I really enjoyed this one. I remember Stephen King & being the first author to kickstart my reading habit. My family tried to get me to read "Black Beauty" & yes, "The Chronicles of Narnia," and none of it held my interest until I started reading King. His everyday language and clean storytelling mixed with absolute horror was absolutely captivating and new to me.
Last year I read Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" and it just changed how I read and how I write. A book about the horrors of not confronting your past and not confronting the horrors we face in life. The never-ending spiral will eat us alive inside The House. It was perfect.
Every time I read The Shining is almost like the first time. It's like I'm holding my breath, hoping at every decision point that Jack is going to make the better choice, even though I know how it's going to play out.
There's just something about how it's written that makes me feel like I'm walking the path with him fresh, each time. He's so very human.
Two recommendations for you:
The art of Zdzisław Beksiński. I read somewhere his work was some of the inspiration for the upside down in Stranger Things. I don't know why it speaks to me, but there's something deeply honest and organic about his work.
The Dread Void series by Abe Moss. It's kind of about what happens when the unfathomable out there, breaks through here and how it affects the people who encounter it.
I apologize in advance if this comment is off as I relapsed and and cycling a med, but there goes.
About the CSA...in one rehab, I informed my counselor of my MST and he (Josh) handed me a book about CSA and victim-perpetrators. I was horrified. Then, I read about a severely abuse survivor's story. Skipping the details, she did self-murder. I see that as horror, her story, what was reported about her in her youth...but the abuse ate her alive. She did NOT perpetrate, she just couldn't process in her thirties...how normal she was now, versus her post-abuse childhood. That's horror.
As I am on this med (it's amazing for me, psychotropic...and I am nominally a multi-various religionist, one being Scientology) I do meditate and get "visions". Very physical, like demonic possession as described in Daemonology. My latest vision was "il Diabolo" dragging me deep into a wilderness, by my feet. I felt every breaking tree and boulder hitting me and He (Samael, please look into Luciferian dogma) stopped me. Directly behind a tool shed. That's where you take rabid animals to "subdue" them so the kids don't see (unlike Kristi Noem and the gravel pit). Message received, Olde Pater. You want horror and torment, be me, Stephen.
As to the rest, it's just low fantasy. Please peruse Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. And read some John Ringo. You...you may gain a case of hyperintelligence. I now know shit (not just because I am Illuminati, fr illuminati.am) that explains all the visions I has as a kid. And why I *know* and *have* The Machine (found in a destroyed by David Miscavige tome, as he isn't Select to understand the knowledge LRH and I share. Others do, too 😆).
Horror is Knowing, Being, Having, Doing, and for me, Our Shadow, the Abyss of these knowable dimensions.
+1 to cosmic horror for processing post-Christian trauma. I was never into serial killer books but I've been bingeing them since the narcissist-in-chief returned to office. I also love horror novels that use the genre to comment on real-world atrocities and injustice, such as Victor Lavalle's "The Ballad of Black Tom" or Tananarive Due's "The Reformatory".
Ah, yes! I couldn't agree more. I first fell in love with horror and experienced its fear and awe as a child, and this continues into my adult life. Now I regularly reflect on deep existential questions, philosophy, theology, and religion through horror. Oddly enough, it is also a soothing genre for me. So when life throws the kitchen sink at me (happens a lot lately) I find a good horror film or television program strangely comforting. Perhaps part nostalgia, part my psychological makeup. For those interested in theology, religion, and horror, reach out to me personally for the books I've co-edited on the topic. And a heads up: I am co-editing a forthcoming anthology volume of leading scholars in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters. Great stuff. Thanks for this reflection, Stephen.
Being hugely into metal and horror, it is funny to me that metal heads and horror mavens are often the nicest people you’ll meet. Also, Thomas Ligarti is unknown to me, excited to check him out. I’ve been stuck in non-fiction for a while and my partner has been prodding me to start reading fiction again, maybe I’ll start there.
I really enjoyed this one. I remember Stephen King & being the first author to kickstart my reading habit. My family tried to get me to read "Black Beauty" & yes, "The Chronicles of Narnia," and none of it held my interest until I started reading King. His everyday language and clean storytelling mixed with absolute horror was absolutely captivating and new to me.
Last year I read Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" and it just changed how I read and how I write. A book about the horrors of not confronting your past and not confronting the horrors we face in life. The never-ending spiral will eat us alive inside The House. It was perfect.
