Scary reading

[shereads]

Why do we do it?

I'm reading a novel that's scaring the beejeezus out of me. Can't put it down. Afraid to turn the lights out and the TV off now, because I might dream that the Friend is in my room, whispering my name...

Yikes! Why is this entertaining?

("A Good and Happy Child" by Justin Evans. "The Exorcist" meets Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.")

 

[jomar]

We build up catharts in our system. Back in the day the saber tooth tigers and, later, Rottweilers the drug dealers had, would scare the shit out of us. This balanced the cathart levels in our brains. Now, however, we have to rely on scary books, movies and Britney Spears to establish equilibrium.



I love the movie Descent. And Black Hawk Down.

 

[lisa123414]

I admit, I had to stop reading the scary ones, long, long ago! Stephen King's "Pet Semetary" did it to me.

 

[Luke's Angel]

What Jomar said. Most of our lives have become so predictable and knowable. I was going to say tedious but that isn't the right concept I think. Despite what I see on the news everyday I find that life is safe, predictable and insulated from the outside world. Comparing my life to that of the lives of my parents and granparents is an eye opener. The important and dangerous events in the world seem far removed in many respects. Not all respects but many.

 

[Luke's Angel]

I admit, I had to stop reading the scary ones, long, long ago! Stephen King's "Pet Semetary" did it to me.

I have tried to read King's novels but I have the same reaction. My brother loved to read horror stories by King and other authors but I was never that much attracted to the horror genre. I've done things for work in real life that would probably frighten most people though so I guess it balances out.

 

[togitc]

I like to read horror novels because it is a lot harder to scare someone in text than it is in the movies. The great thing about King is that even through it all the Good Guys usually win.

 

[shereads]

I like to read horror novels because it is a lot harder to scare someone in text than it is in the movies. The great thing about King is that even through it all the Good Guys usually win.

This book isn't what I'd call horror, in that there's no gore. It's psychological horror. I no longer have the stomach for the other kind.

I stopped reading Stephen King when he began to throw in extraneous gore and sadism. I'm a big fan of "The Shining," and some of King's short stories have shown flashes of brilliance. There's a thread of humanity in his earlier work that makes the horror worthwhile (and "The Shining" was beautifully plotted.) But midway through "It," he had some teenaged thug visiting a beagle puppy he'd been keeping in an abandoned refrigerator, and I knew I wasn't going to get anything out of that book that would make up for how disgusted and sickened and angry I felt at King.

I never finished "It," and I never went back to Stephen King.

A friend recently gave me "Lissey's Story," and told me it's a major change for King, reminiscent of his earlier work. It's in my to-read stack, but every time I start to pick it up I remember the sadism of "It" and I put it back in the pile.

You're right - it is harder to scare someone in print than in a movie, where a clever jump-cut can make a whole theater full of people jump out of their seats. It's also harder to scare people - in a book or a movie - than to horrify us with blood and gore. "The Exorcist" remains most terrifying movie I've ever seen, and there was very little violence in it.

 

[slyc_willie]

This book isn't what I'd call horror, in that there's no gore. It's psychological horror. I no longer have the stomach for the other kind.

I stopped reading Stephen King when he began to throw in extraneous gore and sadism. I'm a big fan of "The Shining," and some of King's short stories have shown flashes of brilliance. There's a thread of humanity in his earlier work that makes the horror worthwhile (and "The Shining" was beautifully plotted.) But midway through "It," he had some teenaged thug visiting a beagle puppy he'd been keeping in an abandoned refrigerator, and I knew I wasn't going to get anything out of that book that would make up for how disgusted and sickened and angry I felt at King.

I never finished "It," and I never went back to Stephen King.

A friend recently gave me "Lissey's Story," and told me it's a major change for King, reminiscent of his earlier work. It's in my to-read stack, but every time I start to pick it up I remember the sadism of "It" and I put it back in the pile.

You're right - it is harder to scare someone in print than in a movie, where a clever jump-cut can make a whole theater full of people jump out of their seats. It's also harder to scare people - in a book or a movie - than to horrify us with blood and gore. "The Exorcist" remains most terrifying movie I've ever seen, and there was very little violence in it.

"It" was a good story, and a classic example of why some novels should not be translated onto the big screen. I remember reading the dining room scene, and the way King drew it out, identifying all the little horrors with each of the characters . . . all of it was lost in the movie.

The great thing about reading thrillers is that your mind does so much more than the words could express. The words are just the launching pad, your imagination is the rocket. Sure, certain words or phrases just have "that effect" on you, but really, it's what they inspire, within the own dark depths of your own perverted and twisted psyche, that does the trick.

I remember asking a friend of mine why she liked Stephen King so much. She told me, "I figure, if I read about sick shit like this, it won't happen to me. It kind'a turns me on, too."

 

[Guest]

I gave up on King for much the same reason. I just couldn't stomach the gore. So, I turned to Koontz...which I deem "King-Lite." He was really great at first and then...

and then, he fell into a trap, in my opinion. He began writing the same damn thing over and over. The formula was the same and I began to feel like he was writing by numbers. I gave up on him too.


Next- Ann Rice. Beautiful, fanciful, artful use of language. I read all of her books from the Beauty series through all the vampires. What turned me from her? She began to be very long winded in description. Sometimes good, but for me...me with the patience of a gnat, sometimes I couldn't wait to trudge through those parts.

