Probably not recently, and that\u2019s not good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You shouldn’t fill your free moments getting worked up over some Twitter feud or mobile game until you fall asleep at night. It leaves you no time for reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting with a big book for extended periods of time is good for you. It’s doubly good if it makes you ask uncomfortable questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Impressions on Horror<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is horror? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re not an avid reader of the genre, you probably have some general impressions that are wildly skewed. Let\u2019s get rid of those first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, some horror is about making you squirm. There\u2019s a thrill to going into Saw<\/em>, wondering if you\u2019ll be able to \u201chandle\u201d it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll admit to loving the Scream<\/em> and Halloween<\/em> movies as a kid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But this type of horror that\u2019s purely about the blood and guts and torture and killing is a minority these days. Jump scares and gore are techniques. They’re not essentials to the genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of it like elves in fantasy. Sometimes they exist but not all fantasy has elves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You must get this general impression of horror out of your head before we continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll get into the specifics with the case studies below,\nbut here\u2019s roughly how I see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Horror turns psychological fears and trauma into a real, external presence. It lets us directly experience another human\u2019s internal state in a way that other literature can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it does more than that because then it gives action for confronting and overcoming those fears. When done well, horror can make broader societal analogies with these metaphors to bring people to real-world action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since it\u2019s not below, here\u2019s a great example: Clive Barker\u2019s Sacrament<\/em> is about a nature photographer who sees a horrible plague happening to animals in nature. It is set during the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It realizes the horror of human apathy toward the\ndestruction of nature and creates a parallel between the extinction of a\nspecies to the mass epidemic death of the gay community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These two topics, especially in 1996, were hugely important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How could one write about either without some element of horror? It\u2019s a powerful and moving reading experience, and in my mind, it established Barker as a titan of literary fiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet the world at large still thinks of him as a genre writer\nresponsible for Hellraiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More on this later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s now dig into five examples of what I\u2019m talking about. I\u2019ll\nidentify the internal psychology that gets externalize and how this is used in\nthe work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll do three books, one classic movie, and one modern TV\nseries. But I still honestly believe the best experience is reading so that you\ndon\u2019t just passively use the experience as a cheap thrill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There will be mild spoilers so that the interpretation is clear. But, honestly, nothing I write here will ruin the experience of these excellent works of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm<\/em> is one of those movies that returns to us every year. It’s a cult classic staple of Halloween-time viewing without being one of the blockbusters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This bizarre film has a lot going on. The Tall Man lurking around, hooded dwarves, floating killer balls, another dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’ve only seen this once, I can understand if you walked away totally confused. But as soon as you see the film as a realization of the main character’s grief, a lot starts to make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movie starts with a murder and a funeral. Mike is just a boy, and his parents have both passed away. The death is of a friend, but it serves as a stand-in for that grief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The undertaker is the Tall Man, and to children, undertakers are very scary people. They take away loved ones. We have no idea what they do with the bodies. We basically have to trust them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the horror elements in the film all trace back to elements of fear and grief of Mike over his parents. The nightmarish car crashes in the movie are Mike’s vivid re-imagining of how his parents died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dead bodies turning into dwarves are his fear that his parents haven’t been properly buried. Maybe they’re still out there in some other form, even if terrifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The absurd juxtaposition of intense horror with calm comedy reminds us that grief is often like that. One minute it’s all-consuming; another minute we’re lost back in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clive Barker’s epic, yet to be completed trilogy, Books of the Art<\/em>, is not easy to describe. It’s like Gravity’s Rainbow<\/em> had a dark fantasy child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Great and Secret Show<\/a><\/em> has grand conspiracy, metaphysical discussions about other planes of existence, and seizing control of other people’s bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of our greatest fears in modern society have to do with secret power and freedom: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Great and Secret Show<\/em> takes this hidden, powerful world and makes it a reality. A secret society keeps people from finding the dream realm that influences everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two men have access to an evolved way of being and can manipulate people so thoroughly that they drive three girls to carry their babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And all of this is basically in the first few pages!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is some deeply disturbing stuff. It lays bare all these fears in one philosophical concept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And news flash, if you weren’t aware, this secret underworld does exist in the real world and is constantly exerting its power on us without our consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there an answer? Books that give easy answers are giving false answers. But the Art<\/em> is a place to begin. And that’s the whole point of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is going to sound weird, but I remember Stephen King’s Needful Things<\/a> <\/em>as being the first adult novel I read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I found it at the library, and the librarian actually asked my mom if it was okay if I read it before allowing me to check it out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was 11. It was a reasonable question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She had no idea what it was or why someone would ask that. The only thing that must have been going through her mind was: <\/p>\n\n\n\n My 11-year-old wants to read a 700-page novel for fun, don’t ruin this!