Sunday, September 20, 2009

Table of Contents

Click the link associated with the article that you want to read.


Chillers and Thrillers: The Fiction of Fear
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/chillers-and-thrillers-fiction-of-fear.html

How To Create Monstrous Monsters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-create-monstrous-monsters.html

Basic Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Plots
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/basic-fantasy-science-fiction-and.html

Plausible Motivations
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/plausible-motivations.html

What’s So Scary About Horror Movies?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/copyright-2007-by-gary-l.html

Come On, People, Don’t You Look So Down; the Rain Man’s Coming To Town
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/come-on-people-dont-you-look-so-down.html

Fill in the Blanks (Don’t Panic; It’s Not a Quiz)
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/fill-in-blanks-dont-panic-its-not-quiz.html

Metaphorical Monsters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/metaphorical-monsters.html

Understanding Monsters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/understanding-monsters.html

Why Monsters? Why Metaphor?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/why-monsters-why-metaphors.html

Nature and Nurture: Character and Setting as Destiny
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/nature-and-nurture-character-and.html

The God of Desperation
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/god-of-desperation.html

Dream Monsters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/dream-monsters.html

Plotting Horror Fiction: The Invasion Plot
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/plotting-horror-fiction-invasion-plot.html

Evil Is As Evil Does
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/evil-is-as-evil-does.html

Value as a Clue to Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/value-as-clue-to-horror.html

Toppers
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2007/12/toppers.html

The Horror of Time and Place
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/horror-of-time-and-place.html

The Horror of the Incongruous
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/horror-of-incongruous.html

Imagining the Monster, Part I
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/imagining-monster-part-i.html

Imagining the Monster, Part II
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/imagining-monster-part-ii.html

Imagining the Monster, Part III
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/imagining-monster-part-iii.html

Not Everyone Loves A Victim
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/not-everyone-loves-victim.html

Beowulf: The Prototypical Monster Killer
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/beowulf-prototypical-monster-killer.html

Body Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/body-horror.html

Mark Twain’s “Rules Governing Literary Art”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/mark-twains-21-rules-for-literary-art.html

Inner Demons
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/inner-demons.html

Writing as a Schizophrenic, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/writing-as-schizophrenic.html

A History of Hell, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/history-of-hell-part-i.html

A History of Hell, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/history-of-hell-part-ii.html

A History of Hell, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/history-of-hell-part-iii.html

Evil as a Threat to Social or Communal Values
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/evil-as-threat-to-social-or-communal.html

How To Rob a Grave
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-rob-grave.html

Writing as a Schizophrenic, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/writing-as-schizophrenic-part-ii.html

There’s Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself: Preying Upon People’s Phobias
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/theres-nothing-to-fear-but-fear-itself.html

The Horror of the Wax Museum
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/horror-of-wax-museum.html

The Underbelly of the Bug-Eyed Monster Movie
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/horror-of-wax-museum.html

The Monsters Within
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/monsters-within.html

Describing Horrific Scenes
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/describing-horrific-scenes.html

The Role of the Back Story
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/role-of-back-story.html

Poe and King: Two Unlikely Beauties
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/poe-and-king-two-unlikely-beauties.html

The Appeal of the Esoteric
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/appeal-of-esoteric.html

Solipsism, Claustrophobia, Vampires, and Zombies
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/solipsism-claustrophobia-vampires-
and.html


Everyday Horrors: Gargoyles
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/everyday-horrors-gargoyles.html

Everyday Horrors: Tombstones
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/everyday-horrors-tombstones.html

Everyday Horrors: Crawlspaces
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/everyday-horrors-crawlspaces.html

A Descent into the Horrors of Extreme Feminism
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/descent-into-horrors-of-extreme.html

Everyday Horrors: Coffins
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/everyday-horrors-coffins.html

The Guide to Supernatural Fiction: A Review, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/01/guide-to-supernatural-fiction-review.html

The Guide to Supernatural Fiction: A Review, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/guide-to-supernatural-fiction-review.html

The Encyclopedia of Monsters: A Review
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/encyclopedia-of-monsters-review.html

Everyday Horrors: The Electric Chair
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-electric-chair.html

Everyday Horrors: Worms
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-worms.html

Everyday Horrors: Giant Animals
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-giant-animals.html

Buber, Bosch, Giger, et. al.: The Face in the Mirror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/buber-bosch-giger-et-al-face-in-mirror.html

Conversation Partners: Creating Mars and Venus
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/conversation-partners-creating-mars-and.html

Foiled Again
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/foiled-again.html

Rene Magritte: The Horror of the Surreal
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/rene-magritte-horror-of-surreal.html