I'm waiting on the next. It will have to be tame as I don't have the stomach for horror in much of any form now... I can watch the news for that.

 

[jomar]

Next- Ann Rice. Beautiful, fanciful, artful use of language. I read all of her books from the Beauty series through all the vampires. What turned me from her? She began to be very long winded in description. Sometimes good, but for me...me with the patience of a gnat, sometimes I couldn't wait to trudge through those parts.

I'm waiting on the next. It will have to be tame as I don't have the stomach for horror in much of any form now... I can watch the news for that.

That's what finally turned me off from James Michner.

I saw an interview with Ann Rice on tv the other day. She plans another Lestat book, but it will be heavy on the religion. She's been born again in a major way and it sounded like all her stuff is going to very religious from now on.

 

[CharleyH]

Why do we do it?

I'm reading a novel that's scaring the beejeezus out of me. Can't put it down. Afraid to turn the lights out and the TV off now, because I might dream that the Friend is in my room, whispering my name...

Yikes! Why is this entertaining?

("A Good and Happy Child" by Justin Evans. "The Exorcist" meets Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.")

Bunp.

 

[shereads]

"A Good and Happy Child" by Justin Evans.

Whew.

That was scarier than expected. And worth it.

Recommended.

 

[NoJo]

Whew.

That was scarier than expected. And worth it.

Recommended.

You're sitting in a damp puddle of excitement

 

[buxxxom]

The scariest book I ever read was "The Amityville Horror" but I read it when I was 12, and had been forbidden to do so. All else pales in comparison since then.

I've read quite a bit of Steven King, and frankly, the man wigs me out. I figure, he probably censors himself, and considers at least half of the stuff that floats through his mind too out-there for publication, and we get the tamer half in his books. How can you close your eyes at night with all those monsters lurking in your brain?

"Lisey's Story" was the first I'd read of him in a long time, though. I'd gotten bored with him. I picked up "Lisey's Story" at the beach when nothing else looked worth the 5 bucks. I don't like to start and finish something the same day. I was surprised, and pleased, with the story and my reaction to it.

I've given up on Anne Rice. Lestat gets more and more unbelievable with each passing novel. My favorites of her works are those that tell of the Mayfair witches, and the Talamasca. I'd like to see a book on the Talamasca and the phenomena they study.

 

[NoJo]

The scariest book I ever read was "The Amityville Horror" but I read it when I was 12, and had been forbidden to do so. All else pales in comparison since then.

I haven't been scared for ages

 

[rgraham666]

Try this on for size, Joe.

President Cheney.

 

[WoodzyBob]

Salem's Lot was by far the scariest for me, I read it 25 years ago and ought to pick it up again to see if it still holds the spell.
On second thought, I'm good.

 

[buxxxom]

I haven't been scared for ages

Fake scary I can do, no problem. I just don't get scared. Realistic scary, or based on fact scary, or gory, like "Saving Private Ryan," never again. "Titanic" falls into my never again category too, and realistic things like that.

Give me Jason and Freddy anyday over Kate and Leo.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I frighten easily and tend to shoot back when I feel threatened. Theater owners have little patience for the holes in their screens so I avoid frightening movies, period. If a book starts to really bother me, I drop it like a hot rock. Nearly getting killed has a tendency, I think, to reduce your enjoyment of malevolent entertainment. Been dere, survived, don' wan' t'do it again!

 

[buxxxom]

I frighten easily and tend to shoot back when I feel threatened. Theater owners have little patience for the holes in their screens so I avoid frightening movies, period. If a book starts to really bother me, I drop it like a hot rock. Nearly getting killed has a tendency, I think, to reduce your enjoyment of malevolent entertainment. Been dere, survived, don' wan' t'do it again!

I haven't been there, I just can't stand the feeling that real people, people who lived and breathed, who had families, had to go through stuff like what I'm watching, reading about.

 

[shereads]

You're sitting in a damp puddle of excitement

Bus benches. Scary.

 

[shereads]

"Titanic" falls into my never again category too, and realistic things like that.

I, too, now live in fear of being pursued through the hallways of a sinking ship by the enraged, gun-wielding son of a steel magnate.

Can't he let me drown in peace?

 

[buxxxom]

I, too, now live in fear of being pursued through the hallways of a sinking ship by the enraged, gun-wielding son of a steel magnate.

Can't he let me drown in peace?

LOL, "Titanic" is there for more than one reason!

 

[shereads]

LOL, "Titanic" is there for more than one reason!

At the time Titanic was in theaters, I had just started a new job. My partner was a sweet but rather vague and Barbie-esque twenty-something art director who had already warned me, "I don't have a sense of humor."

When we learned we had both seen "Titanic" over the weekend, she asked - with a skeptical look - "Did that really happen?"

That was scary.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

That's what finally turned me off from James Michner.

I saw an interview with Ann Rice on tv the other day. She plans another Lestat book, but it will be heavy on the religion. She's been born again in a major way and it sounded like all her stuff is going to very religious from now on.

Urk!

That's what drove me off Dean Koontz. A few too many yucky "be a really really good person and God will bail you out" moments in his later books.

Horror desperately needs a fresh infusion of blood as far as I'm concerned.