What is weird? The typical answer to this may be "anything out of the ordinary", something that is perceived as "supernatural", or something uncanny. To be a bit more specific and define weird fiction, I believe that it is a blend of genres or themes that branch out a bit further than just the realm of horror. Scientific, religious, mythical or even psychological disturbance themes mixed with fantasy or sci-fi.
A work like King Rat is labeled as 'weird', but doesn't fit so easily under these definitions. Though it pulls a lot of folk-lore from the legend of The Pied Piper, it mixes this with a modern setting and the typical gothic 'family bloodline and destiny' theme. Weird is a good word for it, as these pretty different things are wound together to create a world that, to be frank, felt pretty weird.
What I'm more accustomed to as weird are stories by H.P. Lovecraft or Arthur Machen. These authors take classic horror conventions like mystery and murder and mix them with the mythic, psychological, and cosmic unknown. King Rat, although introducing a different 'weird' to me, does what I expect a 'weird' book to do. It broke the rules of the familiar, in a slightly uncanny way. As Lovecraft had said about the 'weird genre':
"The true weird tale has...more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains... A certain atmosphere...must be present; and there must be a hint...of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space."
Our interest in the weird keeps us sane. We look for an escape from reality, and what better to offer that than the unexplainable and completely unrealistic? It's true that elves and dwarves are not real, but even more far-fetched are themes pulled from the cosmic unknown. Or better yet a mix of what we know to be familiar, but slightly off. The uncanny, such as I encountered in King Rat, can sometimes be the weirdest of all. Take something we know, like a modern setting, and give it a twist. If we look in the mirror and don't recognize what we see, it'll interest us a hell of a lot.
Monday, September 30, 2013
J-Horror
Japanese horror, as opposed to the Western horror I've grown accustomed to, focuses on the psychological and suspense building aspects of horror. Although not entirely unique to itself, these themes are the dominant use of horror. That alone represents a difference in cultural orientation. In Western culture, the formula may be a crazed axe-murderer that startles you with jump scares and loud orchestral stings, but J-horror builds tension relatively slowly and focuses on folk-lore, spirits, and themes from classic ghost stories.
A good example of cultural shift is in the movie Pulse. We noticed in this movie that there's an absence of romance. A typical role to fill in Western horror movies is the male and female couple. One can expect them to overcome the ordeal they're thrown into, proving their strength and love for each other. Another good thing to note was the scene with where the ghost of a young woman is walking up to the boy who unsealed the taped-up door. The music was increasing in volume, and being accustomed to Western horror I expected a loud crescendo and jump scare. That never happened, it just sort of cut abruptly. It left me with a completely different feeling. I felt anxious even after the scene ended because there was no conclusion to the scare that I really expected.
The existence of good and evil in Western culture is clearly defined. It seems that is there is something bad, it exists for the purpose of doing harm to whatever or whoever may defined as good by contrast. J-horror, though, seems much more circumstantial. The first film of the Kwaidan movie illustrates this example well. The man sort of fell into meeting with the spirit, eventually forgetting the promise he made. The spirit was not intent on doing harm to him, and even decided not to at the end. If this were a Western story or film, the man probably would have met his end the night he first met the spirit.
A good example of cultural shift is in the movie Pulse. We noticed in this movie that there's an absence of romance. A typical role to fill in Western horror movies is the male and female couple. One can expect them to overcome the ordeal they're thrown into, proving their strength and love for each other. Another good thing to note was the scene with where the ghost of a young woman is walking up to the boy who unsealed the taped-up door. The music was increasing in volume, and being accustomed to Western horror I expected a loud crescendo and jump scare. That never happened, it just sort of cut abruptly. It left me with a completely different feeling. I felt anxious even after the scene ended because there was no conclusion to the scare that I really expected.
The existence of good and evil in Western culture is clearly defined. It seems that is there is something bad, it exists for the purpose of doing harm to whatever or whoever may defined as good by contrast. J-horror, though, seems much more circumstantial. The first film of the Kwaidan movie illustrates this example well. The man sort of fell into meeting with the spirit, eventually forgetting the promise he made. The spirit was not intent on doing harm to him, and even decided not to at the end. If this were a Western story or film, the man probably would have met his end the night he first met the spirit.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Vampires
Vampires represent an interesting topic in the genre of horror. Vampires, from a more contemporary standpoint, are over-sexualized, thought of as perfect, and basically are ideal human beings. This is obvious in something like Twilight, Vampire Diaries, or perhaps what influenced it all: Interview with a Vampire.
