Reading Doesn’t Produce Fright
I was recently talking with a friend of mine and each of us confessed we have never been scared by a book, and in truth feel no contents of any book will ever instill even a remote sense of fear. I’m sure psychologists everywhere have opinions on why this is, and frankly I don’t much care. I’m not sure I read stories to scare myself, I’m not even sure if I like being scared (and I’ve read articles stating scary movies succeed because we like being scared). And yet, when the weather cooperates and casts a pallor of gloom around me, you will be sure to find me in a dimly lit room (candles if I can) devouring as much Lovecraft and other “masters” as I can find. You might even be treated to an impromptu ghost story of my own creation.
So what am I writing when I write a horror story if I concede I will not scare anyone with it? If I am not writing to frighten, then what am I doing exactly? I’m still coming to grips with why I read, but it seems to me, from my perspective only, horror literature isn’t about fright and terror in the reader’s psyche, it’s about something else, something I can’t put my claw finger on.