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

Alien vs. non-alien

[redcrosse.livejournal.com]

The difficulty with most "alien"-style horror is that the alien events, creatures, or other phenomena displayed therein tend to find us utterly incomprehensible as well, to the point of taking no active interest of any real kind. As such, the alien only disturbs us directly when it catches us in the whooshings of its vast apparently random alienness. As you suggest, this has a very real cap on how disturbing it can be: the greatest horrific sentiment we can draw from this is "the world and things within it are truly vaster than we are, and we can be harmed by this on occasion." True. Wise, even. But not so horrific.

True horror comes with a one-way comprehension: the alien understands us. Perhaps not completely, certainly not fully enough to give us what we need (or at least, what we want,) but for whatever reason it takes an active and direct interest in our affairs for its own incomprehensible ends (note that by "incomprehensible," I do not necessarily mean "indescribable." Many incomprehensible desires can be put into words.) The alien is still alien, but for whatever reason, it cares, and you don't want that.

The most compelling form of horror, to me, is when known horror, people killing people for accepted human reasons, is taken out of its normally accepted context and made alien by definition within the narrative. (Dogs in the Vineyard, run the way I would see as properly, would be an excellent example of this, though less horrific than some; after all, without some serious conspiracy, the demons aren't on their home turf.) Naturally, I find this sort of horror most appealing and horrific because I have an active belief in the supernatural and alien, and as such find this style more realistic than standard realism; I'm not certain whether this would apply for others.

Re: Alien vs. non-alien

[relevance.livejournal.com]

True horror comes with a one-way comprehension: the alien understands us.

Aralis was perhaps the perfect example of this kind of horror.