In
this post, I would like to suggest how movie posters can help to
suggest plots. Before I get to a couple of examples, though, I offer
a few guidelines for anyone who might like to try this approach to
plotting stories. They have served me well.
If
the poster you select promotes a movie you have seen, pretend it
does not, and don't reference the film, even in your thoughts, as
you analyze the poster. The poster should speak for itself, as it
were.
We
are taught to read from left to right and from top to bottom.
Graphic designers know this and use our training to their benefit in
creating designs and art and in communicating to us.
A
poster is likely to have a central image, and this central image
will be emphasized in some way—through its position, just off
center; through color or intensity; by being of bigger than other
images. It is obvious that the artist wants the viewer to focus
attention on this central image. Text and other images, if any, will
relate to this central image and help to develop its figurative
aspects.
Most
art employs various “visual” figures of speech—metaphors,
similes, allusions, personifications, exaggerations,
understatements, symbols, puns or other plays on words, synecdoches.
See
all there is to see—not just size, but color, intensity, depth,
balance, negative and positive space, shape, texture, size, density,
position, arrangement, patterns. facial expressions, hairstyles,
costumes (i. e., the models' clothing), age, sex, gender, class,
income level. Also consider whatever props might be displayed.
Analyze
visual evidence of behavior: care, neglect, attendance, abandonment,
support, and so forth.
Consider
the other four senses, too: what sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile
sensations does the poster suggest?
The
text is the key that unlocks the visual imagery's figurative
meaning.
With
these guidelines in mind, start by describing the poster. Start at
the top and work your way down. Include quotations of any text you
encounter. Be detailed, but don't be flowery. At this point, be a
camera operator, not a sketch artist, an objective viewer, not an
interpreter.
After
describing the poster, use the elements you identified to complete
this list, creating a complete sentence in the process. In doing so, stick to the poster itself.
WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? HOW? WHY?
Next,
question yourself about each of the six phrases you entered into the
table. In doing so, make observations; draw inferences from what you
see and read in the poster. Look for potential relationships among
the poster's elements. Look, also, for possible connections between
your own thoughts, between your own feelings, and between your own
thoughts and feelings. Ask yourself how the answers you listed in the
table could be “flipped,” or reinterpreted.
As
a result of this process, you may develop an idea for a story or even
a synopsis of a plot for a story. At the same time, you will have a
sequence of elements that are logically related and which, together,
form a narrative thread upon which, by the questioning process and
the use of your own imagination, you can embroider, or develop
further.
FRIGHT
NIGHT
Text
above the image reads: “There are some very good reasons to be
afraid of the dark.”
It
is night. There are stars and a full moon. Spirits swarm above a
house. One appears to be the ghost of a vampire; its wide open mouth
is positioned above the center of the house, near the domicile's
rooftops. Two other spirits have a bestial appearance. The rest are
heads with faces and fanged mouths—demons, perhaps.
Behind
a simple white rails, a front porch runs the length of the
three-story Victorian house. In the center, second-floor room
(perhaps a bedroom), the silhouette of a standing figure, hands on
hips, is visible between drawn drapes, against light.
Five
low steps lead to the porch from the end of a sidewalk, the other end
of which connects to a sidewalk that parallels the street out front.
Low shrubs are planted along the front of the porch. A tree flanks
each side of the front of the house; each is almost as tall as the
house. The lawn is cut. Behind the house is a line of trees, perhaps
the front rank of a forest.
Text
below the image reads, “Fright Night: If you love being scared,
it'll be the night of your life.”
Observations
Although
the house could be in a suburbs, it seems more likely that it is in a
more rural area. Not only are there large trees present, but the
visibility of the stars suggests that the house is some distance from
the street lights common to suburbs.
The
swarm of spirits seem to fountain from the house, suggesting that it
is haunted.
Although
rather indistinct, the figure appears to be wearing a dress, which
would indicate that the figure is that of a woman. It is impossible
to tell whether she faces forward, but her presence at the window
suggests that she is looking out of the room.
The
house is in good repair, and the lawn is landscaped and well kept.
The
text suggests that this is a special night; it is Fright Night. The
text also suggests that the spirits are the “reasons” that one
should fear the dark.
The
text that reads “it'll be the night of your life” suggests that
Fright Night will be momentous, probably unique.
The
figure stands in a lighted room, surrounded by darkness. The room may
be her “safe place,” but only as long as the light continues to
burn.
