‘Public Access Afterworld’ Is a Brilliant Mess That ‘Camp Miasma’ Fans Need to Read ASAP
Filmmaker and author Jane Schoenbrun has released their debut novel, Public Access Afterworld, which draws heavily from their distinctive aesthetic and thematic preoccupations. The novel opens with a 2009 scene featuring two high school outsiders watching the final broadcasts of analog television, when one encounters a mysterious program that destabilizes their sense of self and identity. The encounter fractures their relationship, establishing what Schoenbrun describes as a quintessentially “Schoenbrun moment”—thematic territory familiar to viewers of their breakout film I Saw the TV Glow.
Schoenbrun, who transitioned from film criticism to directing and screenwriting, has established themselves as a significant voice in independent cinema. Their work consistently engages with themes of identity, alienation, and transformation, informed by their own experience as a trans artist. The novel represents an expansion of their artistic practice beyond cinema, bringing their distinctive sensibility to literary form. With Public Access Afterworld, Schoenbrun continues to explore the intersection of media, identity, and psychological fragmentation that has defined their career—concerns particularly resonant for audiences who connected with the haunting, surreal atmosphere of their previous work.