While reading, I couldn't help but ask a question that popped into my head during Frankenstein. The monster in the book was intelligent, eloquent, and much less of a 'monster' than what I knew from film and pop-culture. At what point did that image of a self-taught monster change into a tall green man with screws in his neck? In terms of vampires, why did Nosferatu eventually change into a forever teenage boy that sparkles in the sun?
If given the chance, I'm sure many people would choose to live forever. The immortal vampire is the ideal human experience. One can live forever and be much more powerful than normal. Such is the apparent sexiness of vampires. This is probably why something like Nosferatu fell out of the image of a typical vampire. A creepy big-nosed recluse doesn't appeal to an audience nearly as well as attractive forever-young-adults would. Vampires turn from something to be afraid of to something we possibly crave. It's interesting to be able to look back on something like this and see how different it was just one hundred years ago.
While reading, I couldn't help but ask a question that popped into my head during Frankenstein. The monster in the book was intelligent, eloquent, and much less of a 'monster' than what I knew from film and pop-culture. At what point did that image of a self-taught monster change into a tall green man with screws in his neck? In terms of vampires, why did Nosferatu eventually change into a forever teenage boy that sparkles in the sun?
If given the chance, I'm sure many people would choose to live forever. The immortal vampire is the ideal human experience. One can live forever and be much more powerful than normal. Such is the apparent sexiness of vampires. This is probably why something like Nosferatu fell out of the image of a typical vampire. A creepy big-nosed recluse doesn't appeal to an audience nearly as well as attractive forever-young-adults would. Vampires turn from something to be afraid of to something we possibly crave. It's interesting to be able to look back on something like this and see how different it was just one hundred years ago.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Today's Gothic
The term 'gothic' may conjure up several different images in an individual's head. Be it some architectural design, a teenager with dyed black hair, or a video game played with the lights off, today's culture has undeniably been shaped by what is Gothic.
To be a bit more specific, gothic romanticism has been tumbled around in our culture to make it a bit more interesting to modern audiences. Although not the first, themes and stories from H.P. Lovecraft works inspire games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In terms of cinema, Ridley Scott's Prometheus was partly inspired by Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (link). The fear of the unknown has always been relevant to human interests.
The term cosmic horror can be used to describe something like the pursuit of knowledge, but is driven mad when they learn the truth of what they were looking for. My first introduction (beyond my childhood notions of Frankenstein) to what I understood as gothic were the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Stories like The Rats in the Walls and The Shunned House introduced me to what is Gothic. As previously stated, the theme of chasing the unknown seems very influential to contemporary culture.
Going beyond movies like Prometheus or games like Amensia, this theme is present in our society on a technological. The whole point of trying to explore space is to discover what is out there. We develop technologies to grasp into the unknown and hope to learn every secret of the universe. Is it possible there's something we wouldn't want to know? Or if we were to learn, would it be too much to handle? The unknown used to exist in the dark of the night as vampires, werewolves or witches. Today it exists in the fact that there is much beyond our home.
To be a bit more specific, gothic romanticism has been tumbled around in our culture to make it a bit more interesting to modern audiences. Although not the first, themes and stories from H.P. Lovecraft works inspire games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In terms of cinema, Ridley Scott's Prometheus was partly inspired by Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (link). The fear of the unknown has always been relevant to human interests.
The term cosmic horror can be used to describe something like the pursuit of knowledge, but is driven mad when they learn the truth of what they were looking for. My first introduction (beyond my childhood notions of Frankenstein) to what I understood as gothic were the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Stories like The Rats in the Walls and The Shunned House introduced me to what is Gothic. As previously stated, the theme of chasing the unknown seems very influential to contemporary culture.
Going beyond movies like Prometheus or games like Amensia, this theme is present in our society on a technological. The whole point of trying to explore space is to discover what is out there. We develop technologies to grasp into the unknown and hope to learn every secret of the universe. Is it possible there's something we wouldn't want to know? Or if we were to learn, would it be too much to handle? The unknown used to exist in the dark of the night as vampires, werewolves or witches. Today it exists in the fact that there is much beyond our home.
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