The Discomfort of Strangers

Robert & Colin: I was SO much more creeped out when I realized that Christopher Walken was in this film.There is NOTHING comforting about the strangers in Ian McEwan’s novel The Comfort of Strangers. Quite the opposite is true for Caroline and, in the end, for Colin as well. McEwan’s novel is really a thriller, or it was for me at least. I finished this novel more quickly than any other we’ve tackled in class. Yes, it’s short, but I’ll say I was quite a bit more interested in finishing this than I was Death in Venice or, dare I say, Daisy Miller. In fact, I jumped on this short work before we had finished talking about To Catch a Predator, Venice Edition.

What I found so thrilling wasn’t the promise of sadomasochism that didn’t manifest until the novel’s close, but the constant, nagging “why” of it all. Colin and Mary are on a positively exhausted trip until a stranger comes into their lives and reinvigorates them, flipping their boring vacation into an exercise in passion. Why does this shady Robert character so affect the non-couple?

The biggest question of the novel is “why return?” Robert’s attention soon turns sinister and menacing but, sure enough, this doesn’t scare Colin or Mary away and Colin pays for it. Personally, this is where the travel connection came in. Forget the hazy Venice setting or the fact that they are on vacation; the real travel theme is buried in the allure of Robert and Caroline.

What this BDSM couple symbolizes is the slightly dangerous lure of the unknown that is deeply seated in the attractiveness of travel. Travelers seek out authentic adventures that border on the dangerous because it is then felt that a true experience is being had. Rather it is spelunking, hiking into wilderness, deep-sea diving, or the like, these forms of travel entice because they are equal parts threatening and rewarding. Colin and Mary can’t be ignorant of the creepiness inherent in Robert’s photography or Caroline’s frank retelling of her injury’s origin, but they pursue more information out of the curiosity that drives us all and kills cats dead. This is the real travel parallel: Robert and Caroline as the elusive, enticing, endangering unkown.