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Was reading Nihilistic_kid's 'Why everyone should love horror stories' article in The Writer. Most of it was good, entry-level meta about horror being a component of all stories. Fear motivates characters into action, and etc.
One comment irked me though. He was talking about Ramsey Campbell having to take a job in book store. NK pointed out that Horror (as a genre) must really be in the dumps, if someone like Campbell is forced to take a day job. While I feel sorry that someone has to work a 9-to-5 rather fulfill artistic desires, I'm also of the mind that maybe he should write books that other people want to read.
No, I'm not talking commercial over art. No, I'm not attacking Mr. Campbell specifically. The reason horror is in the dumps is because so many horror novels are awful.
Anne Rice? No thank you.
Dean R. Koontz? One Dean R. Koontz book is okay. A second is tolerable. By the 3rd, you realize that every single one of his books is going to feature a main character who is an orphan, the lady who will love the orphan into wholeness, a smarter-than-everyone else child/dog/whatever, bad guys with helicopters/spaceships/something that flies noisily/brightly. Bah.
99% of the rest of horror catalogue: Slutty vampires; Cthulthu rip-offs and ultra-lame and confusing "epics" in which "weirdness" is supposed to substitute for good writing. It cannot be scary if it makes no sense. Dread is not uncertainty or confusion. Dread is having the feeling that you know exactly how things are going to turn out.
I want to be a much bigger horror fan than I am. The blood and guts and gore and veins in the teeth that turn my stomach in movies don't bother me in text. I love being creeped out. I love popping out of story and realizing that I've curled into a tiny ball. I want to be scared.
Most horror isn't scary. It's more by-the-numbers than fan fiction. It's always the beautiful, divorced cop being stalked by a serial killer. Yawn. The Ultra-Beautiful Bisexual Vampire Chick finding out she's the one who has to save humanity, vampiranity, the little faeries who live the pansy forest. I'll pass on the MarySue, thanks. Everyone is psychic. Everyone lost a younger brother in a tragic accident. Everyone knows the town cop.
Other than Anne Rice's influence why are vampire books always set in warm, spicy locales? If I wrote a vampire tale, know where I'd set it? Iceland. The blood herd is attractive. There are great discos. And in the winter, Iceland is dark for 20 hours a day.
And why are vampires always written as irresistible? People who eat way too much red meat stink. Blood stinks. Therefore, shouldn't vampires stink? Especially the face vampire who only feed on criminals and the dregs of society. Their diet has the lowest quality McBlood-- full of narcotics and junk food elevated triglycerides.
I'm not trying to kick vampires in the fangs. I just think the reason horror is so bland, so unread is because most commercial horror writers are in the same rut as fan ficcers-- they re-write what came before them rather than tell deep stories.
By "deep", I don't mean vampires angsting over the meaning of life or the existence of God. I mean a deep, wide, 3-dimensional world. Do vampires have a culture other than hanging around, looking slinky in leather catsuits? Is there a vampire Emeril? Bamming out the blood recipes on the undead network? Why aren't vampires as interested in the blood they consume as humans are with the food they eat? Does it suck to always miss Letterman because you're out on a blood run? Do vampires ever get bored with a blood diet? Do they secretly laugh at humans assuming that they are a vamp's first pick-- maybe horse blood is tastier and a better nutritional choice. Why are vampires never bothered by immortality? Think of how annoyingly baby boomers revive the 60's. Why wouldn't vampires also get stuck in a era? Mortals only have to adjust to era-changes 4, maybe 5 times before they die. For vampires, it would be a 25-year cycle.
To wrap this back to my original gripe, horror as genre tries to be too "out there", when really, horror needs to hit a reader inside. Horror should be less concerned about the fantastic shit, and more concerned about what could be going on right in front of my face--- which is scarier Cthulthu or a much rah-rah'ed president who wants to legalize warrentless spying on America's citizens.
Horror shouldn't be about exploiting my fears. It should be about exploiting my beliefs.
