Reflections on "Triangle," "Cube," and the Elusive "Normal Life"

The brilliance of "Triangle" and "Cube", from my perspective, lies in their exploration of a modern theme I'm deeply fascinated by: the dialectical opposition between cycles and states of exception, and the collective imagination of a "normal life" that emerges in the context. In this setting, a cycle refers to the "repetitive state", while a state of exception is an "unusual situation". For instance, every Friday after work, you go to the same supermarket to shop for daily necessities. But today, there are more people in line than usual because Thanksgiving is approaching. Here, this unchanging habit of going to the supermarket represents the cycle, Thanksgiving is the state of exception, and the "normal life" refers to the days without Thanksgiving.

But life is often more complex than a simple grocery run. What happens when you live in a world where "every day is Thanksgiving"?

Both films blur the boundaries between states of exception and cycles, creating an absurd space. And the protagonists, trapped in the repetitive states of exception, invariably attempt to break this "cycle", and finally prompting reflections on the "normal life".

"Triangle" presents a microcosm shaped by causal effects, consisting of Random Events (states of exception) and Certain Events (cycles).

Random Events are different outcomes produced by different decisions, akin to the 'if statement' in programming or the concept of a multiverse. For instance, different decisions will result in whether Jess is stabbed or thrown into the sea at gunpoint.

Certain Events(resembling 'loops' in programming or 'Canon Events' for Marvel fans), are both the intersection points of different outcomes, and the encapsulating force that binds all outcomes, like concentric circles enveloping one another. For instance, the Jess who committed murder will always be discovered by the Jess who just boarded the ship; Greg and Jess will inevitably head to room 237.

The film ultimately directs this diagram towards a predetermined output: Jess's obsession with saving her son, Tommy. In this context, the "normal life", or life outside the cycle, is a day where her deceased son is saved, and a new day begins. However, as the film abruptly ends with the onset of a new cycle, it suggests that such a life exists only in Jess's imagination. It seems she must come to terms with the reality of her and her son's deaths and return to that taxi.

When it comes to "Cube", the situation is even more abstract. The film strips away the depiction of life outside the "state of exception", plunging the audience directly into the cyclical chamber. Yet, this doesn't stop those people who are trapped inside the cube from striving to solve the puzzle and escape, driven by a shared imagination of life "outside the cube". At the film's conclusion, the cube's designer, David Worth, highlights the conflict. He expresses his weariness of life outside and believes the imagined "life outside" is merely a larger cube (a cyclical state of exception).

Perhaps after enduring three years of the pandemic, we're all too familiar with the intertwining of states of exception and cycles. We once hoped the pandemic would end in a month or two. But as time went on, we grew accustomed to quarantine, online classes, eating the same food, watching NETFLIX, and the pre-pandemic life began to feel foreign. COVID-19, as an unexpected intruder, forced humanity to inevitably restructure its understanding of modern society. As the pandemic ended, everything seemed to return to normal. Yet, the world have plunged into an even larger cyclical crisis (global conflicts, unemployment, energy crisis).

I'd like to introduce another favorite short story of mine, "The Southern Thruway" by Julio Cortázar. It tells of a group of people driving to Paris, stuck in a traffic jam on the Southern Thruway. During this time, they form a temporary group, reminiscent of wartime communism, to sustain themselves. Yet, once the traffic clears, the protagonist begins to miss life during the jam, pondering, "…why this mad race in the night among unknown cars, where no one knew anything about the others, where everyone looked straight ahead, only ahead."

Indeed, why are we so fixated on a "normal life" outside the state of exception? Interestingly, none of the three works provide a model of "normal life". Instead, they all present a shared metaphor: perhaps the reality is just a larger state of exception, a bigger traffic jam, a grander ship, or a more expansive cube, where no "normal life" exists to choose from.

For the cycle we find ourselves in today, where is the exit? Or should we even be asking where the exit is?