In Nietzsche’s novella, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the protagonist is advised to be cautious when dealing with monsters, and that when he stares into the abyss, that abyss, too, stares back. The line has often been paraphrased to equivocate any kind of void, or looming darkness, and though these are inaccurate, the sense of impending dread is key.

The title of Manuel Munoz’s What You See in the Dark is at the outset of the narrative somewhat mysterious, however, as one reads its curious nature becomes only more and more telling. I have not read far enough to discern what it is exactly Munoz is referring to that the reader of his book will inevitably bear witness to, although, it appears obvious from the alternating second person and third person narration that it is not only a great deal of significance what the reader is left to see, but, moreover, what the characters populating the small town’s Americana are willing to relent.  Munoz writes very cinematically, but his employment of the alternating POV conceit is no doubt literary.

I have read that the title itself could refer to movie viewing, if that is true, I think of the gossip laden tone the narration takes on when describing a sex scene in a drive in movie theater. I also recall the talk which seems to follow the director and his actress about the town. It all appears very voyeuristic the way that the townsfolk linger over demonstrations of public behavior, while simultaneously speculating over any curiosities, drawing opinionated inferences on what could only be private behavior. 

“Small towns are filled with people who notice every little detail,” the scouting director tells his damsel of an actress over lunch at the hotel where she is soon to be immortalized on film by dying infamously. “They make the best kind of audience in some ways, limited as their viewpoints might be.”

The first shot in “Psycho” moves the camera into a motel room to in a way in which we witness the lead actress and her costar amid their love making. The perspective doesn’t so much invite the audience to see their behavior, as they would any other scene, rather than it presents it as a moment between two lovers in which we happen to bear witness. We are in effect, conscripted as voyeurs. After this indoctrinating scene, Hitchcock shoots many other scenes in the film so that it’s the audience who is peering in on the lives of murdered victims as well as murderous insanity.