now there’s an element of the unknown in every person. Humans
are social creatures; we communicate in subtle ways through expression
and tone of voice. Now it’s hard to talk with anyone. Muffled voices
sound on the streets. Paranoia ranges freely. Manhattan’s social
character has been completely transformed. We have all been pushed into a
world not unlike Joel’s.
When I wrote the script, I loved the idea of someone unable to
communicate by seeing other people’s faces. Now, not so much. I thought
it was a fantastic idea for a movie; it isn’t so good for real life.
Joel finds himself staying mostly inside because of the terror he
faces in the outside world. He grows desperate and depressed. For
entertainment, he browses animal videos. His apartment is a mess
because, despite having ample time to clean it, he’s too despondent to
care. Self-isolation has driven him into a maddening boredom. Joel’s
best “friend” is a poster of a cat he has named Zanny, to whom he
expresses his thoughts and feelings. But Zanny can’t give Joel the
social interaction he needs.
All of this has become a bit too real. We hold birthday parties over
Skype. We dive deep into movies and YouTube videos. Everyone is bored
and getting more frustrated at the lack of stimulation. It feels as if
we’ve entered an alternative reality, in which we’re allowed only
glimpses of real interaction.
In my script, I envisioned a huge “reveal,” just as Joel exits the
subway into Columbus Circle: every person outside is casually wearing a
mask, going about their business. The reality is somehow scarier. Once
heavily populated areas now stand nearly empty. People haul huge carts
of food home so that they don’t have to go outside again for weeks. They
stand in huge lines outside supermarkets, staying several feet away
from one another.
Mark Twain’s well-known quote—“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it
is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth
isn’t”—will never cease to be relevant. It’s all somehow much more
bizarre than I could’ve conjured. Never could I have anticipated that
the world would actually be filled with people wearing masks. It was
supposed to be a movie script! It was supposed to be thought-provoking,
not life-changing. Reality took my fictional idea of one man seeing the
world in a horrific way and made it into truth, for everyone.
Matthew Torres is a writer in New York
https://www.city-journal.org/new-york-city-masks