“Hop-Frog”: A Story of Reversals
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/hop-frog-story-of-reversals.html

Everyday Horrors: Frogs
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-frogs.html

Total Institutions as Horror Settings
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/total-institutions-as-horror-story.html

Everyday Horrors: Anglerfish
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-anglerfish.html

Mad Science
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/mad-science.html

Alternative Explanations, Part 1: Demons and Ghosts
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/alternative-explanations-part-i-demons.html

Alternative Explanations, Part 2: Clairvoyants
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/alternative-explanations-part-ii.html

Alternative Explanations, Part 3: Telekinetic and Levitating Characters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/alternative-explanations-part-iii.html

Alternative Explanations, Part IV: Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/alternative-explanations-part-iv.html

Everyday Horrors: Cornfields
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-cornfields.html

Everyday Horrors: Skeletons
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-skeletons.html

Everyday Horrors: Nightmares
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-nightmares.html

Everyday Horrors: Teenagers and Young Adults
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-teenagers-and-young.html

A Sense of Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/sense-of-horror.html

Ideas That Don’t Work
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/ideas-that-dont-work.html

Buffy and Kendra: They Just Slay Me!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/buffy-and-kendra-they-just-slay-me.html

Identifying Elements of the Horrific
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/identifying-elements-of-horrific.html

Everyday Horrors: The Atomic Bomb
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-atomic-bomb.html

Everyday Horrors: Plagues
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-plagues.html

Everyday Horrors: Gangs
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-gangs.html

Creating an Eerie Atmosphere and Tone
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/creating-eerie-atmosphere-and-tone.html

Everyday Horrors: Autopsies
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/everyday-horrors-autopsies.html

Horror Movie Remakes
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/horror-movie-remakes.html

Scream Queens
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/02/scream-queens.html

Early Body Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/early-body-horror.html

Leftover Plots, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/leftover-plots-part-i.html

Free Horror Films, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/free-horror-films-part-i.html

Free Horror Films, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/free-horror-films-part-ii.html

Free Horror Films, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/free-horror-films-part-iii.html

Leftover Plots, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/leftover-plots-part-ii.html

Unfinished Plots: The Cliffhanger
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/unfinished-plots-cliffhanger.html

Everyday Horrors: Zombies
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/unfinished-plots-cliffhanger.html

Visualizing Horror: Movie Posters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/visualizing-horror-movie-posters.html

Movie Posters: Visualizing Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/movie-posters-visualizing-horror_9905.html

Fear: A Cultural History: A Partial Review and Summary, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/fear-cultural-history-partial-review_08.html

Fear: A Cultural History: A Partial Review and Summary, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/fear-cultural-history-partial-review_6575.html

Fear: A Cultural History: A Partial Review and Summary, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/fear-cultural-history-partial-review_09.html

Borderlands: Realms of Gold? Okay, Maybe They’re Realms of Pyrite, But They Still Glitter Pretty Well
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/borderlands-realms-of-gold-okay-maybe.html

Everyday Horrors: Plants
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/everyday-horrors-plants.html

Everyday Horrors: Mummies
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/everyday-horrors-mummies.html

Download Free Stories
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/download-free-stories.html

Everyday Horrors: Castles and Hotels
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/everyday-horrors-castles-and-hotels.html

Everyday Horrors: Bureaucrats
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/everyday-horrors-bureaucrats.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural_16.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/copyright-2008-by-gary-l.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly, Part 4
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural_18.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly, Part 4
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural_9184.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly, Part 5
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural_4152.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldy, Part 6
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural_19.html

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldy, Part 7
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/dictionary-of-paranormal-supernatural_1995.html

Leftover Plots, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/leftover-plots-part-iii.html

Leftover Plots, Part 4
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/leftover-plots-part-iii.html

The Monster as the Mirror of the Protagonist’s Soul
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/monster-as-mirror-of-protagonists-soul.html

Paranormal and Supernatural Hoaxes
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/paranormal-and-supernatural-hoaxes.html

Buffy: More than Pastiche
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/buffy-more-than-pastiche.html

Creating Mood in Horror Fiction
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/creating-mood-in-horror-fiction.html

Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments as a Hermeneutics for Horror Fiction
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/adam-smiths-theory-of-moral-sentiments.html

The Cliffhanger
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/cliffhanger.html

More Free Books
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-free-books.html

Horror by the Slice: “The Lurking Fear”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/horror-by-slice-lurking-fear.html

Masters of the Macabre
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/masters-of-macabre.html

The Nature of the Beast
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/03/nature-of-beast.html

A Catalogue of Vulnerabilities
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/when-one-considers-variety-of-ways-in.html

