Greeting, greetings one and all! Welcome to this, the first of many blog posts. My name is John, and I'll be your tour guide today as we take an excited and fun-filled journey through the deep reaches of my previous experience with fantastical fiction (mind the horror bits, they may not be appropriate for all ages), with a small detour at the end to "The Gallery of What I Think About What Clute Thinks" (our newest exhibit). Please, no flash photography, no touching the exhibits, and, for god's sake, ask a couple of questions! That's what guides are for, right? And, for those interested, you will be able to stop off in the gift shop before you depart. Right this way!
Well, when it comes to fantasy in its many forms, I must admit that I've always been a more high fantasy sort of guy. I remember when I was very young and on a long car trip my dad told my brother and I the story of The Hobbit from memory (we can only assume he did it with some accuracy, because I can't quite remember, and he would never admit to the contrary). It was AWESOME. Blew me away. Even at my tender age, I knew that this was some heavy, badass, epic stuff. So I started reading (or being read) more and more fantasy. I started with the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, moved to McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, and then graduated to Tolkien himself. Man, what a trip. I wasn't reading stories anymore. No, these were tales, tomes, and adventures of the grandest nature. As best I could, I jumped in feet first in elementary school, and I haven't looked back since.
There were, of course, numerous other literary experiences along the way (mostly in the realm of science fiction), but there was one other notable bit of fantasy from my childhood that we all know and love: Harry Potter. I mean, come on! We grew up with this kid. Granted, he had a way cooler (or way WAY worse, depending on how you look at it) childhood and education, but we could all still relate to those characters in one way or another. I will call you a liar if you say you read those books and never wanted to be a wizard, go to Hogwarts, or have Harry, Ron, and Hermione as friends. This was Pokemon-level childhood defining shit right here. And that's big. It created a whole generation of fantasy lovers, of one kind or another.
And now we come to horror and the creepy crawlies and whatnot. I can't say I've had too many literary encounters with the dark fantastic before. I usually enjoy scary movies, and I've seen plenty of them (anyone else seen Hellraiser? Not enough have... Its really good! Makes you think.). What I have read has been basically limited to assorted Stephen King works, with a big emphasis on his short stories. I love those things. My favorite (and likely the one least related to the supernatural) is called The Long Walk which he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Highly recommended. I've also delved into horror board games with Arkham Horror, the H.P. Lovecraft game. Its kinda like Clue, but actually fun and filled with monsters and the potential end of the world. So, long story short, I'm looking forward to expanding my understanding and involvement with dark fantasy/horror. Should be fun.
Finally, now that we've reached the end of our tour, we can take a look at Clute's interpretation of fantastic horror. In the excerpt we were provided, Clute defines the differences between sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, and then goes on to provide an outline for "many horror stories." I have to agree with him on all points, I think. I particularly agree with how he defines the triplet sub-genres of fiction. And I find myself agreeing with the outline of horror simply because it is so simple. It is straight forward, accurate, and basic. It is these things to such an extent, that even non-horror stories can easily be applied. So while I agree with the structure and the application, I am a bit disappointed in the simplicity. This is not to say that I believe I could do it any better. I just wish there was something more. Maybe something deeper, maybe something different, but I wish there was something fundamentally horrifying. But maybe that's the beauty of it. You never know exactly what is going to happen...
1 comment:
The first paragraph of this post, John, is a classic, and I love the description of the Potter books as "Pokemon-level childhood definining shit."
McCaffrey's Pern novels are science fiction, actually. The first was serialized in Analog. Along with Frank Herbert, she was one of editor John W. Campbell's last discoveries, in the 1960s. At the other end of his career were Asimov and Heinlein.
Your introduction to The Hobbit reminds me that my introduction to Herbert's Dune was when Coach Turner told us the entire story in study hall, when I was 13. He was tired of hearing us go on about Star Wars (this in 1977), and said, "If you like that, you'll LOVE Dune."
Post a Comment