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This is the season to be thinking about horror. Is it just me, or does almost everyone seem to be more into Halloween this year? I've been ruminating about its appeal, especially the macabre and grotesque elements. I've seen greenish goblin babies that move, a little girl statue that holds a knife and whose head spins, various forms of shrunken heads and forms of death. I've been paying more attention to decorations this year than costumes (admittedly pirates will again be big this year), and it just seems darker to me than I remember.
We like to play at horror. Real horror is the stuff that's been happening to my friends: a newborn baby dying, developing a debilitating uncurable disease, being falsely arrested, realizing your spouse is having an affair. This is NOT the stuff we celebrate at Halloween. Instead we focus on the truly unbelievable horrors. We can be revolted at a bloody hand dragging from a car door, bodies coming up from the grave, the thought of zombies and witches walking the earth, because frankly we don't believe. But it isn't just that. It's a controllable horror. You make it so extreme as a way of claiming your power over the horror, trying to scare others because you yourself have been unnerved by what's happening in the world. Now it's your turn to unnerve someone, but it's all good fun and no one usually gets hurt.
(But keep your cats inside just the same.)
I remember when I was in 6th grade there was a rumor that a cult was holding a meeting in our school on Halloween and they were looking for virgins to sacrifice. Everyone seemed to be warning us as we were out trick-or-treating. What a strange rumor to start. I suppose it was partly some adults' way of making sure the kids don't stay out too late and some kids' way of playing on other kids' naivete.
We like to play at horror. Real horror is the stuff that's been happening to my friends: a newborn baby dying, developing a debilitating uncurable disease, being falsely arrested, realizing your spouse is having an affair. This is NOT the stuff we celebrate at Halloween. Instead we focus on the truly unbelievable horrors. We can be revolted at a bloody hand dragging from a car door, bodies coming up from the grave, the thought of zombies and witches walking the earth, because frankly we don't believe. But it isn't just that. It's a controllable horror. You make it so extreme as a way of claiming your power over the horror, trying to scare others because you yourself have been unnerved by what's happening in the world. Now it's your turn to unnerve someone, but it's all good fun and no one usually gets hurt.
(But keep your cats inside just the same.)
I remember when I was in 6th grade there was a rumor that a cult was holding a meeting in our school on Halloween and they were looking for virgins to sacrifice. Everyone seemed to be warning us as we were out trick-or-treating. What a strange rumor to start. I suppose it was partly some adults' way of making sure the kids don't stay out too late and some kids' way of playing on other kids' naivete.