This week: Conquering fear Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: "The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
~ Mark Twain |
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The world is filled with dangerous situations, creatures, and places. Some animals, plants, places, and people can hurt or even kill us.
Ignoring danger could mean losing our lives, but living in constant fear can paralyze us to the extent that we are not able to live the lives we want.
Fear is often born of ignorance, but knowledge and information can conquer fear. I used to have an irrational fear of spiders, but I dealt with it by learning all I could about them. I learned that most of them do not even attack humans, and they are actually beneficial because of all the pest insects they eat. I still don't want them crawling on me, but my fear has been replaced by a healthy respect. Developing a healthy respect is the best way to learn to share the world with dangerous animals such as tigers, sharks, spiders, and snakes.
If you live in a place where natural events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes are common, being prepared helps deal with fear. Tornadoes are always a possibility in the summer in the Great Plains where I live, and many people have come to fear the thunderstorms that can spawn them. We deal with it by being as prepared and informed as possible. People keep an eye on the weather during any outdoor activity. Cities have early warning systems such as storm warning sirens, and people in the country have weather radios. TV stations interrupt programming with warnings when a storm system approaches. Public facilities such as schools and hospitals have tornado drills, and citizens learn the best ways to take shelter in a storm emergency.
Some people deal with fear by gradually immersing themselves in the thing they fear. For example, someone who is afraid to learn to swim might start out by just dipping their toes in a swimming pool. With help, they could eventually work up to walking in to the shallow end, placing their face in the water, and attempting to float. This way of dealing with fear only works if the person wants to do it and is ready. Forcing a person who fears water into a pool would probably only reinforce the fear.
The best subjects for horror stories are fears that are most difficult to conquer. If a creature or situation is totally unknown, it will be difficult to gain knowledge of it. That is one reason why the creatures in "The Bird Box" were so frightening. Anyone who attempted to study them saw them and died. Even when the people in the story did develop some knowledge of the creatures, learning to coexist with them made life really difficult.
Human predators such as rapists and murderers are far more frightening than an animal predator such as a shark. A shark is not evil for being a shark, but a sociopathic killer is evil personified. We can learn to understand the workings of an evil mind and take some steps to avoid them. However, learning to coexist with them is not an option. Police and other investigators need to learn how they think to be able to catch them. A twisted human mind may be more frightening than any place on earth.
Something to try: Write a horror story where the characters learn to understand a frightening situation.
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|  | Clueless (13+)
Two older fellers conversing on a park bench, but one is more clueless than he knows...
#2198955 by Angus  |
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Horror/Scary: October 16, 2019 Issue [#9812]
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