On Horror Novels

I was once asked what was so appealing about horror as a genre.  Granted, the person asking me was lumping all horror in together--novels, movies, television.  I don't do horror movies.  They tend to be slasher movies and are generally not appealing to me at all.  I have no interest in seeing who can survive the serial killer.  It's horror as a book genre that really speaks to me.

From a young age, I've had an absolute, never failing, incredible fascination in post apocalyptic and dystopian literature.  Both of those can easily walk hand in hand with horror.  I just picked up the second Dark Tower graphic novel at HFB Friday night.  I was able to resist the lure of picking it up, as I stayed out too late Friday and had all sorts of errands to run yesterday (none of which got accomplished, mind you).  This morning is/was a different story.  I sat down after I got out of the shower and flipped once through the pages, looking at the artwork, studiously avoiding the words.  I decided I could read the introduction, and this quote from it sums up my love of horror as a book genre: What deep and dark fears scribe Stephen is playing with here through his universal antagonist [the Crimson King].  What is it, we as collective humanity, really fear most? We dread this thin world of order and reason we inhabit will crumble and we'll be lost forever in a landscape of madness.  We fear worldwide Armageddon; the disintegration of society; the breakdown of the family unit; the loss of our personal sanity.

This is what speaks to me.  This is why we have super heroes, fairy tales, religion, laws, government... Because we have to have something to keep the wolf at bay.  When we are children, it is Captain America, X-Men, Batman, and Wonderwoman who safeguard our dreams.  Religion and laws are humanity's ways of ruling our own wolf.  Because, really the wolf at the door, howling in the night... It's just you and me.

At the end of the world, what are we going to become?  There is so much evidence of the nature of man, we see it during every natural disaster.  There are those who help their fellow man and then there are those who take advantage of the situation.  Multiply that by the rest of the world.  it's a frightening thought.  That's where the dystopian literature comes in--people are so afraid that they separate themselves (The Giver), or subjugate their own people with violence and sacrifice (Hunger Games).  So, that's it.  There is my fascination.  People can be so amazing.  People can also be so horrible.