Everyday Horrors: The Police
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/everyday-horrors-police.html

Everyday Horrors: Killer Bees
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/everyday-horrors-killer-bees.html

How to Haunt a House, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-haunt-house-part-i.html

How to Haunt a House, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-haunt-house-part-ii.html

How to Haunt a House, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-haunt-house-part-iii.html

How to Haunt a House, Part 4
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-haunt-house-part-iv.html

How to Haunt a House, Part 5
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-haunt-house-part-v.html

Psychic Vampirism in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Oval Portrait”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/psychic-vampirism-in-edgar-allan-poes.html

Horror Art: Attraction and Repulsion
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/psychic-vampirism-in-edgar-allan-poes.html

Horror Fiction and the Problem of Evil
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/horror-fiction-and-problem-of-evil.html

“The Philosophy of Composition” and “The Red Room”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/philosophy-of-composition-and-red-room.html

“The Hollow of the Three Hills”: Hell on Earth
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/hollow-of-three-hills-hell-on-earth.html

Everyday Horrors: Forensic Etomology and Putrefaction
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/everyday-horrors-forensic-etomology-and.html

The Heart of Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/heart-of-horror.html

Guest Speaker: Edgar Allan Poe on Nathaniel Hawthorne
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/04/guest-speaker-edgar-allan-poe-on.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Notes on Writing
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft-notes-on.html

Flowers of Evil: Horror Film Anthologies
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/flowers-of-evil-horror-film-anthologies.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_05.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_585.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 4
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_6743.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 5
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_8132.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 6
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_9437.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 7
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_5904.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 8
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_1077.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 9
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_1971.html

Guest Speaker: H. P. Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature, Part 10
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-speaker-h-p-lovecraft_6645.html

Contemporary Horror Fiction Bookshelf
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/contemporary-horror-fiction-bookshelf.html

Going Through the Motions, or the Physics of Fiction
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/going-through-motions-or-physics-of.html

Fictional Stories as Thought Experiments
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/fictional-stories-as-thought.html

Tag! You’re It!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/tag-youre-it.html

Threat Recognition: Keeping It Real
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/threat-recognition-keeping-it-real.html

A Certain Slant of Light
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/certain-slant-of-light.html

Frazetta: Work That Is Beautiful Even When Horrific
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/frazetta-work-that-is-beautiful-even.html

Julie Bell:Hard Curves, Soft as Steel”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/julie-bell-hard-curves-soft-as-steel.html

Everyday Horrors: Abandoned Houses
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/05/everyday-horrors-abandoned-houses.html

Purposeful, Frightening Scenes
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/purposeful-frightening-scenes.html

Beginnings: How Would You Finish the Story?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/beginnings-how-would-you-finish-story.html

Middles: How Would You Finish the Story?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/middles-how-would-you-finish-story.html

Endings: How Would You Finish the Story?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/endings-how-would-you-finish-story.html

The Feminization of Horror: The Horror! The Horror!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/feminization-of-horror-horror-horror.html

Horror and Magritte’s Visual Loans
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/horror-and-magrittes-visual-koans.html

Everyday Horrors: Psychopaths
http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=3339553278765301079

Thinking of Seeing “The Happening”? Save Your Money!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/thinking-of-seeing-happening-save-your.html

“The Hungry Stones”: An Open-Ended Conclusion
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/hungry-stones-open-ended-conclusion.html

“The Addams Family” Technique
http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=3339553278765301079

Explanations for Evil, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/explanations-for-evil.html

Explanations for Evil, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/explanations-for-evil-part-ii.html

Horror Is (Undesirable) Otherness
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/horror-is-undesirable-otherness.html

Scientists: Ghosts and Vampires Need Not Apply
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/scientists-ghosts-and-vampires-need-not.html

Perennial Favorites
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/perennial-favorites.html

The Fatal Flaw, Part the First
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/fatal-flaw-part-first.html

The Fatal Flaw, Part the Second
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/fatal-flaw-part-second.html

Guest Speaker: Robert Bloch
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/guest-speaker-robert-bloch.html

Verizon’s Version of Horror: The Dead Zone Advertisement
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/verizons-version-of-horror-dead-zone.html

Everyday Horrors: Masks
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/everyday-horrors-masks_26.html

Subliminal Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/subliminal-horror.html

Sexploitation Horror Films: Sexing It Up
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/sexploitation-horror-films-sexing-it-up.html

Bases For Fear, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/07/bases-for-fear-part-i.html

Bases For Fear, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/bases-for-fear-part-ii.html

Bases For Fear, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/bases-for-fear-part-iii.html

Horrific Poems: A Sampler
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/horrific-poems-sampler.html

