Kids hate getting scared. Right? I mean they should, it's "a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain." It's not a happy experience to be afraid, and there have been countless brain studies and psychological test that warn us about the harmful effects of be extensively or unnaturally afraid of something. Why then did I, and still do, get a kick out of getting scared? Not in huge doses, but I get some weird thrill out of feeling a little afraid or uneasy about something.
Let me define this "getting scared" thing really quick, I am a complete wimp when it comes to things like horror movies, haunted houses, and thrill rides; but since I was eleven years old I've gotten some excitement out of more subtle things, like reading the plots to horror stories or watching those 'ghost hunting" shows. Yeah, I was a weird kid. In fact, I'm still weird kid, because I do the same exact things nowadays. But, why? For the longest time I couldn't figure out what attracted me to the script of Psycho or Steven King novels. I thought maybe I was just a grim person, or maybe these "thrills" were filling the void left by my dislike of real thrill rides and things of that nature, but these didn't really fit my normally upbeat character.
It took me a while to realize that all these fear based things that, for some reason, excited me, were all texts or stories or plot lines; something I could read. What was really attracting me to these thrills wasn't the idea of getting scared and frightened, it was the idea of someone creating an entire world that has the power to scare or excite a person. It was more the discovery of a completely new world that gave me a thrill and really fascinated me. I eventually came to the conclusion that it didn't particularly have to be a story centered around horror or fear that captivated my attention, but it just so happened that these settings seem to be the easiest to create a world from. When a writer, or producer, or moviemaker wants to take the consumer somewhere they've never seen before, a great catalyst for this is fear, which I found boiled to two main reasons. When a writer is focused on writing fear, it's very easy to illicit an emotional response from their reader, because fear usually builds on a person's psyche, and plays with their emotions, drawing their attention much more easily. This coupled with the fact that horror doesn't really have to follow the same rules as other fiction, because it's purpose is to provide pure entertainment with no "lesson", allowing it to create a completely organic world more freely, giving readers more to explore.
It's the discovery of a new, perhaps twisted or unnerving, world created by these authors and artists that really interests and excites my mind in themes like fear and horror. The way they play with people's emotions is also interesting to me, but the exploration of something completely made up is actually really cool, especially when what's made up could be real. The way fear-based stories let you delve into the mind of someone else, both the characters and the authors, who all usually have very strong and bold characters, is what makes me want to read horror movie plots and read Steven King. What you can discover from these vast, yet, organic worlds that pertains to a person's character, or how we think, or why, and a whole bunch of other deep questions is why getting scared can be exciting... every once in a while. Believe me, I really do have a "normally upbeat character" though
October 10, 2011
I really enjoyed Jack's blog post "captured thought: getting scared". The narration really let his character shine through and it was actually really cool to see where he took the whole appeal to being scared. Knowing Jack as a person, I knew from the get go he's not a fan of horror, which is why this post initially caught my attention. I was very impressed by how he was able to trace this inclination towards horror inducing texts/stories/plot-lines to the fact that it isn't in fact the horror itself but rather the power of the author to inflict such a feeling on the reader. I definitely agree with what he says and feel very much the same way. Often, when I read novels that create these complex worlds, I marvel at the imagination and finesse of the author to do such a thing. Harry Potter is the prime example of this; the imagery and details of the story are so impressive and obviously took a lot of thought and imagination. The whole idea of it draws you to the book/script/story because you want to experience just how powerful a mind can be. Overall, I liked how Jack was able to not only discover this but explain it in a ton of depth, showing how much thought he put into this. It made me think as well about the whole idea of the power of the author's mind which is always a fun thing to think about so I enjoyed it a a lot.Thanks Jack! (:
ReplyDeleteYou have quite a few interesting points here, Jack, but I'd just like to bring up a few other ideas: are there different kinds of fear triggered by different activities/events, or is it all just one big bundle of chaos? I know that emotional fear feels VERY different from instinctive fear, but is it still in the same category of emotions? (To clarify, "emotional fear" refers to things like anxiety, stage fright, anything that won't have an extreme effect on the individual. "Instinctive fear" would be more like phobias or fight-or-flight instinct.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, is there a chance that not all fear is negative? After all, some people are motivated by fear and/or anxiety. Also, fear is, albeit somewhat indirectly, responsible for the fight-or-flight instinct that is occasionally a life-saver. On a short term basis, yes, fear usually seems like a negative experience to be avoided if possible, but in the long run...? Overall, great job on the blog, really enjoyed it!