On Horror

[benlehman]

This is just a thought.

There is a school of horror that is all about squamous things from beyond space and time. It draws its horrific aspect from things that are totally alien to our experience. I'm thinking of Lovecraft, yup, but also others. It is about the alien. We might call it insulated horror.

Also, though, there is another school of horror, which takes the personal or everyday and turns it into a metaphor for something human and horrible that we cannot think about it directly. This is the horror that Polaris has, when it has horror. We might call this subversive horror.

I propose that subversive horror is really just superior. Thoughts?

Comments

[pete-darby.livejournal.com]

Well, you can look at it this way: xenophobia, fear of the alien, (or heterophobia, fear of the different) is probably our oldest horror, and, in a primitive state, the most functional. In it's more common forms, it's also conservative and re-assuring: as long as we stay with our own kind and guard the borders vigilantly, we can protect ourselves from the horrors from outside, whether they are extraterrestrial face eaters or economic migrants.

Meanwhile, internal horror, would be either autophobia (fear of oneself) or the literal translation of homophobia, fear of those like oneself, is radical and progressive: it is the challenge to the status quo, in saying we, ourselves, our society, is a source of horror.

I wouldn't argue that either is superior: the first is more closely wired to our primitive brains but, by extension, the second is more disturbing to our preconceptions. For RPG, the latter is probably heightened in it's effect, because it is the horror filled reaction of the individual to society, whereas the first is the horror filled reaction of society to the individual.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just because I'm a big hippy.

Clearly, a lot of people have thought about this more than I have. This isn't surprising.

yrs--
--Ben