WHO? A young woman
WHAT? stands watch
WHEN? at night
WHERE? in the lighted room of an otherwise dark Victorian house in a rural part of the United States
HOW? ready to become a conduit for spiritual warriors
WHY? to ward off a horde of demons that appear every decade on Fright Night.
Questions
Over
what, if anything, do the demons rule? What powers do they have? Why
do they appear every decade on Fright Night? Whom do they seek to
frighten? Why is one the spirit of a vampire? Why are two of bestial
form? Why do the remaining demons look similar? Where are the
spirits' bodies? Why have they gathered here, at this particular
house? Is the house significant in some way? Who is the young woman?
Why is she in the house? Why is she alone? How can the story line be
flipped?
IT
FOLLOWS
Text
above the image reads, “it doesn't think. It doesn't feel. It
doesn't give up.”
Looking
frightened, a tense, young blonde woman, eyes wide, stares into her
car's rear-view mirror, which she adjusts. Outside, it is dark and
perhaps foggy. Her headlights don't seem to penetrate the gloom.
Text
below the image, the film's title, reads, “It Follows.”
Observations
The
woman wears makeup, and her nails are painted red-orange. Her
eyebrows, like her eyes, are brown, which suggests that she is a
peroxide, not a natural, blonde. She wears her hair in a bob or a
pixie cut.
WHO? A young woman
WHAT? looks into her rear-view mirror
WHEN? at night
WHERE? on a lonely stretch of country road
HOW? as she is driving her car
WHY? fleeing from a relentless, inhuman pursuer.
Questions
Who
is the young woman? She appears to be alone—is she? If so, why? If
not, why not? Where is she going? Where has she been? Is she on some
sort of mission or is she just trying to escape? Why is she driving
at night? Who or what is she fleeing? Why is her pursuer chasing her?
Why is her pursuer relentless? Is her pursuer
behind her, as she appears to believe, or in front of her? Her
tension and fear suggest she may be involved in an emergency
situation? Is she? If so, what is the emergency? If not, what else
explains her tension and fear? Is her car a sedan? A convertible?
New? An older model? How large or small is her car? Is it in good
repair? Is someone expecting her? If so, who? Why? If not, why not?
In
future posts, I may model this technique for plotting by posters
again. There are many posters, after all—an inexhaustible
supply of them. To generate a strong, intriguing, suspenseful plot,
we need only one. Meanwhile, why not try your own hand at this
poster:
I can't say whether Erle
Stanley Gardner used alliteration as a way of prompting plots, but
some of the titles of his Perry Mason novels sure did—as did even
more—most, in fact—of the CBS television series' episodes—could
have suggested story lines.
Gardner himself created
such alliterative titles as
The Case of the Lucky
Legs
The Case of the
Caretaker's Cat
The Case of the
Dangerous Dowager
The Case of the
Shoplifter's Show
The Case of the
Perjured Parrot
The Case of the Haunted
Husband
The Case of the
Drowning Duck
The Case of the Crooked
Candle
The Case of the
Black-eyed Blonde
The Case of the
Borrowed Brunette
The Case of the
Cautious Coquette
The Case of the
Negligent Nymph
The Case of the Fiery
Fingers
The Case of the
Moth-eaten Mink
The Case of the
Grinning Gorilla
The Case of the
Hesitant Hostess
The Case of the
Restless Redhead
The Case of the
Glamorous Ghost
The Case of the
Terrified Typist
The Case of the Demure
Defendant
The Case of the Lucky
Loser
The Case of the Daring
Decoy
The Case of the
Mythical Monkeys
The Case of the Singing
Skirt
The Case of the Waylaid
Wolf
The Case of the
Duplicate Daughter
The Case of the Shapely
Shadow
The Case of the
Spurious Spinster
The Case of the Blonde
Bonanza
The Case of the
Stepdaughter's Secret
The Case of the Amorous
Aunt
The Case of the Daring
Divorcee
The Case of the Phantom
Fortune
The Case of the
Horrified Heirs
The Case of the
Troubled Trustee
The Case of the
Beautiful Beggar
The Case of the Worried
Waitress
The Case of the
Careless Cupid
The Case of the
Fabulous Fake
The
titles also often invoke mystery or suspense or both. Why are the
legs lucky? Why is the loser lucky? What is the stepdaughter's
secret? Why is the waitress worried?
Most
of these titles also contain adjectives that characterize specific
types of fictional character, many of them women: blonde, brunette,
coquette, nymph, redhead, typist, daughter, spinster, aunt, divorcee,
waitress. Often, in the television series, at least, the character
identified in the title became Mason's client and the defendant in a
murder trial.
