The Fountain Pen

Lovecraft once said, “Atmosphere, not action, is the great desideratum of weird fiction.” I’ll go one step further and state: good weird fiction (and good horror fiction) lives or dies by its atmosphere. I’ve given this much thought over the past couple of weeks, in fact I haven’t stopped thinking about it, and thus my conclusion as stated. I have spent my last couple of weeks reading as much “horror” short stories as I can, and when I cannot I listen to those I can find on the Internet. Some have been “professional” (as measured by being published in a for-pay magazine) and others have been “amateur” (as measured by being given away as free online). This latest bit of reading coupled with my memories of reading ghost story collections as a kid has led me to agree with Lovecraft.

There are a good many weird tales out there which I have passed over because they lacked impact; they fell flat; they were uninteresting. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve thought about those stories that did grab me and those that didn’t and did a quick mental comparison. I found that the essential story in either case was not all that different. Even the most atmospheric ghostly tale is still quite banal under a microscope. The deciding factor was the atmosphere.

In my opinion really good weird fiction will have it’s own atmosphere, and will not require you to create your own. I have read such stories, and it’s a bit of a thrill to sit in a parking lot in the middle of the day and still feel the foggy, creepy, haunting atmosphere of a story.

If I may speculate, I’ll suggest that this aspect of “horror” literature is what makes it so difficult to write (and if you write horror in order to scare I think you’re doubly challenged). I can be more relaxed about atmosphere in my sword swinging fantasy stories, and atmosphere is not what people generally look for in a good sci-fi yarn. Yet when a story will either fall flat or resonate with the audience due in part to the atmosphere, frankly I find that a bit of a task. In all my writing classes not once was setting stressed beyond plot or characters, nor was atmosphere really discussed.

There is more to a weird tale or a horror story than at first glance. I have more respect for those authors who write them well.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Allow me to put my theology cap on. My demonology isn’t all that refined as that was not actually covered with anything more than a passing reference in my course of study, but I do know a few things. For one I know demons masquerade as angels of light; I also know Satan’s goal is to gain worshippers of his own, not necessarily to destroy, to create chaos, to corrupt into gross acts of sin against God (though I cannot deny that he might approve of such tactics; see Job). Is it so hard to believe that a person would cooperate with an angelic figure who merely wanted their worship? Then is it so hard to imagine that a person who might have sold his soul to the devil might not be a dark and sinister man?

Go forth and write. I know of few characters who made a pact like this, but it seems far more likely than the usual means of making a contract with demons and the devil. And no, I have no ideas how one might actually go about contacting a demon in order to make this contract in the first place, I’m assuming it will happen by chance when least expected, and it will seem pleasant and beneficial.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)