Sexing it Up, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/sexing-it-up-part-ii.html

Nothing Gets Between a Monster and Its Genes
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/nothing-gets-between-monster-and-its.html

Charles Baudelaire’s “Carrion”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/charles-baudelaires-carrion.html

The Etymology of Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/etymology-of-horror.html

Sex Demons: Incubi and Succubae
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/sex-demons-incubi-and-succubae.html

“The Birth of Monsters” and Other Poems
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/birth-of-monsters-and-other-poems.html

The Fine Line Between Humor and Horror: Finding the Vein
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/fine-line-between-humor-and-horror.html

Little on “The Collection”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/little-on-collection.html

Bentley Little’s “Collection”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/bentley-littles-collection.html

Intriguing Chapter Titles
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/intriguing-chapter-titles.html

“Heavy-Set”: Learning From the Masters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/heavy-set-learning-from-masters.html

Tentacles, of Themselves, Do Not a Horror Movie Make
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/08/tentacles-of-themselves-do-not-horror.html

“The Academy”: Learning From the Masters
http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=3339553278765301079

“The Academy”: Learning From the Masters, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/academy-learning-from-masters-part-2.html

Femme Fatales
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/femme-fatales.html

Frustrating Formulaic
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/frustrating-formulaic-fiction.html

Story Deck
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/story-deck.html

Toward a Taxonomy of Horror Fiction
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/toward-taxonomy-of-horror-fiction.html

Images of Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/images-of-horror-part-ii.html

The Form and Function of the Alien Menace
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/form-and-function-of-alien-menace.html

Hell on Earth
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/09/hell-on-earth.html

Plot Meets Laws of Motion
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/plot-meets-laws-of-motion.html

The Rhetoric of Emotion
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/rhetoric-of-emotion.html

What’s So Weird About Weird Tales?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/whats-so-weird-about-weird-tales.html

Nocturnal Suicide: An Almost-Story Born of Mere Description
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/nocturnal-suicide-almost-story-born-of.html

The Home and the Lair, or Heaven and Hell
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/home-and-lair-or-heaven-and-hell.html

The Protagonist’s Emotional Arc
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/protagonists-emotional-arc.html

“Duma Key”: The Decline of Horror?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/duma-key-decline-of-horror.html

Paradise, Heroism, and the Eternal Return: A Formula for Both Myth and Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/paradise-heroism-and-eternal-return.html

“Terror Television”
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/terror-television.html

Portals to Hell and Elsewhere
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/10/portals-to-hell-and-elsewhere.html

The Vagabond Menace
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/vagabond-menace.html

Learning from the Masters: Robert McCammon, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/learning-from-masters-robert-
mccammon.html


Learning from the Masters: Robert McCammon, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/learning-from-masters-robert-mccammon_06.html

Plot, Character, Setting, and Theme as Narrative Starting Points
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/plot-character-setting-and-theme-as.html

It Is Necessary to Suffer to Be Beautiful. . . Or Believable. . . Or Interesting
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/it-is-necessary-to-suffer-to-be.html

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/danger-will-robinson-danger.html

Write What You Know (But What Does That Mean?)
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/write-what-you-know-but-what-does-that.html

Literature: A Communal Ceremony
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/literature-communal-ceremony.html

Motivation as Explanation
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/motivation-as-explanation.html

Unworthy Books
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/unworthy-books.html

Secondary Antagonists
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/secondary-antagonists.html

Borrowed Malice
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/borrowed-malice.html

Aphoristic Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/aphoristic-horror.html

Write What You Know (But What Does That Mean?), Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/write-what-you-know-but-what-does-that_30.html

Music Hath Charms to Evoke the Savage Beast
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/music-hath-alarms-to-evoke-savage-beast.html

What’s So Scary About?. . .
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/whats-so-scary-about.html

Fallacious Horrors
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/fallacious-horrors.html

Some Thoughts on Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/some-thoughts-on-horror.html

“Christabel”: The Prototypical Lesbian Vampire, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/christabel-prototypical-lesbian-vampire.html

“Christabel”: The Prototypical Lesbian Vampire, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/christabel-prototypical-lesbian-vampire_20.html

Making a Scene
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/making-scene.html

Generating Horror Plots, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/generating-horror-plots-part-1.html

Generating Horror Plots, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2008/12/generating-horror-plots-part-ii.html

Generating Horror Plots, Part 3
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/generating-horror-plots-part-iii.html

Generating Horror Plots, Part 4
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/generating-horror-plots-part-iv.html

Generating Horror Plots, Part 5
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/generating-horror-plots-part-v.html

The Fill-in-the-Blank Guide to Writing Fiction
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/fill-in-blank-guide-to-writing-fiction.html