One comment irked me though. He was talking about Ramsey Campbell having to take a job in book store. NK pointed out that Horror (as a genre) must really be in the dumps, if someone like Campbell is forced to take a day job. While I feel sorry that someone has to work a 9-to-5 rather fulfill artistic desires, I'm also of the mind that maybe he should write books that other people want to read.
No, I'm not talking commercial over art. No, I'm not attacking Mr. Campbell specifically. The reason horror is in the dumps is because so many horror novels are awful.
Anne Rice? No thank you.
Dean R. Koontz? One Dean R. Koontz book is okay. A second is tolerable. By the 3rd, you realize that every single one of his books is going to feature a main character who is an orphan, the lady who will love the orphan into wholeness, a smarter-than-everyone else child/dog/whatever, bad guys with helicopters/spaceships/something that flies noisily/brightly. Bah.
99% of the rest of horror catalogue: Slutty vampires; Cthulthu rip-offs and ultra-lame and confusing "epics" in which "weirdness" is supposed to substitute for good writing. It cannot be scary if it makes no sense. Dread is not uncertainty or confusion. Dread is having the feeling that you know exactly how things are going to turn out.
I want to be a much bigger horror fan than I am. The blood and guts and gore and veins in the teeth that turn my stomach in movies don't bother me in text. I love being creeped out. I love popping out of story and realizing that I've curled into a tiny ball. I want to be scared.
Most horror isn't scary. It's more by-the-numbers than fan fiction. It's always the beautiful, divorced cop being stalked by a serial killer. Yawn. The Ultra-Beautiful Bisexual Vampire Chick finding out she's the one who has to save humanity, vampiranity, the little faeries who live the pansy forest. I'll pass on the MarySue, thanks. Everyone is psychic. Everyone lost a younger brother in a tragic accident. Everyone knows the town cop.
Other than Anne Rice's influence why are vampire books always set in warm, spicy locales? If I wrote a vampire tale, know where I'd set it? Iceland. The blood herd is attractive. There are great discos. And in the winter, Iceland is dark for 20 hours a day.
And why are vampires always written as irresistible? People who eat way too much red meat stink. Blood stinks. Therefore, shouldn't vampires stink? Especially the face vampire who only feed on criminals and the dregs of society. Their diet has the lowest quality McBlood-- full of narcotics and junk food elevated triglycerides.
I'm not trying to kick vampires in the fangs. I just think the reason horror is so bland, so unread is because most commercial horror writers are in the same rut as fan ficcers-- they re-write what came before them rather than tell deep stories.
By "deep", I don't mean vampires angsting over the meaning of life or the existence of God. I mean a deep, wide, 3-dimensional world. Do vampires have a culture other than hanging around, looking slinky in leather catsuits? Is there a vampire Emeril? Bamming out the blood recipes on the undead network? Why aren't vampires as interested in the blood they consume as humans are with the food they eat? Does it suck to always miss Letterman because you're out on a blood run? Do vampires ever get bored with a blood diet? Do they secretly laugh at humans assuming that they are a vamp's first pick-- maybe horse blood is tastier and a better nutritional choice. Why are vampires never bothered by immortality? Think of how annoyingly baby boomers revive the 60's. Why wouldn't vampires also get stuck in a era? Mortals only have to adjust to era-changes 4, maybe 5 times before they die. For vampires, it would be a 25-year cycle.
To wrap this back to my original gripe, horror as genre tries to be too "out there", when really, horror needs to hit a reader inside. Horror should be less concerned about the fantastic shit, and more concerned about what could be going on right in front of my face--- which is scarier Cthulthu or a much rah-rah'ed president who wants to legalize warrentless spying on America's citizens.
Horror shouldn't be about exploiting my fears. It should be about exploiting my beliefs.
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You might like Lost Echoes by Joe R Lansdale. The main character picks up psychic traces of previous events, so everywhere becomes a haunted house for him.
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