There is this idea that a perfect society where everyone is happy and does not face struggles is an achievable thing. In Cereus Blooms at Night, the wetlanders see their actions as moving towards that perfect society. When they invite Chandin to come to live with them, they believe they are doing something that is moving them toward a perfect society. In Don’t Worry Darling, at first it seems like they are living in a utopia, but it is actually a simulation that half of them do not know they are in.
When the Thoroughlys have Chandin come and live with them, they convert him to their religion and make him shun his family. To the wetlanders, if someone does not fit what they think is the right way to live, that person must be changed. In Don’t Worry Darling a bunch of men kidnap women they want to be their wives and put them into a simulated eutopia. The world is very heteronormative, there are only heterosexual couples, and the men go to work well the women stay at home. Everyone acts extremely happy and grateful to be apart of this society. When the main character starts to get suspicious and ask questions she is taken away and reprogrammed with electroshock to forget about the real world.
When the women are kidnapped in Don’t Worry Darling and when Chandin goes to live with the Thoroughlys they are being treated like they are unable to decide what they want. I think there is this idea that people who are apart of minorities do not have the ability to make their own decisions. Women don’t know that they actually want to be stay at home moms and take care of the household, they need to be shown that that is what they want. Chandin doesn’t know that the religion he grew up with is the wrong way to worship, he needs to be shown the correct way to worship a god. Utopian societies with a messed-up secret are a genre of horror movies. I think this is because society cannot be perfect, especially when everyone acts the same.
The connection you make to the movie Don’t Worry Darling, honestly caught me by surprise. I feel like other movies could be a faster connection to the book. I am curious as to why you specifically chose to compare it to Don’t Worry Darling when there is so much more depth in Cereus Blooms at Night. I agree with the arguments you made above regarding there being a “right way to live” in both stories and that is a connection I wouldn’t have been able to pull on my own. I want to know what other movies you could connect this to.
This connection is really interesting, and I think your final paragraph really drives home the similarities and impact of this. Both fictionally and historically, utopia has been framed as perfect, but it is almost always based on the oppression and ruling of minority groups. In some ways, utopia is just a distorted dystopia, presented as ideal while covering up the “ugly” parts (your horror movie point really hits here!).
I really like you last paragraph and your connection to Don’t Worry Darling. I think you make a really interesting point at the end when you talk about how utopian societies are their own genre of horror movies. I wonder why we have such an obsession to create films, books, and TV shows about utopian societies. I think that it is really interesting that we are obsessed with imaging different type of societies, making them perfect, and then showcasing their flaws. In a way, this makes it seem like we are in the best society since all of the utopian ones we have conjured up have failed. I am not sure where I am going with this thought, but I thought your post was really interesting.
Within Cereus Blooms at Night, I think Mala’s garden can be viewed as an alternative – and possibly even truer – representation of utopia. As we see in both this novel and Don’t Worry Darling, the idea of utopia is so often problematic because the people with the ability to make their utopia reality are always the ones who hold power. As you write, their utopias often come at the cost of other people. Mala’s garden, on the other hand, provides a peaceful escape for her, and at no cost to anyone else. This natural space, which parallels the garden of Eden, is where everything is allowed to flourish and coexist their most natural states.
This connection is so interesting and was so fun to read, i think the theme of autonomy and who gets to make decisions on behalf of others is also reflected in the medical facility where Tyler works. Specifically when Mala first arrives and the head nurse tells Tyler that their patients are like children, in need of discipline and not capable of making their own choices. This is a very real and disturbing ideology present in nursing homes and hospitals, and the brutality and cruelty of the restraints placed on Mala, an innocent and traumatized woman, show how little the hospital cares about her as a human.