Writers’ Considerations: Readers’ Likes and Dislikes
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/writers-considerations-readers-likes.html

What Scares Me May Scare You, Too (Or Not)
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-scares-me-may-scare-you-too-or-not.html

Presto! You Have a Plot!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/presto-you-have-plot.html

The Hyperfeminine Monster: What Does She Look Like?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/hyperfeminine-monster-what-does-she.html

Stephen King’s Horrific Fairy Tales; Dean Koontz’s Variations on a Formula
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/stephen-kings-horrific-fairy-tales-dean.html

Horror Story Formulae
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/01/horror-story-formulae.html

Horror Story Survival Tactics
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/horror-story-survival-tactics.html

Surrealism and Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/surrealism-and-horror.html

The Calm Before the Storm
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/calm-before-storm.html

The Horror of the Double
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/horror-of-double.html

Green Graves
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/green-graves.html

Imagining Hell
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/imagining-hell.html

Demons Old and New
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/demons-old-and-new.html

The Here, the Now, and the Eternal
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/here-now-and-eternal.html

Location! Location! Location!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/location-location-location.html

Monster Mash, or How to Create a Monster, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/02/monster-mash-or-how-to-create-monster.html

Monster Mash, or How to Create a Monster, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/monster-mash-or-how-to-create-monster.html

Syntactical Storylines
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/syntactical-storylines.html

Small-Town, Rural, and Urban Horrors, or There Goes the Neighborhood!
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/small-town-rural-and-urban-horrors-or.html

Reversals of Fand Fortune
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/reversals-of-fate-and-fortune.html

The Monsters and Heroes of Fiction (Are the Monsters and Heroes of the Self)
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/monsters-and-heroes-of-fiction-are.html

Mapping the Monstrous
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/mapping-monstrous.html

Sensory Links
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/sensory-links.html

Grist For the Mill
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/03/grist-for-mill.html

Building Horror and Suspense Tobe Hooper’s Way, Part 1
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/building-horror-and-suspense-tobe.html

Building Horror and Suspense Tobe Hooper’s Way, Part 2
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/building-horror-and-suspense-tobe_06.html

Famous Writers’ and Directors’ Quotes With More or Less Direct Application to the Theory and Practice of Writing Horror http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/famous-writers-and-directors-quotes_10.html

Anaphoric Allusions
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/anaphoric-allusions.html

The Sympathetic Character: Intimations of Past Trauma
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/sympathetic-character-intimations-of.html

Dean Koontz’s Techniques for Engaging Readers and Advancing Plots
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/dean-koontzs-techniques-for-engaging_18.html

“Man Overboard”: Questioning Nature and Its Creator
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/man-overboard-questioning-nature-and.html

Revisiting the Numinous
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/revisiting-numinous.html

The Value of Literature
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/value-of-literature.html

Categories of Horror
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/categories-of-horror.html

Horror As Allegory
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/horror-as-allegory.html

“Summer Morning, Summer Night”: A Review
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/summer-morning-summer-night-review.html

Ray Bradbury’s “Love Potion”: Learning From the Masters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/ray-bradburys-love-potion-learning-from.html

Characterization via Emotion
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/characterization-via-emotion_17.html

Ghosts: An Endangered Species?
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/ghosts-endangered-species.html

Modern Monsters
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/modern-monsters.html

Reading, Writing, and Plotting
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/reading-writing-and-plotting.html

Dialogue as Repartee
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/05/dialogue-as-repartee.html

Possible Worlds of the Fantastic: A Review
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/09/possible-worlds-of-fantastic-review.html

Bodies in Pieces: A Review
http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2009/09/bodies-in-pieces-review.html

Possible Worlds of the Fantastic: A Review

Copyright 2009 by Gary L. Pullman

In “Fictional Worlds of the Fantastic,” chapter one of her Possible Worlds of the Fantastic: The Rise of the Paranormal in Fiction, Nancy H. Traill, defining a narrative or drama as “fantastic if. . . [its] fictional world is made up of. . . the natural and the supernatural”; taking a leaf from Raymond Bradley and Norman Swartz in defining “the natural domain as a physically possible world having ‘the same natural laws as does the actual world’”; and defining “the supernatural domain, in contrast” as “a physically impossible world,” posits the existence of five “fictional worlds [or “modes”] of the fantastic”: the “disjunctive,” in which the “supernatural domain” and the “natural domain” coexist separately, if not necessarily equally (or, in her own terms, “the two domains have the status of uncontested, unambiguous fictional ‘facts’”); the “fantasy,” in which “the natural domain is altogether absent or it is a framing device”; the ambiguous, in which the “supernatural domain” may or may not exist (or, in her own terms, “the supernatural domain is constructed as a potentiality, as a shifting ‘as if’ or ‘may be’” and “the narrator, or protagonist-narrator, does not fully authenticate it”); the “supernatural naturalized,” in which the “supernatural domain” of the disjunctive mode is “disauthenticated” (that is, explained or explained away); and the “paranormal mode,” in which the supernatural is subsumed under the label of the (as-yet-unexplained) “natural domain” (or, in her terms, “the supernatural domain is constructed here as it is in the disjunctive mode but is, in the end, disautehnticated when the narrator imparts a natural explanation for the strange events” (8-17). The “genesis” of each of these modes, she says, “is related to a moment in literary history” but “is not tied to that moment, but transcends it” (20). Traill cites various literary works as representatives of these five modes.