While
identifying a type of character, each of the titles also suggest
several questions. The answers to these questions may imply still
other questions, or, at times, they may hint at plot twists or even a
resolution.
The
Case of the Haunted Husband: Who
is the husband? Who is his wife? Why is he haunted? In what way is he
haunted? Has h done something that frightens him or haunts him with
guilt? Maybe he murdered someone. Maybe he had an affair with
someone? Maybe he murdered another woman with whom he had an affair.
If so, who is this other woman? Where did they meet? What attracted
them to one another? Did they break off their relationship? Did the
wife know about the affair or find out about it? Lieutenant Tragg
might consider such knowledge a motivation for the wife to have
killed the mistress. Perhaps the husband didn't kill the other woman,
after all. Maybe she was killed by the wife of a previous husband
with whom she had had an affair, a wife who's tracked her down to
kill her. Was the husband or his current wife the killer's fall guy?
(Since Gardner was writing Perry Mason novels, Gardner also had to
answer the question, How is Perry going to prove his client is
innocent of the charges that the police will lodge against her?)
The
Case of the Borrowed Brunette:
Who is the brunette? Who borrowed her? How was she borrowed? For what
purpose was she borrowed? Was she returned? If so, to whom? An
intriguing title, the name of this story conjures up all kinds of
possibilities. Did the woman look like another woman? Was she
borrowed to impersonate another brunette? Was she, perhaps, killed so
the other brunette could disappear and start a new life or escape a
prison sentence? Did her boyfriend or her husband plan to kill the
other woman and run away with the borrowed brunette? Was the borrowed
brunette a model, a call girl, a wealthy businesswoman, a woman from
a man's past? (Remember, too, that because Gardner was writing Perry
Mason novels, Gardner also had to answer the question, How is Perry
going to prove his client is innocent of the charges that the police
will lodge against her?)
The
Case of the Worried Waitress:
Who is the waitress? Who or what worries her? Why is she worried?
What, if anything, does she do to eliminate the cause of her
worries—or what do the police believe she has done? Is she a
victim? A witness to a murder? Did someone she served as a waitress
leave incriminating evidence behind? Did she see or hear something
she shouldn't have while serving a diner? (As always, since Gardner
was writing Perry Mason novels, Gardner also had to answer the
question, How is Perry going to prove his client is innocent of the
charges that the police will lodge against her?)
Although
the plots of the episodes of the television series may differ from
those of the novels, the episodes provide at least one way writers
answered such questions, generated a plot, and solved the cases.
Summaries of the episodes on the Perry
Mason TV Series wiki
indicate that, in The
Case of the Haunted Husband,
the series' writers came up with this approach:
Hitchhiker
Claire Olger is charged with grand theft auto and manslaughter when
the driver of the car she's riding in hits a truck, killing the truck
driver, then flees the scene, leaving Claire to take the blame.
Perry agrees to help
Claire and eventually does locate the missing driver. Trouble is,
he's dead. Burger drops the previous charges against Claire and files
a new one: first degree murder. A second murder only complicates
things more.
Eva
Martell gets a part, not on stage but impersonating Helen Reynolds, a
woman she has never met. She is paid extremely well and given a
beautiful apartment to live in with her Aunt Agnes as long as she
continues the charade. Still, Eva suspects foul play in paradise, and
seeks the advice of a good lawyer.
Perry steps in and meets
with the real Helen Reynolds, who swears she is not doing anything
illegal, but cannot reveal her motives. That’s fine until they find
that dead body in her apartment. . . [.]
The
Case of the Worried Waitress [sic],
by Erle Stanley Gardner[,] 'The 'Foreword' [sic]
is dedicated to Marshall Houts, who gave up a lucrative law practice
to become an investigator for the Court of Last Resort. Houts
investigated several murder cases in which innocent men had been
wrongfully convicted, and brought about a satisfactory conclusion.