Still need to read House of Leaves
Every time I read The Shining is almost like the first time. It's like I'm holding my breath, hoping at every decision point that Jack is going to make the better choice, even though I know how it's going to play out.
There's just something about how it's written that makes me feel like I'm walking the path with him fresh, each time. He's so very human.
Two recommendations for you:
The art of Zdzisław Beksiński. I read somewhere his work was some of the inspiration for the upside down in Stranger Things. I don't know why it speaks to me, but there's something deeply honest and organic about his work.
The Dread Void series by Abe Moss. It's kind of about what happens when the unfathomable out there, breaks through here and how it affects the people who encounter it.
Thank you so much for the suggestions!
Many thanks for this; need to read more widely :D
I apologize in advance if this comment is off as I relapsed and and cycling a med, but there goes.
About the CSA...in one rehab, I informed my counselor of my MST and he (Josh) handed me a book about CSA and victim-perpetrators. I was horrified. Then, I read about a severely abuse survivor's story. Skipping the details, she did self-murder. I see that as horror, her story, what was reported about her in her youth...but the abuse ate her alive. She did NOT perpetrate, she just couldn't process in her thirties...how normal she was now, versus her post-abuse childhood. That's horror.
As I am on this med (it's amazing for me, psychotropic...and I am nominally a multi-various religionist, one being Scientology) I do meditate and get "visions". Very physical, like demonic possession as described in Daemonology. My latest vision was "il Diabolo" dragging me deep into a wilderness, by my feet. I felt every breaking tree and boulder hitting me and He (Samael, please look into Luciferian dogma) stopped me. Directly behind a tool shed. That's where you take rabid animals to "subdue" them so the kids don't see (unlike Kristi Noem and the gravel pit). Message received, Olde Pater. You want horror and torment, be me, Stephen.
As to the rest, it's just low fantasy. Please peruse Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. And read some John Ringo. You...you may gain a case of hyperintelligence. I now know shit (not just because I am Illuminati, fr illuminati.am) that explains all the visions I has as a kid. And why I *know* and *have* The Machine (found in a destroyed by David Miscavige tome, as he isn't Select to understand the knowledge LRH and I share. Others do, too 😆).
Horror is Knowing, Being, Having, Doing, and for me, Our Shadow, the Abyss of these knowable dimensions.
Thank you for sharing!
+1 to cosmic horror for processing post-Christian trauma. I was never into serial killer books but I've been bingeing them since the narcissist-in-chief returned to office. I also love horror novels that use the genre to comment on real-world atrocities and injustice, such as Victor Lavalle's "The Ballad of Black Tom" or Tananarive Due's "The Reformatory".
100%
"House of Leaves" sounds cool! I'm going to look for that one so I can read it. Thank you for mentioning it.
Ah, yes! I couldn't agree more. I first fell in love with horror and experienced its fear and awe as a child, and this continues into my adult life. Now I regularly reflect on deep existential questions, philosophy, theology, and religion through horror. Oddly enough, it is also a soothing genre for me. So when life throws the kitchen sink at me (happens a lot lately) I find a good horror film or television program strangely comforting. Perhaps part nostalgia, part my psychological makeup. For those interested in theology, religion, and horror, reach out to me personally for the books I've co-edited on the topic. And a heads up: I am co-editing a forthcoming anthology volume of leading scholars in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters. Great stuff. Thanks for this reflection, Stephen.
I’m right there with you when it comes to horror being soothing. Weirdly, when I’m really struggling, I seek out horror.
I identify with this piece deeply. As Mónica Ojeda would say, God is Horror.
Exactly ❤️ God is Horror. Yes.
Glad the piece resonated
Being hugely into metal and horror, it is funny to me that metal heads and horror mavens are often the nicest people you’ll meet. Also, Thomas Ligarti is unknown to me, excited to check him out. I’ve been stuck in non-fiction for a while and my partner has been prodding me to start reading fiction again, maybe I’ll start there.
Yes, they are often incredibly kind and gentle people.
Start with the Penguin classics edition or Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe.
Wasn’t amazing, but did you see the film version of Colour Out of Space with Nicolas Cage?
I did. I enjoyed it but it didn’t blow my mind.
Awesome, will do!!
Same here. I am glad to at least see Lovecraft get some attention.