the strangers

06.03.2026

S: Have you ever heard of Freud’s theory of the uncanny?

A: Go on.

S: The doubling of the homely and the unhomely, the familiar and the unfamiliar?

A: Why?

S: It seems to characterise my relationships with this world and its people.

A: In what way?

S: They come into your life. You feel that you know them. But you do not know them. It is the appearance of knowing and familiarity. When, in fact, it is unfamiliarity and unknowing.

A: How much do you need to know about someone?

S: Apparently not that much. Because most relationships are incredibly superficial.

A: You are living in the world of the unfamiliar?

S: Some people, I have known for almost four years or longer. And still, they are not friends. They do not share anything. You cannot share anything with them. You are surrounded in your life by strangers who you kind of know. You are surrounded by the unfamiliar which challenges the boundaries of what is familiar.

A: How does it feel to live in the uncanny?

S: I wonder if it is the predicament of the ethnic minority man. That is what I would imagine. But then, that is what you always have to wonder when you are an ethnic minority man. I wonder if it is because I am different. And I know that it is because I am different. Difference is unacceptable in this culture. You are consigned to look upon them as a different form of life removed from you. And they even have a problem with that, when it is what they have done to you when they made you the outsider.