Houts created 'Trauma', [sic]
a publication that deals with the field of legal medicine. Forensic
medicine applies to many cases, from accidents to the more publicized
murders. Perry Mason and Della Street have lunch at a restaurant, and
are served by a new waitress Katherine Ellis. The next morning Kit
Ellis visits Mason for a consultation about her Aunt Sophia. Kit's
parents were killed in an automobile accident, she was left
penniless, and moved in with Aunt Sophia (who met a divorced man, and
turned over her money to him). After he died of heat stroke, his
first wife took everything (their divorce wasn't final). Perry Mason
said this could be a partnership, and Sophia could claim half of the
property. Kit says Aunt Sophia has a hatbox filled with cash, and she
is afraid of burglars. Perry advises her to move out for her own
safety. Soon Perry gets a phone call from Kit Ellis; she is being
accused of theft by a Stuart Baxley. Baxley hired a private detective
to get fingerprints from the hatbox. Paul Drake said this is
difficult. But Perry Mason knows that Macdonell Associates of Corning
NY have invented a method to do this with magnetic dust (Chapter 4).
They learn that Aunt Sophia Atwood is in the hospital, someone hit
her on the head with a five-cell flashlight. Kit Ellis had gone back
to the house by taxi at night to retrieve her shoes and clothing. Lt.
Tragg arrests Kit Ellis at Perry's office (Chapter 9). Mason and Paul
Drake visit another person who knows Sophia Atwood (Chapter 10).
Perry bait a trap with a seemingly missing will (Chapter 11). Does
golf get blamed for things that are the result of human carelessness,
stupidity , and foolishness (Chapter 12)? Perry assigns an
investigation to Paul Drake: put a female operative at the Gillco
Company who can pose as a blind woman (Chapter 14). The Preliminary
Hearing begins with Stuart Baxley. Perry destroys his credibility in
his cross-examination. The judge expresses doubt as well (Chapter
15). Then Stuart Baxley changes his story again! In Chapter 16 Perry
thinks of a theory that can explain the strange events at that house.
Perry and Paul find a cache of money, and are found out by Lt. Tragg
(Chapter 17). In Chapter 18 Perry brings in a surprise witness who
reveals shocking secrets! Lt. Tragg admits fingerprints on the
flashlight do not match Perry's client, and do match fingerprints on
the water cooler, but are from an unknown person. Perry later hands
Lt. Tragg some fingerprints to analyze. Kit Ellis is freed to rejoin
her Aunt Sophia (Chapter 19).
Gardner's
technique—and, let's admit it, his use of alliteration is
fun—can work for any genre,
horror included. Let's make up a couple of alliterative horror titles
(since Chillers and Thrillers
is a blog about The Theory and Practice of Writing Horror
Fiction, after all):
The Case of the
Ravenous Rats: Why are the rats
ravenous? Where do they live? Are they captives? If so, who has them?
Why are they being kept? Are they to be used in a mass attack on
someone? When? Where? Why? If the rats are not ravenous, where did
they come from? A research laboratory? The site of an nuclear
reactor's failure? The military? (Maybe the rodents are living
weapons?) Are they genetic mutants? How are they stopped? By whom?
(Another way to approach plotting from alliterative titles is to consider stories that actually involve ravenous rats, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum"; Bram Stoker's "Burial of the Rats" and "The Judge's House"; or my own "A Job Well Done.")
The Case of the
Grotesque Gallery: What's
grotesque about the gallery? What exhibits are shown in it? Is it a
private or a public gallery? Does it exhibit corpses as sculptures,
paintings made with body fluids for paint? Do tableaux depict
perverted acts? Are the owners insane artists? Failed artists? Are
their models alive? If so, are they held against their will? Do the
same ones appear in multiple works of art? Do the paintings or
sculptures that include them show them as victims (or perpetrators)
progressive acts of torture? Do the artworks depict past—or
future—catastrophes? Why does the grotesque gallery exist?
The Case of the
Screaming Skull: Part of this
title actually includes the title of a 1958 indie horror film, The
Screaming Skull, giving us an
example of how an alliterative title might have suggested a plot; the
synopsis is courtesy of Wikipedia:
Over
a scene [sic]
of an opening coffin, a narrator explains that the film's climax is
so terrifying that it may kill the viewer, while reassuring the
audience that should they die of fright they will receive a free
burial service. Inside the coffin is a card that reads "Reserved
for You". [sic]
Newlyweds Jenni . . . and
Eric . . . move into Eric's palatial country home. Jenni is Eric's
second wife; his first wife Marion died when she accidentally slipped
and hit her head on the edge of a decorative pond on the estate. At
the home they meet Eric's friends, the Reverend Snow . . . and his
wife . . . , as well as Mickey . . . , the developmentally disabled
gardener. Eric privately mentions to the Snows that Jenni spent time
in an asylum following the sudden death of both her parents, and Mrs.
Snow reveals that Jenni is very wealthy.
