tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6498739347909985243.post8677501105168763170..comments2024-03-29T12:42:15.329+00:00Comments on The Speculative Scotsman: But I Digress | Horror Lives Again! But When Was It Dead?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08713791516631476930noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6498739347909985243.post-36079015916196420352012-01-10T17:00:44.228+00:002012-01-10T17:00:44.228+00:00As an addendum, I'd also direct the reviewer t...As an addendum, I'd also direct the reviewer to Hawthorn and Bierce, Poe and Chambers. Among Dickens' most famous tales after all, is a ghost story. <br /><br />So this isn't a new trend. At best, one might argue for a revival, a modern renaissance of literary horror. Visibility perhaps has been helped by the current popularity of the genre present across film, tv, comics, and novels.<br /><br />But even here, you're struggling against the tide, as the 90s are replete with some excellent horror.Eric M. Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11464329371478605627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6498739347909985243.post-53808847120268740902012-01-10T14:37:53.946+00:002012-01-10T14:37:53.946+00:00The huge effloresce of King & Koontz et al may...The huge effloresce of King & Koontz et al may be what the article is riffing on about. These two authors alone produced what amounts to some really dubious books, whose commercial success pumped life blood into popular horror during the late 70s and right up to our current decade.<br /><br />But to say that's the whole story of the genre suggests that the writer and their expected audience, simply aren't very horror-literate.<br /><br />Literary horror has been plentiful since the genre was developed. Rymer's penny dreadful 'Varny The Vampire' was followed not long after by Stoker's Dracula. Shelley's 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus' predate both by twenty years or more.<br /><br />Horror has been the subject and/or backdrop for many a serious, literary minded author. And there are those like Thomas Ligotti and Caitlin R. Kiernan who have unquestionably kept the literate end of the genre alive and thrashing. <br /><br />A good amount of experimental fiction has come out of horror as well. You could easily place Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich, and much of Michael Cisco's output under its moth-eaten umbrella.<br /><br />A lot of the buzz about 'The Reapers Are The Angels' by Alden Bell, which I thought personally had more ambition than success, centred on it being a "literary zombie novel." So these things come up from time to time, mostly I suspect because the reviewers or writers of the article aren't that well versed in wider horror. They know the big popular names, and that's all.<br /><br />I wouldn't take it too much to heart. If they want to tart up Hammer Horror, that's fine. And there is nothing wrong with helping people to think about horror as more the shlock and gore of late night creature features. <br /><br />So I'd give them a easier time. They are just either unfamiliar, or amnesiacs wandering around in a (yellow) fog.Eric M. Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11464329371478605627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6498739347909985243.post-71685121581875249402012-01-09T18:46:13.437+00:002012-01-09T18:46:13.437+00:00I believe it's not that the horror genre's...I believe it's not that the horror genre's dead NOW, or that it was a few weeks ago, but rather that it was a bit back, when the huge boon brought on by King/Koontz's insane popularity led to a wave of good and not so good horror that then crashed, leaving the Horror section of the bookstore pretty much just populated by those two authors, with most horror either being a small press affair or shelved somewhere else (say, the label Dark Fantasy, or what have you).Nathaniel Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.com