Chapter 1
By: Alexander Holmes
“For there be diverse sorts of death
-- some wherein the body remaineth; and in some it vanisheth quite away with the spirit. This commonly occurreth only in solitude (such is God's will) and, none seeing the end, we say the man is lost, or gone on a long journey -- which indeed he hath; but sometimes it hath happened in sight of many, as abundant testimony showeth. In one kind of death the spirit also dieth, and this it hath been known to do while yet the body was in vigour for many years. Sometimes, as is veritably attested, it dieth with the body, but after a season is raised up again in that place where the body did decay”
This is the opening paragraph of the short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa.” Written by Ambrose Bierce. And it is in here that we find the emotional through-line of Returnal, and Housemargue's new game, Saros. Carcosa, is the name shared by both the mysterious city that the protagonist of the short story found themselves in and the planet we now return to for a fourth time.
It expresses an intimate concern between two kinds of death. The death of the body, and the death of the soul. The Inhabitant of Carcosa gives us precious little prose to understand why the protagonist in this strange land. Like a Lovecraftian expedition journal, it is far more concerned about describing the environment. Observing what may be of use to survival. And falling accidentally into poetry and metaphor when faced with the indescribable. The external world becomes a metaphor for one’s internal experience.
Perhaps because this style of prose is also seen quite often with works of the New Strange genre of Sci-Fi, games like Returnal and books like Annihilation, it is perhaps easy to see death of the spirit as a metaphor for mental health. Struggles born of Traumatic events.
“my family had told me that in my periods of delirium I had constantly cried out for liberty and air, and had been held in bed to prevent my escape out-of-doors. Now I had eluded the vigilance of my attendants and had wandered hither”
It is also easy to see an allegory for psychotherapy. In stories, a metaphorical vision quest is meant to bring a person to greater strength and restored vigor, to itself allegorize the methods of treatment and therapy as recovery.
And with that allegory, a power fantasy. That overcoming the trials will be met with a great reward. That illness is something to fight. That all the struggle is leading to the appropriate, narrative climax at the peak of the hero's journey.
That the act of getting better at gameplay means getting better as a person.
In the middle of Returnal, players are, in a way, tricked into believing that they have bested the game. The first three stages of the game see our protagonist, Selene Vassos breaking through barriers, crossing a desert, and climbing to the peak of a mountain. Signaling for a rescue. Coming home. And living life as a person on Earth again. Not stranded on Carcossa. A normal, healthy person. Only, upon observing her own death, perhaps real or perhaps imaginary, Selene relapses.
“Glittering particles of mica were visible in the earth about it-vestiges of its decomposition.”
So what does that make of everyone else? What if collecting all the glittering pieces of mica doesn't function as experience points on the character sheet of life? If illness is a fight, what does it say of the losers? What lack of empathy is needed to describe death as a failure?
Hmm. But sometimes, after a season, the spirit “raised up again in that place where the body did decay.” The body did decay…
The cold, rational, and scientific way of thinking, I think, fails to experience what that journey is like.
“As I await my final crossing to the past, I ponder what role a scientist may play in so spiritual a matter as ‘absolution’. How in the alchemy of the soul, even repentance must necessarily be a calculated task.”
When recovery, going back to what once was, is not possible (and it often is not possible) the goal must be change. The kind of change that comes from decay. The kind of decay that nourishes the soil, and raises up the soul.
That healing means embracing the cycle of decay and growth. That life with illness is just as valuable as life without.
“And then I knew that these were ruins of the ancient and famous city of Carcosa.”
The second half of Returnal is less triumphant, but more honest. A downward plunge into the depths of the planet. Deep beneath its oceans of darkness. Surrounded by aliens that mimic the monsters of the seas. And finally by monsters that mimic me. Selene ends the game by facing the reality of what happened to her. To her family. To her daughter. Who is at fault, even after understanding all the reasons that brought Selene to that moment. The trauma of generations compounded into the trauma of a single moment.
With the game’s abrupt ending, Returnal is asking the player a very stark and very hurtful question. Healing is off the table. Absolution is impossible. Does a person living on Carcossa share the same right to live as any other person?
Is a broken person as much a person as any other? Deserving of the same dignity and respect as any other?
Even while my rational mind and my practical gut say no. My heart says yes. And I know which voice matters most in this moment.
It is in forgetting the value of a person, when the psyche is otherwise preoccupied, that causes the mind to Become Horror.
Thank you for watching,
Take care of yourselves
and stay true.