An Incomplete Stranger Things Literature Review

Went poking for Stranger Things analysis. My favorite take so far is a leftist allegorical reading of S1, which posits the convergence of characters upon the mystery plot as the formation of a (frustratingly ephemeral) political group capable of challenging the status quo. Monster Wishes continues this reading through S3.

One reviewer succinctly explains S3's anti-communism metaphor and touches on its anti-consumerism as well—two stances I had a difficult time reconciling by myself, but I like the explanation provided here.

By way of specific characters, I found a strictly diegetic summary of Eleven's trauma and recovery in S1; a psychoanalysis of Eleven in S1–S2 drawing on Jung, Campbell, and Erikson; and one therapist's reading of S2's Mind Flayer as the effects of mental illness on family, friends, and community.

The vaginal and uterine symbolism of S1's Demogorgon and Upside Down is exactly the kind of nonsense I was hoping to find. The author's takeaway begins and ends with "this is because of unconscious misogyny," which I disagree with; nevertheless, the sexed imagery is very much present, and I'm glad someone pointed it out so I don't have to.

I also looked for essays on masculinity, which mostly turned up a bunch of astonishingly bad takes, but this S2 review is decent.

(Thanks, regrettably, to Google for being better than DuckDuckGo at finding niche shit. Also, the first page of search results for "stranger things psychoanalysis" contains the fandom's wiki entry on Murray Bauman, which isn't relevant but is really funny.)