Although she does not name the following, these are likely to be more familiar to readers of Chillers and Thrillers: The Fiction of Fear than the examples which Traill lists:

  • Disjunctive = J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings
  • Fantasy = W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw”
  • Ambiguous = Bram Stoker’s “Dracula’s Guest”
  • Supernatural Naturalized = H. G. Wells’ “The Red Room”
  • Paranormal = Stephen King’s Carrie

Bodies in Pieces: A Review

Copyright 2009 by Gary L. Pullman

In Bodies in Pieces: Fantastic Narrative and the Poetics of the Fragment, Deborah A. Harter argues that fantastic fiction depicts a fragmented world, representing a vision of reality as piecemeal that is best expressed in the short story. Quoting Tsvetan Todorov, she defines fantastic narrative as fiction that occupies the precarious position between the marvelous and the uncanny.

The marvelous, Todorov claims, is made up of “those texts in which the reader knows to suspend disbelief,” she says, whereas the uncanny consists of “those in which a rational explanation serves in the end to explain an occurrence.” Hence, by this reckoning, one might deduce, W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey‘s Paw” lies within the realm of the marvelous, H. G. Well’s short story, “The Red Room,” lies within the realm of the uncanny, and Bram Stoker’s short story, “Dracula’s Guest” lies within the realm of the fantastic.

For Todorov, the fantastic lasts only as long as “the uncertainty” that the skeptical character (and the reader) endures concerning whether an occurrence is natural or supernatural in origin or character. Once the issue is decided, the fantastic gives way either to the marvelous or the uncanny.

Harter also makes some interesting distinctions between the art of painting and art of narrative. Agreeing with Gotthold Lessing, she argues that the former is restricted by its inability to depict objects as juxtaposed in other than their spatial relationships among one another, whereas the latter may “express with certainty only what is consecutive in time.” Therefore, “the poet. . . tells us only ‘little by little’ what the painter’s eye takes in with a single glance.”

Reality is understood as a space-time continuum, but neither painting nor narrative art can bridge the disconnect between these two aspects of reality as it is experienced by human consciousness. Space remains, and time remains, each seeming separate from the other. Reality, as it is experienced, is fragmented at the most fundamental of all levels.

Paranormal vs. Supernatural: What’s the Diff?

Copyright 2009 by Gary L. Pullman

Sometimes, in demonstrating how to brainstorm about an essay topic, selecting horror movies, I ask students to name the titles of as many such movies as spring to mind (seldom a difficult feat for them, as the genre remains quite popular among young adults). Then, I ask them to identify the monster, or threat--the antagonist, to use the proper terminology--that appears in each of the films they have named. Again, this is usually a quick and easy task. Finally, I ask them to group the films’ adversaries into one of three possible categories: natural, paranormal, or supernatural. This is where the fun begins.

It’s a simple enough matter, usually, to identify the threats which fall under the “natural” label, especially after I supply my students with the scientific definition of “nature”: everything that exists as either matter or energy (which are, of course, the same thing, in different forms--in other words, the universe itself. The supernatural is anything which falls outside, or is beyond, the universe: God, angels, demons, and the like, if they exist. Mad scientists, mutant cannibals (and just plain cannibals), serial killers, and such are examples of natural threats. So far, so simple.

What about borderline creatures, though? Are vampires, werewolves, and zombies, for example, natural or supernatural? And what about Freddy Krueger? In fact, what does the word “paranormal” mean, anyway? If the universe is nature and anything outside or beyond the universe is supernatural, where does the paranormal fit into the scheme of things?

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “paranormal,” formed of the prefix “para,” meaning alongside, and “normal,” meaning “conforming to common standards, usual,” was coined in 1920. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “paranormal” to mean “beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.” In other words, the paranormal is not supernatural--it is not outside or beyond the universe; it is natural, but, at the present, at least, inexplicable, which is to say that science cannot yet explain its nature. The same dictionary offers, as examples of paranormal phenomena, telepathy and “a medium’s paranormal powers.”

