 Horror/Scary: February 01, 2017 Issue [#8106] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: The Horror in Love Unrequited Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Horror and Scary Newsletter, where we explore the means of inciting horror with our words in verse and prose.
"The beginning of love is a horror of emptiness"
Robert Bly
"Where there is no imagination there is no horror."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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Greetings, my fellow visionaries and scribes plundering the crevices of humankind's dark and secret fears and desires.
Fear and desire ~ they go together well, do they not. Humankind both fears what it desires and desires to explore what it fears. Think about it, makes sense, does it not. From childhood we explore the unknown - what's that crunchy noise in the hedges; I've got to show her/him that I'm not as scared as I look because... why? because there's something about him/her that makes me want to look brave and strong and fearless even though it's hard to catch my breath when I step towards the hedges, and towards him/her.
Get the image, both horror and romance are visceral and sensual - passionate. Visible, tangible, imagined, perceived by one or more character. They have physical as well as emotional impact on the victim, I mean, subject, of the sensation. Horror entwined with romance or love, be it returned or spurned, often adds depth to the story or poem, allowing the reader to empathize with one or more of the characters, drawing reader into the otherworld created for his/her horrific exploration.
Horror and romance blend well together, and have a long relationship, centuries long, so they must get along, right? Be the object human, or other non-human sentient being, or of the spirit world, or an alternate reality, the increased passion energizes the plot and offers opportunity for characters to show themselves in their horrific gory, I mean, glory.
For familiar horror blended with romance, consider Frankenstein, or Rebecca or Wuthering Heights for some classics, or more recently H.P. Lovecraft (several in his collection October Countries). The horror is either initiated by, or escalates because of, spurned love, or unrequited love, or the imagined or perceived removal of the object of one's affection or obsession. The end results can be visceral, gruesome, or more subtle shifts in the fabric of the world as we know it (again, Lovecraft).
The blend continues to weave atmosphere into the horror, the added depth drawing the reader into the parallel themes of increasing terror and romantic or emotional engagement. The setting becomes as another character, perhaps as deep as an actual antagonist, one to be bested in order to achieve success in quelling the horror and either achieving the romance or setting it to its ultimate rest.
Horror with romantic undertones can be erotic, or subliminal in its expression. It can engage humans, non-humans, spirits, the living and the dead (in various stages of decomposition). Weaving in the atmosphere, the raging storm or silent beach, adds depth, explains the meaning, and makes the reader more fully engage both the horror and the anticipation of romance or love or love's opposite, hatred. And when your characters react with violence, be it visual and swift or subtle and slow, your readers are fully engaged in the story, anticipating the horror to come, yet unsure when or where or by whom (or what) it will be met and resolved.
A romantic interlude can create a bond between two or more characters who join to fight an outside enemy or evil, or it can rend asunder friends, companions, and make of them enemies to wreak vengeance and horror upon each other and other sentient creatures, mortal or otherwise. But it's the horror unleashed that resounds to engage and drive the characters to seek vengeance or respite, together or apart.
Write On   
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Engage the horror in these tales where horror entwines its grip on love or romance in myriad guises
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An annoying humming sound at the office turns into a dangerous situation.
#2010574 by TJ Marie  |
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I thank you for this brief respite in the relative safety of your virtual home.
Until we next meet, I challenge you to survive and thrive and weave tales of horror imagined and surreal.
Write On
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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