The Lighter Side of Absolute Zero

Supernatural Horror in Literature/Introduction - Wikisource:

The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.

This essay by H. P. Lovecraft is almost 80 years old, and yet I find the above words to be pertinent to today. The more I have thought about writing a good ghost story, or haunted house story, or any other story in the horror genre the more I have come to want to do just what Lovecraft is prescribing.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So … what would it be like to wake up and realize your dream was in black and white?

I think I’ll have to use that in a story somewhere. That’s got to be a sign Something Is Wrong ^TM. I don’t think it’s particularly terrorizing or horrible, but it might be enough to help set a horror mood.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After finishing Supernatural Horror in Literature something became quite apparent to me: horror tales work because of a belief in the supernatural. It seems to me ghost stories, haunted houses, and things that go bump in the night carry no particular attraction to one who rejects anything supernatural. It seems to me a prospective horror writer (who wants to make money at it) would be well served to pay attention to the philosophy of the day. Modernism and rationalism don’t seem much compatible with ghouls and goblins.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)