Wikipedia offers a few other examples of such phenomena or of paranormal sciences, including the percentages of the American population which, according to a Gallup poll, believes in each phenomenon, shown here in parentheses: psychic or spiritual healing (54), extrasensory perception (ESP) (50), ghosts (42), demons (41), extraterrestrials (33), clairvoyance and prophecy (32), communication with the dead (28), astrology (28), witchcraft (26), reincarnation (25), and channeling (15); 36 percent believe in telepathy.

As can be seen from this list, which includes demons, ghosts, and witches along with psychics and extraterrestrials, there is a confusion as to which phenomena and which individuals belong to the paranormal and which belong to the supernatural categories. This confusion, I believe, results from the scientism of our age, which makes it fashionable for people who fancy themselves intelligent and educated to dismiss whatever cannot be explained scientifically or, if such phenomena cannot be entirely rejected, to classify them as as-yet inexplicable natural phenomena. That way, the existence of a supernatural realm need not be admitted or even entertained. Scientists tend to be materialists, believing that the real consists only of the twofold unity of matter and energy, not dualists who believe that there is both the material (matter and energy) and the spiritual, or supernatural. If so, everything that was once regarded as having been supernatural will be regarded (if it cannot be dismissed) as paranormal and, maybe, if and when it is explained by science, as natural. Indeed, Sigmund Freud sought to explain even God as but a natural--and in Freud’s opinion, an obsolete--phenomenon.

Meanwhile, among skeptics, there is an ongoing campaign to eliminate the paranormal by explaining them as products of ignorance, misunderstanding, or deceit. Ridicule is also a tactic that skeptics sometimes employ in this campaign. For example, The Skeptics’ Dictionary contends that the perception of some “events” as being of a paranormal nature may be attributed to “ignorance or magical thinking.” The dictionary is equally suspicious of each individual phenomenon or “paranormal science” as well. Concerning psychics’ alleged ability to discern future events, for example, The Skeptic’s Dictionary quotes Jay Leno (“How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?”), following with a number of similar observations:

Psychics don't rely on psychics to warn them of impending disasters. Psychics don't predict their own deaths or diseases. They go to the dentist like the rest of us. They're as surprised and disturbed as the rest of us when they have to call a plumber or an electrician to fix some defect at home. Their planes are delayed without their being able to anticipate the delays. If they want to know something about Abraham Lincoln, they go to the library; they don't try to talk to Abe's spirit. In short, psychics live by the known laws of nature except when they are playing the psychic game with people.
In An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural, James Randi, a magician who exercises a skeptical attitude toward all things alleged to be paranormal or supernatural, takes issue with the notion of such phenomena as well, often employing the same arguments and rhetorical strategies as The Skeptic’s Dictionary.

In short, the difference between the paranormal and the supernatural lies in whether one is a materialist, believing in only the existence of matter and energy, or a dualist, believing in the existence of both matter and energy and spirit. If one maintains a belief in the reality of the spiritual, he or she will classify such entities as angels, demons, ghosts, gods, vampires, and other threats of a spiritual nature as supernatural, rather than paranormal, phenomena. He or she may also include witches (because, although they are human, they are empowered by the devil, who is himself a supernatural entity) and other natural threats that are energized, so to speak, by a power that transcends nature and is, as such, outside or beyond the universe. Otherwise, one is likely to reject the supernatural as a category altogether, identifying every inexplicable phenomenon as paranormal, whether it is dark matter or a teenage werewolf. Indeed, some scientists dedicate at least part of their time to debunking allegedly paranormal phenomena, explaining what natural conditions or processes may explain them, as the author of The Serpent and the Rainbow explains the creation of zombies by voodoo priests.

Based upon my recent reading of Tzvetan Todorov's The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to the Fantastic, I add the following addendum to this essay.

According to Todorov:

The fantastic. . . lasts only as long as a certain hesitation [in deciding] whether or not what they [the reader and the protagonist] perceive derives from "reality" as it exists in the common opinion. . . . If he [the reader] decides that the laws of reality remain intact and permit an explanation of the phenomena described, we can say that the work belongs to the another genre [than the fantastic]: the uncanny. If, on the contrary, he decides that new laws of nature must be entertained to account for the phenomena, we enter the genre of the marvelous (The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, 41).
Todorov further differentiates these two categories by characterizing the uncanny as “the supernatural explained” and the marvelous as “the supernatural accepted” (41-42).

