Figured I would go ahead and double dip the blog...
I wanted to go ahead and post before the paper topic discussion tomorrow. (I find these helpful in getting the paper set up, so feel free to leave and questions/comments/concerns/death threats, etc. etc.)
In my paper, I want to explore the necessity of psychological factors in horror stories. Basically, that fear is a psychological state, and often what makes stories truly horrifying is that we have a character experiencing psychological weaknesses or a complete breakdown. Without these psychological factors, many stories wouldn't even be horrific (unless you count horrifically boring... HWAHOH). I want to use Henry from "Stone Animals" by Kelly Link and Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House to show the necessity to the stories the psychological weakness of these two characters. Without Eleanor's final descent, and Eleanor being "preyed" upon, or if she is the one doing the haunting, etc etc, there is no real horror behind Hill House. Henry eventually collapsed in "Stone Animals" as well, and without picking up on the psychological descent through0ut the story, it's just a workoholic and rapidly multiplying rabbits.
Feedback, por favor, mis amores bonitos :)
3 comments:
I like it. Personally I would say there are other creepy things at work in both stories, but you're right--for the reader, who isn't experiencing the other things that seem to be creeping out the characters (from knocking on doors and walls--if that's even really happening--to objects that are suddenly "haunted"), the only really horrific moments are due to the psychological aspect.
Even if you're me, and you get creeped out sitting in a silent apartment while reading about random banging on doors, things don't REALLY get scary until you get the passage where Eleanor has the weird dream/something sequence where she thinks she's holding Theo's hand and they're sitting up in bed or they aren't... (I don't really know WHAT'S going on at that part but I know it's weird).
Thanks for stealing my topic, Bailey. :P
I think the psychological aspects of horror are the ones that sit with us the most. I feel very frustrated while reading a book like that and frightened because even inside the mind of the character we could be being deceived. They don't know they're crazy, so what is real and what isn't is left to the imagination, and my imagination makes up some pretty scary stuff.
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