Introduction
Welcome to the lair of horror literature! Dark minds over centuries have scared the wits out of their readers by harping on our most subconscious of fears. Below is a description of what you might expect to find in the course.
FEARS: CHILDREN AND ADULTS
Fear, the greatest ally of horror literature, has had a home in the human heart since the beginning of time. According to H.P. Lovecraft, a horror fiction master whom you will learn more about in the course, said that fear is the oldest and deepest emotion of humankind. And he is right.
Consider for example your childhood. Were you afraid? What were you afraid of? Abandonment? The death of your parents? These are the two greatest childhood fears.
Consider your adulthood. What are you afraid of now? Your own death? Your child’s death? The loss of a job? Loneliness? These are the greatest adult fears.
Both adult and childhood fears find a kindred spirit in horror literature. If one for example looks at the literature of Stephen King, he has combined these in his novel “It”. Children, with their fears, become adults, with their grownup fears. And grownup fears are worse than children’s fears, although they may seem less intense. The thing about adult fears is that there is no consolation. The adult is now the parent who must provide consolation, and there is nothing that a grown-up person can turn to. When an adult asks, “Will I die?” the answer is yes, and there is nothing you can do and no way in which to know what is beyond.
RELIGION
This is the realm of H.P. Lovecraft. Life is one big abandonment. According to the fiction of Lovecraft, human beings were created to exist as servants and food for aliens from outer space. This knowledge renders life meaningless from a human point of view. Religion, spirituality, and life itself is nothing in terms of the monsters that were their creators. This is a parody of religion, where humanity was created by a loving god.
Thus a more daring approach is taken by literature with the emerging idea of "the death of god". God is dead, and some critics claim that horror literature is there to replace him and the love that he stood for, with a love of fear.
CULTURE
H.P. Lovecraft died in malnutrition-induced poverty and obscurity. However, his publisher, August Derleth made sure that his work lived on. During the seventies, when the world of literature and culture was ready, Lovecraft’s work experienced a revival that is seen by some as the biggest in horror history.
An example is the author’s influence in the world of subculture and the occult. The gothic subculture, whose main emotion is sadness and whose main philosophy incorporates nihilism, finds that H.P.L. strikes a chord in their hearts. They read Lovecraft and wait for the end of the world, where monsters would rule.
The field of occultism is similarly influenced. The most recent development in the various ways of magic, Chaos Magic, uses creatures from Lovecraft’s fiction to empower its rituals. Some extreme occultists even go as far as believing that the alien creatures from Lovecraft can be invoked through ritual and contacted through dreams.
NIGHTMARES
Of course much of Lovecraft’s and indeed any author’s horror literature derives from nightmares. What is interesting is that Lovecraft makes these nightmares so real that some take them for the truth. This is also a theme that will be thoroughly discussed in the course.
Meanwhile, write down all your nightmares, and believe in them. Thus you migh uncover and release some of the darkness within!
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Lessons
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