Interestingly, the prejudice against even the possibility of the supernatural’s existence which is implicit in the designation of natural versus paranormal phenomena, which excludes any consideration of the supernatural, suggests that there are no marvelous phenomena; instead, there can be only the uncanny. Consequently, for those who subscribe to this view, the fantastic itself no longer exists in this scheme, for the fantastic depends, as Todorov points out, upon the tension of indecision concerning to which category an incident belongs, the natural or the supernatural. The paranormal is understood, by those who posit it, in lieu of the supernatural, as the natural as yet unexplained.

And now, back to a fate worse than death: grading students’ papers.

My Cup of Blood

Anyone who becomes an aficionado of anything tends, eventually, to develop criteria for elements or features of the person, place, or thing of whom or which he or she has become enamored. Horror fiction--admittedly not everyone’s cuppa blood--is no different (okay, maybe it’s a little different): it, too, appeals to different fans, each for reasons of his or her own. Of course, in general, book reviews, the flyleaves of novels, and movie trailers suggest what many, maybe even most, readers of a particular type of fiction enjoy, but, right here, right now, I’m talking more specifically--one might say, even more eccentrically. In other words, I’m talking what I happen to like, without assuming (assuming makes an “ass” of “u” and “me”) that you also like the same. It’s entirely possible that you will; on the other hand, it’s entirely likely that you won’t.

Anyway, this is what I happen to like in horror fiction:

Small-town settings in which I get to know the townspeople, both the good, the bad, and the ugly. For this reason alone, I’m a sucker for most of Stephen King’s novels. Most of them, from 'Salem's Lot to Under the Dome, are set in small towns that are peopled by the good, the bad, and the ugly. Part of the appeal here, granted, is the sense of community that such settings entail.

Isolated settings, such as caves, desert wastelands, islands, mountaintops, space, swamps, where characters are cut off from civilization and culture and must survive and thrive or die on their own, without assistance, by their wits and other personal resources. Many are the examples of such novels and screenplays, but Alien, The Shining, The Descent, Desperation, and The Island of Dr. Moreau, are some of the ones that come readily to mind.

Total institutions as settings. Camps, hospitals, military installations, nursing homes, prisons, resorts, spaceships, and other worlds unto themselves are examples of such settings, and Sleepaway Camp, Coma, The Green Mile, and Aliens are some of the novels or films that take place in such settings.

Anecdotal scenes--in other words, short scenes that showcase a character--usually, an unusual, even eccentric, character. Both Dean Koontz and the dynamic duo, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, excel at this, so I keep reading their series (although Koontz’s canine companions frequently--indeed, almost always--annoy, as does his relentless optimism).

Atmosphere, mood, and tone. Here, King is king, but so is Bentley Little. In the use of description to terrorize and horrify, both are masters of the craft.

A bit of erotica (okay, okay, sex--are you satisfied?), often of the unusual variety. Sex sells, and, yes, sex whets my reader’s appetite. Bentley Little is the go-to guy for this spicy ingredient, although Koontz has done a bit of seasoning with this spice, too, in such novels as Lightning and Demon Seed (and, some say, Hung).

Believable characters. Stephen King, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and Dan Simmons are great at creating characters that stick to readers’ ribs.

Innovation. Bram Stoker demonstrates it, especially in his short story “Dracula’s Guest,” as does H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, and a host of other, mostly classical, horror novelists and short story writers. For an example, check out my post on Stoker’s story, which is a real stoker, to be sure. Stephen King shows innovation, too, in ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, It, and other novels. One might even argue that Dean Koontz’s something-for-everyone, cross-genre writing is innovative; he seems to have been one of the first, if not the first, to pen such tales.

Technique. Check out Frank Peretti’s use of maps and his allusions to the senses in Monster; my post on this very topic is worth a look, if I do say so myself, which, of course, I do. Opening chapters that accomplish a multitude of narrative purposes (not usually all at once, but successively) are attractive, too, and Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are as good as anyone, and better than many, at this art.

A connective universe--a mythos, if you will, such as both H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, and, to a lesser extent, Dean Koontz, Bentley Little, and even Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have created through the use of recurring settings, characters, themes, and other elements of fiction.

A lack of pretentiousness. Dean Koontz has it, as do Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Bentley Little, and (to some extent, although he has become condescending and self-indulgent of late, Stephen King); unfortunately, both Dan Simmons and Robert McCammon have become too self-important in their later works, Simmons almost to the point of becoming unreadable. Come on, people, you’re writing about monsters--you should be humble.

Longevity. Writers who have been around for a while usually get better, Stephen King, Dan Simmons, and Robert McCammon excepted.

Pacing. Neither too fast nor too slow. Dean Koontz is good, maybe the best, here, of contemporary horror writers.


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