Calling the monster what it is: cancer

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Graphic by Meaghan Ince

I recently saw a film about the trials a young child experiences once a family member is affected by โ€œthe illness.โ€ The protagonist of this story had to watch in disbelief as โ€œthe big oneโ€ took hold of his mother and she grew weaker and paler after every โ€œtreatmentโ€ failed and every โ€œmedicineโ€ had no effect.

The film is trying to open a dialogue with a young, impressionable audience about the feelings they might experience when something as close to them as their own mother gets diagnosed with โ€œit.โ€

That movie was J.A. Bayonaโ€™s A Monster Calls. Oh and by the way, if you didnโ€™t catch it, the mother has cancer.

I must admit, even though I was engrossed in the filmโ€™s blending of fantasy elements and all too real subject matter, I was baffled that within Patrick Nessโ€™s moving script, the word โ€œcancerโ€ never makes an appearance.

It becomes painfully obvious that the mission of the film was to never give a name to its subject matter (a he-who-must-not-be-named, if you will) and instead perform a Mad-Lib-esque gymnastics to avoid saying the C-word in all its ugliness.

Anyone who knows the steps the film does to dance around the disease would be in the know. But I began to wonder about the younger audience in the theatre with me โ€” the intended audience.

Why shield them from the all too real truth that, as statistics show, they in all likelihood have tangentially come into contact with?

The film pretends to be straightforward with its audience and prepare to tackle the issue, but canโ€™t drop the โ€œyouโ€™ll understand when youโ€™re olderโ€ mentality and give a name to its source of drama.

Because of this, how can we be expected to apply it to our own all-too-real lives?

This is what a film like A Monster Calls is supposed to do for us: to become our reference point to use for our own lives.

Popular media is a teacher in its own right to the young. Itโ€™s where we learn morals, identities, behaviours and how our decision making gets primarily influenced.

So by not saying the word โ€œcancerโ€ and treating your audience with respect enough to handle the hard lesson, youโ€™ve deprived them of internalizing or relating to your message.

What if the kid didnโ€™t pick up on the subtle nudges and winks you used to signal โ€œcancerโ€? What if they felt condescended to like you gave them too little credit when theyโ€™ve already lost someone to the disease?

I am not asking for you to stop your movie and offer a lecture on โ€œthe illness.โ€ All I want is for you to give it a name so we can move away from these hush-hush attitudes and really talk about it.

If you donโ€™t, your film will never resonate because youโ€™ve denied it the impact it could have in being true to life.

Cancer, cancer, cancer โ€” see how easy that is to print? The hard thing is actually experiencing and dealing with it, either in yourself or a loved one.

That is why we need popular media in all forms to help soften the blow without ever trying to deny us our reality.


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