I speaking of the genre here, which makes me wonder if maybe I'm lacking something that makes me effective writer of it.
I just finished up two books by James Herbert "Haunted" and "Ghosts of Sleath." Both are about David Ash, a repressed psychic who is incredible at exposing supernatural frauds but is woefully unprepared for the real deal. The bio blurb called Herbert "Britian's Stephen King." I enjoyed the books, quick, easy reads with a good build up to solid POWS at the end. I'm going to try to watch the movie based on Haunted soon. (I'm prepared, I already found out it has nothing to do with the book and "The Others" actually made a better film of the same theme.)
But I realized after reading these books and after my coworkers talked about horror movies that gave them nightmares, I don't get nightmares from the genre. I don't like the gore fests that the 80s spawned with teen slashers. I'm not completely freaked by Stephen King. Lovecraft can give me the crawlies, but it depends on his word choices. Poe I do get crawlies all over my skin from, but no nightmares.
So looking at what I have written that qualifies as horror: "The Bloody Hand", "Dreams of the Dead", "Elizabeth's Oak", and "Night Storm"--what is missing from the scary equation? Night Storm is a vampire but he wants to be a superhero, so it's a different genre. "The Bloody Hand" was based on a nightmare but the dread factor seems flat.
Herbert and King can make you dread what's coming up. Herbert was very good at that in "Ghosts of Sleath."
Maybe it just goes back to I don't get the everlasting scare out of it.
Read Free!
The BookWorm
1 comment:
I find the idea of being afraid of Cthulhu as ridiculous as expecting Superman to save me. 'Horror' is at best mystery and mythology, I have no idea how someone can be afraid of something they know is just made up.
I'd be afraid if I thought someone was trying to shoot me. I'd be afraid of the wheel flew off of my car while I was going 80. I don't know how I can be afraid of a ridiculous fantasy monster or a preposterous imaginary killer-man.
I don't suspend disbelief. Not going to happen. Wouldn't even know how.
To me, fiction is just kind of a game. I don't know how anyone can take it seriously at all.
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