Fear is, by definition, an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause threat. It's meaning is not one with a good connotation. It would seem logical that a person would not wish that he or she experience fear, for, as stated in its definition, it is an unpleasant emotion. Yet, contrary to logic, we do just that.
For centuries, people have subjected their minds to countless works of horror literature. Some of the classics such as, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein, still invoke fear in us today. This tradition of telling horror stories carries on not only through literature, but also through film. But before going any further, we must talk about what "horror" really means.
In the book, The Philosophy of Horror: Paradoxes of the Heart, Noël Carroll dives into a deeper, philosophical look at what makes horror, horror. He claims that for a piece of literature to be called a work of horror it must have one essential element - a monster. If without a monster, the piece of literature should be called a tale of terror, not horror. But how do we know if the story has a monster or not? According to Carroll, there are a few different ingredients that must be combined to create a "horror" monster. First, Carroll says, this monster must be an "extraordinary character in [an] ordinary world". This means that the monster must be out of place according to those around it. In class, the example was given that Chewbacca is just seen as one of the guys in the movie Star Wars. While he is out of place in our world, he is completely accepted in their world. On the other end of the spectrum, Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein supposedly exists in our world as we know it and since Frankenstein's monster is not something we accept to be normal or natural we would, therefore, see it as a horror monster. The next element in creating a true horror monster is the need for the monster to invoke fear in the audience as well as disgust and repulsion. A horror monster must be fearful and impure, according to Carroll. A monster can exist in a non-horror story, such as the character of ET in the movie ET. He is seen as an extraordinary being, yet he is not fearsome or repulsive. In fact, we, as the audience, feel sympathy for him. It is the fearfulness and impurity that make horror monsters true "horror" monsters.
If horror stories are meant to invoke fear in us and fear is an unpleasant emotion, then why would we seek out these horror tales as a means of entertainment? What makes us want to subject ourselves to horrifying ideas and visuals? Perhaps it is the rush of adrenaline we get from the sickening imagery that keeps us coming back. Or perhaps it is that we, as the viewers of the horror films, are aware that the situations we're seeing on the screen before us are not real. They are make-believe. We are occasionally scared enough to bring those fears outside of the theatre or our living room, but we are able to reason with ourselves enough to know that what we have just seen is fake. These two elements combined - the chemical reaction as well as the knowledge that what we're seeing is not real - are what allows us to continually subject ourselves to fearfully horrifying films.
Our obsession with horror stories really doesn't make sense. We seek out tales of monsters who are abnormal and unnatural so that we can feel afraid. It would seem that to do such a thing, to seek out something that by definition is unpleasant, would also be abnormal and unnatural, yet we all do it willingly. Why would we do that in a world where it makes no sense? Perhaps, in this case, we are the extraordinary characters in an ordinary world.
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