Jenni is disturbed both
by Mickey's belief that Marion's ghost wanders the estate and by
Marion's self-portrait inside the house, which Jenni believes
resembles her mother. When she begins to hear unexplained screaming
noises and see skulls around her house, she believes that Marion is
haunting her. Though Eric speculates to Jenni that Mickey, who was a
childhood friend of Marion and thus dislikes Jenni, may be behind the
trickery, Jenni worries that she is going insane. Eric suggests to
remove Marion's self-portrait from the home. Eric and Jenni take the
painting outside and burn it, later uncovering a skull from the
ashes. Jenni panics at the sight of the skull, but Eric denies that
the skull is there. Jenni faints and Eric withdraws the skull and
hides it, revealing that he has been gaslighting her all along.
Believing she has finally
lost her sanity, Jenni resolves to be committed. She tells Eric that
the entire property will be meticulously searched for the skull as a
last resort. Mickey secretly steals the skull and brings it to Snow
before Eric can retrieve it. That night, Eric prepares to murder
Jenni and stage it as a suicide. Jenni sees Marion's ghost in
Mickey's greenhouse and flees back to the house, where Eric begins
throttling her. The ghost appears and chases Eric outside, corners
and attacks him, drowning him in the decorative pond.
After Jenni regains
consciousness, the Snows arrive. Mrs. Snow comforts a hysterical
Jenni and the Reverend discovers Eric's body in the pond. Some
undisclosed time later, Jenni and the Snows depart from the house.
Reverend Snow declares whether or not Marion's death was an accident
will remain a mystery.
Gardner's plotting
technique (if his alliterative titles really was a plotting
technique, rather than just a fun way of enticing readers to buy his
books) can be used by anyone, for any genre. Why not try it yourself?
Ideally, like a movie tagline, an effective title should snare its reader’s attention, suggest the novel’s or film’s genre, indicate the type of monster or other threat, promise enjoyment, and have aesthetic appeal. Although it is difficult for single-word titles to accomplish such a three-fold task, it is possible. Pyscho is an attention-grabber, suggesting that the movie that bears this title is apt to be a horror film, indicates that the threat is that which to be posed by a madman, and promises a display of madness and mayhem. The Exorcist gets prospective audiences’ attention, suggests horror as its film’s genre, and promises an appearance not only of an exorcist but of a demon to exorcise and of a victim from whom to cast out the devil.
In addition to accomplishing the tasks of snaring the reader’s attention, suggesting the story’s genre, and promising enjoyment, a good title should be pleasing to the ear. Some examples of titles that accomplish this goal are Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (use of alliteration), The Bride of Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (use of allusion), and Stephen King’s The Storm of the Century and Wes Cravens’ The Hills Have Eyes (use of common phrases).
A good story title may accomplish other ends as well. Although titles may not, in so many words, express what is at stake in the battle between good and evil that occurs in most horror novels and movies, it may do so. For example, The Exorcist suggests that an individual’s soul is at stake. H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds suggests that the fate of the Earth itself is at issue. The movie Independence Day implies that liberty--a value sacrosanct--to the American public which would make up a huge segment of the film’s presumed audience--is in peril.
Other titles suggest both the nature of the beast and its habitat: It! The Terror from Beyond Space, Alien, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Most titles ignore the question of “Why?” (saving the answers, if any, to this bigger concern for the novel or movie itself) and concentrate on more immediate questions such as those which involve the agent (“Who?” or “What”?), the setting (“When?” and “Where”), and the method, process, or technique (“How?”). By reserving the answer to “Why?” for the story itself to resolve, writers maintain the suspense that, hopefully, their titles have created.
For motives related to the foreign release of films and for other reasons, the same horror movie may be released under two or more titles, offering one the opportunity to compare and contrast the titles with an eye (and mind) toward determining which seems more effective and why. Such an exercise can make one more cognizant both of more effective and less effective techniques for creating titles and may disclose the subtle differences in how various audiences perceive stories and storytelling and clues as to what may offend one audience but not another. For example, Planet of the Vampires was also released under the alternate titles of Demon Planet, Planet of Blood, Space Mutants, Terror in Space, The Haunted Planet, The Haunted World, The Outlawed Planet, The Planet of Terror, and The Planet of the Damned.
If a writer wants to pack even more into his or her title, he or she can add a subtitle.
A good way, of course, to learn what makes good titles is to study those of well-established writers and directors such as, in the field of horror, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Dan Simmons, Robert McCammon, Bentley Little, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, James Rollins, H. G. Wells, Frank Peretti, Ray Bradbury, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven, Brian De Palma, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, George Romero, and Tobe Hooper.
