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

[bob-goat.livejournal.com]

Bah. There is no man behind the curtain. No monsters under the bed. Only human beings fucking over other human beings. That's the real horror. How truly evil we all are if we lose control of that little moral compass inside.

<>

[nikotesla.livejournal.com]

Well, fair enough. Psycho is an excellent example of that, if you look through the decades of knockoffs.

Now I really want to see some Under the Bed Actual Play from you. I want to see it used for human horror. (Not that the issue last time wasn't "Am I responsible for Mom and Dad's divorce?")

I'm posting this on Ben's Lj because I want him to read the notes and respond.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, man, let me fucking do my paying work and finish my own game first.

yrs--
--Ben

[bob-goat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it got eaten by my use of "<" but I did dowload and skim it this morning and want to give it a go this weekend. It all depends on if I finish work around the house (I got like 10 projects).

[nikotesla.livejournal.com]

(and the man behind the curtain is the human fucking over people: it's the wizard who's an illusion)