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Needful Things<\/em> has a simple idea that has been explored through the ages: what are you willing to do for something you want? Think of it as a longer, more graphic version of Steinbeck’s The Pearl<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Allowing this to play out in a horror novel ups the stakes. Instead of a tragic incident leaving the characters in sadness having learned their lesson, this novel just escalates without end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the real world, people often don’t realize how their greed has affected others. They don’t learn their lesson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one of literature’s best features. It lets you experience situations before they happen. If you can’t find a bit of yourself in these characters, you probably aren’t very self-aware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of the brilliance of this version of the parable is that the “needful things” are so trivial and useless. We, as the reader, can see this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The revelation of the book is realizing that all non-essentials are trivial and useless. You may want it, but it’s not worth selling your soul over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan Simmons’ The Terror<\/a><\/em> is a remarkable feat: historical fiction with a fantasy\/horror twist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain Sir John Franklin’s trip to the arctic in search of the Northwest Passage would have been terrifying enough if Simmons had stuck to a strict historical accounting: desperate starvation turning to cannibalism for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, no offense to the real-world people who have had to go through these things, my first reaction is to yawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This story has been written many, many times: Alive<\/em>, Flyboys<\/em>, Miracle in the Andes<\/em>, Desperate Passage<\/em>, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole point of this article is that horror can do things other genres aren’t allowed to do, and historical fiction isn’t allowed to have the Tuunbaq, a product of the Inuit gods that has taken the form of a bear and feeds on human souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only is this a beautiful way to embrace the setting of the novel, it externalizes the expedition’s desperation for survival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Readers aren’t just horrified and grossed out by what is going on as in the other listed books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We, as readers, actually feel this dread creeping on us. Like it could get us at any moment. The people on the expedition could lose their souls and eat another human if the desperation got bad enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way this fantastical being stalks the group realizes the psychological state with an external manifestation. It lets a reader feel something rather than watch from a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone who has watched Netflix’s recent show, The Haunting of Hill House<\/em>, can attest to what a tour de force it is. I know it was originally a book, but this version draws out certain themes in new ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each character sees demons related to their psychological\nproblems, but let\u2019s focus on Luke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke is an addict through and through. Over the course of the series, he goes in and out of facilities to get help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditionally, characters like Luke, no matter how\nempathetic the author, tend to come across as weak and unrelatable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You want to shake them and scream: Why do you keep going back? What is your problem? Are you even trying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, Infinite Jest<\/a><\/em> is one of my favorite novels, but nothing, and I mean nothing, even comes close to how well this show portrays addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll experience the same cold sweats of panic and fear when\nthat horrific demon creeps up on him. That\u2019s his addiction. Even when he\u2019s been\nsober for 90 days, it lurks back there, ready to engulf him and destroy his\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke tries and tries to get away. He faces away from it and counts and paces. But it lurks there. It\u2019s outside of him and there\u2019s nothing in his power to fix that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not that his will is weak or that he\u2019s not taking his recovery seriously. It\u2019s that the specter of addiction is infinitely powerful and persistent and will strike at the tiniest of openings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t feel that sense of dread during these scenes,\nyou\u2019ve lost your humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Horror as a literary genre is uniquely poised to penetrate our glazed-over eyes. It can shock us into thinking about difficult topics and drive us into action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But mostly, it can give us empathy for the other. It gets us closer to experiencing unimaginable psychological states than any other art can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know what some of you are thinking: you’re referring to themes and symbols and metaphors. These devices have been used for centuries in mainstream literature. You shouldn’t praise a genre for having minimal literary standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s not what this is about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s about letting us get into the heads of people experiencing true psychological trauma, not with cliche voice-over, but by externalizing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Would you sell your soul for consumeristic pleasures? Well, that’s not just a turn of phrase in Needful Things<\/em>; it’s literal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of watching The Politician<\/em> with detached awe and fascination, we should feel a visceral dread and terror at that type of power trip as we do in The Great and Secret Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside of some experimental non-horror literature, this type of technique in writing has not been done much or well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s wake up, ask the big questions, and heaven-forbid, actually feel something for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s that time of the year again. Halloween is around the corner, and horror films fill our recommended viewing on the streaming platforms. Even book bloggers and vloggers join in with recommended horror novels. In this article, I hope to convince you that horror is the perfect literary genre for our current moment. They aren’t … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amindformadness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/horror-literary-genre.jpg?fit=1355%2C897&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11908"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11917,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11908\/revisions\/11917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}So: What is this enlightenment you claim horror provides?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Five Case Studies from the Past Four Decades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Grief in Phantasm<\/em> (1979)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Power in The Great and Secret Show<\/em> (1989)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No. <\/p>\n\n\n\nGreed in Needful Things<\/em> (1991)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Desperation in The Terror<\/em> (2007)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Addiction in The Haunting of Hill House<\/em> (2018)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"horror:](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amindformadness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/horror-literary-importance.jpg?resize=342%2C512&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"