The Ruins and the Problem of Smartphones

I recently finished Scott Smith’s 2006 novel The Ruins. Certainly one of the best horror novels of this century, it sold its pulp story with a straight face, the characterization and atmosphere was done so well that I was completely immersed in the story. It’s a cliché to say that you can’t put a book down…but I couldn’t put The Ruins down.

Though only 11 years old, The Ruins couldn’t be written today. Or perhaps it could be, but it wouldn’t work as successfully. And that’s because of one small detail, one that you might easily miss when reading. It’s something that I call the cell phone (or smartphone) problem.

The plot of The Ruins essentially boils down to six tourists trapped at an archeological dig, held there by Mayan natives. The reasons the Mayans are doing so involves the supernatural element of the plot, which would sound laughably absurd if I described it—just read the book. The tourists are hoping for rescue and trying to stay alive until it comes, though they have only the slimmest of threads to hold onto. Only intending to be gone a day, they have a few supplies—and no cell phones.

Early in the novel it’s mentioned that they don’t have their cell phones with them on this vacation because of concerns about the phones getting stolen as well as the high cost and spotty reception. In 2006 this was absolutely true; smart phones were not quite yet the center of everyone’s universe (though they were getting there) and it was generally advised to leave them behind or pick up a cheap SIM card when you travelled internationally. In short, it is quite easy to believe that these tourists (American, Greek and German) could find themselves out in the Mexican jungle with no cell phones. In 2006.

But in 2017 I don’t think this would hold water. We are much likelier to travel with our phones these days, and reception is much better and constantly improving. You could still make a reasonable argument that if you were out in the jungle you couldn’t get jack for reception, but I think even having the smartphone present would represent a connection to the “real” world and work against the feeling of isolation that is essential for a story like this to work. A skillful author might be able to use the presence of a smartphone as an initial beacon of hope whose non-functionality eventually crushes the spirits of the trapped tourists, but it would be difficult to pull off.

The Ruins works so well because the characters are very real, very normal people. Normal people in an extraordinary (horrifying) situation. In the current renaissance of weird fiction, such stories are falling out of favor, aiming instead for a deep level of surrealism and unease. It’s a matter of taste (I love both approaches) but grounding such tales in the “real” world is becoming increasingly rare. Even a novel that does so, such as John Langan’s excellent 2016 novel The Fisherman, may not spend the whole story ground in this everyday reality. Roughly half of The Fisherman consists of backstory taking place 100 years earlier, and several sections descend into a Lovecraftian otherworld. Though the story takes place in (more or less) present day, it doesn’t feel tied to the “real” world like The Ruins. It doesn’t need that link to succeed, whereas I’d argue it’s essential for the The Ruins.

Anyway, none of this negatively effects The Ruins. I just think it would be much more difficult to pull this story off even a decade later. And I’m having a hard time finding current horror novels ground in reality, so I get pretty excited when a book like The Ruins crosses my path.