A lot goes into a carefully written title because a lot is expected from it.
Although it isn’t a horror story--at least not in the conventional sense--Ihara Saikaku’s short story, “What the Seasons Brought to the Almanac Maker,” a tale of adultery as a literally fatal attraction (based, it might be added, on a true story) offers a technique not seen often, if at all, in typical horror novels, but one which provides a simple, but interesting and effective, way of creating and maintaining suspense and of driving the story forward.
True, Saikaku’s choice of a true story as the basis for his story, his use of foreshadowing, and the situation itself, involving participants in an illicit affair against a background of sexual licentiousness and the concern of the protagonist’s society with superficial rather than meaningful matters create interest and suspense as well, but these are techniques already known to, and used by, writers of Western literature (by the use of which term, no, we do not intend to reference cowboy stories--or not only cowboy stories).
The technique we’re interested in is his use of cryptic, apt, and sometimes rather poetic titles for the segments--they are too short to be labeled chapters--of his story. Divided into five sections, these divisions are named:
The Beauty Contest
The Sleeper Who Slipped Up
The Lake Which Took People In
The Teahouse Which Had Not Heard of Gold Pieces
The Eavesdropper Whose Ears Were Burned
Western writers have named the chapters in their novels. That’s nothing new. However, such titles have more often than not been straightforward. (A memorable one that is both cryptic, appropriate, and somewhat poetic is the title of chapter thirteen of Ian Fleming’s novel, Live and Let Die, in which James Bond’s CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter, encounters a shark in a swimming pool: “He Disagreed With Something That Ate Him.” However, it is Fleming’s habit to extract a phrase or, more rarely, a sentence from the chapter and to let it stand as the chapter’s title. The title of chapter thirteen of Live and Let Die, for instance, appears, in the chapter itself, on a note attached to Leiter’s body.).
The key to the use of intriguing (as opposed to straightforward) chapter titles is to make the title both cryptic and poetic but apt. It should hint at, rather than directly state, the chapter’s plot, theme, or significance, and it should do so in a figurative, metaphorical, or symbolic manner. For example, the title of the third division of “What the Seasons Brought to the Almanac Maker” alludes to a lake in which the protagonist, Osan, and her illicit paramour, Moemon, pretend to drown themselves. Therefore, it alludes to the central point of the narrative segment, using the literary devices of (an apparent) personification and a play on words to do so. Read literally, as people are wont to read anything they peruse, “The Lake Which Took People In” suggests that a body of water will deceive someone, that it will take him or her or them in, or con them. The absurdity of such an idea, in turn, alerts the reader that he or she has misread the title, and that it should be understood differently. As it turns out, the reader will discover that the lake literally takes in people--those who enter its waters, to swim or, as Osan and Moemon pretend, to drown. Therefore, the title is appropriate. It is descriptive of the action that the story segment contains, and it also suggests the subterfuge of the characters who perform the actions, for it is by pretending to have drowned in the lake that Osan and Moemon intend to “take in,” or deceive Osan’s husband and others.
The chapter of the final section of the story, “5. The Eavesdropper Whose Ears Were Burned,” is also intriguing (as opposed to straightforward)--that is, cryptic, poetic, and apt. It suggests that a particular type of person, an “eavesdropper,” will be punished--in a fitting manner, by having his ears burned. In this case, the eavesdropper is Moemon, who, during a nostalgic return to his hometown, while disguised, overhears people insulting him. His ears, metaphorically, are burned. However, when he, Osan, and the servant who had served as an intermediary between them, helping them to cuckold Osan’s husband, the culprits are “burned” in quite a different manner. After being paraded before the townspeople, as a warning of the punishment that comes to adulterers, they are executed, dying “like dewdrops from a blade of grass.”
As a way of practicing this technique, one might name or rename the chapters of various horror novels or segments of horror movies, selecting titles which meet the three requirements we’ve identified as belonging to intriguing headings, so that the results are once cryptic, poetic, and apt. A good intriguing title takes some effort, but it should pay dividends in being another means by which to create and maintain narrative suspense and of driving one’s horror story forward, toward its inevitable crisis, its possible catastrophe, and its satisfying resolution.
By the way, these are the titles of the Live and Let Die chapters; note that, on the basis of our analysis, most are straightforward rather than intriguing:
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’ Dictionarycontends 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.
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.