Now that we have progressed through Carroll's description of horror as a genre and the monsters that inhabit its (formulaic) plotlines, we see the author's first explanation of what the horror stories really mean to us. Sure, we are filled with art-horror, but, for horror to continue to survive as an academic genre, we need to hear what these tales tell us about the relationship to our lives and the world around us. On pg. 129, Carroll says that "horror stories are predominantly concerned with knowledge as a theme." As we continue to read more works from this genre, Carroll thinks that we'll learn more about how we should act in our own search for knowledge. Are we overreachers that need to be checked, or discoverers that need to explore? 
Why do we enjoy watching scary movies? Why do we wait in line for an hour just to get scared in a haunted house? Why do we spend hours a day reading horror novels, or watching "Ghost Hunters"? Because we love a thrill. We love the feeling of uncertainty. Sitting on the edge of our seat, waiting for what will happen next. Why do we enjoy seeing someone tied to a chair, receiving an ultimatum from Jigsaw in the Saw thrillers? It's all because of a little thing that Carroll likes to refer to as the "Paradox of Horror". 
It is true that we are all so transfixed on figuring out the afterlife, that we enthrall ourselves into such horrific stories to fill our minds, just so we can “catch a glimpse” into the other world. We assume that these stories are not true-life, and will never be. Yet we enjoy places ourselves in the character’s shoes, just to see what it would feel like if we were faced with the horror on the pages of these books.
A story that we didn’t discuss, yet is wildly popular and highly read, is “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe surrounds you with the nervousness and mad mind of the narrator, making you feel as though you are the murderer, the mad one. I find this story to be fantastic in many ways, as well as gothic in others. The “fantastic” is created throughout, which causes the reader to draw conclusions as to the missing parts of a plot, as well as the afterthoughts of endings. Why did the story end this way? And what really and truly occurred during this last scene? We are all left wondering, yet we love the fact that we can make up our own endings and scenes to such classic and horrific stories.
The narrator claims that he is “sensitive to what others cannot hear. Sensitive to be able to see and hear things in heaven, hell, and on earth that would otherwise not be experienced”. The over-sensitivity gives way to the reasoning behind why he kills his victim, an old man with a very strange eye. He developed an obsession with the eye, calling it “the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye with a film over it.” No reason other than the obsession gave way to the murder.
For seven nights, the narrator would spend close to seven hours making his way through the creeky door, into the old man’s room, just so that he could witness his “vulture eye”. Every morning after his venture, he would act as cheerful as ever, being cordial and having small-talk with the old man, like nothing ever happened. And on the 8th night of the repeating visits, the narrator startles the old man in his sleep when the lantern he is using accidently clangs against the wooden door. The old man began to moan in terror, scared of the light that was coming before him. And there, in front of him, he saw the vulture eye.
As quickly as the eye caught the light, the narrator’s acute senses were awakened by a noise, which was the rapid beating of a heart. The “fantastic” finally comes into play when the question to the reader is, whose heart is beating so loudly? Is it his own, or the old man’s? The sound began getting louder and louder, as if the narrator believes the neighbors may begin to hear it. So he smothers the old man with his mattress, until the loudly beating heart, would beat no more.
After the old man is dead, the narrator dismembers him, leaving no traces of blood, so that there is no question of murder. He then took the pieces left of the body and placed them beneath the boards of the floor in the old man’s room. And at 4am, a knock came on the door. It was the police, coming to investigate reports of a “shriek”. There seemed to be no evidence after they searched the house, so the narrator pulled up a chair to sit in, on top of the boards that hid beneath it, the old man’s body parts.
The narrator began to hear the old man’s heart yet again. Pounding away in his ears, loudly, and even more loudly. The narrator became wild and uncontrollable, and after not being able to keep his composure, he admitted loudly to the deed of killing the man, and told them to rip up the boards underneath them, exposing the old man’s body. His conscience was literally eating him alive, exposing his guilt. His own beating heart, we assume, is the sound that he keeps hearing. But we are never told that it was his own heart. We have no idea, and in this case, we are dealing with both Gothic and Fantastic horror.
While in 
a picture I took in Highgate Cemetery
In nineteenth century
Dracula, written in 1897, shows evidence of these perceptions in that time period. In her journal entry from July 24, Mina Murray describes her favorite spot in
“Between it and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in
Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra subsequently spend much time here throughout the story. It is evident from this writing that Bram Stoker was accustomed to these positive perceptions of graveyards within the time period.
While cemeteries were often depicted as places of contentment, they have also been painted in a more sinister light. Within stories of the dead (and undead), it is almost impossible to not encounter the final resting places of many beings in the settings and plots. This can be seen in Dracula when Lucy resides and is destroyed in a tomb. It is also seen in J.S. Le Fanu’s Carmilla when Carmilla is found and destroyed in a graveyard. We are all familiar with scenes of hands arising from beneath the soil of a grave in classic horror films. The cemetery will most definitely play an important role in horror for a long time to come. Because we often associate cemeteries with the spiritual world, stories of the dead, undead, and ghosts can always begin and end in the cemetery.
-not all white....but close ; )....outside Highgate cemetery
"The White Cat of Drumgunniol" by Sheridan LeFanu can be considered that of "the Fantastic". The characters see a girl in all white walking and then somehow walk across water and disappear, the ghost of a girl who has died recently. They also have this white cat association with death. Apparently this family has had this "curse" for some time now and they are considering it to be a hereditary cause. Every person in the family knows that there life will soon be over after seeing a white cat. It could easily just be a coincidence or maybe the cat really does foreshadow death for them.
The reason this is could be considered that of "the fantastic" is because the fantastic is nothing more than a matter of plotting for a story. The story is conflicted between a conclusion of a supernatural cause or a naturalistic one. This exact conflict is the distinct meaning of the fantastic. If there was no conflict of a supernatural or natural conclusion...there wouldn't be a fantastic plot.
The story is associated with would we think of as real people dealing with ghosts and this "white cat/death". The supernatural conflict is that this cat could be a symbol of death and may bring death to the members of the "cursed" family, it could also be the young girl ghost also...in a different form. The white cat magically appears by the dead body also...after the entire room is checked...the characters are always coming up with some excuse as to how the cat got in the room or how they must have missed it while searching. The characters themselves go back and forth with this conflict as well. The naturalistic conflict is the fact that it is just a white cat and that members of the family just happen to see it and as a coincidence die a week, month, days later. There is no way to actually prove that the white cat is bringing death to these people...but we are left at the end of the story never really knowing the real truth... it is left up to us to determine what we believe or want to believe.
Abby Murphy
Paradox of Horror
It is interesting to think of how scholars have long been mystified by the horror genre. Horror is typically classified as something that induces repulsion, disgust, and fear in the viewer/reader. These are normally emotions that we seek to avoid on a daily basis, but for some reason, we seek these emotions out when viewing art-horror. This is referred to as the paradox of horror according to Noel Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror. The paradox of horror is an attempt to rationalize why we seek art-horror out when it harbors traits that we normally shun.
Carroll believes that art-horror has certain sources of attraction, pleasure, and added explanations that furthers our liking it. We derive pleasure from that which is distressful to us. There is a morbid fascination with an unknown force. In addition to the fear and disgust that art-horror evokes, Caroll states that some art-horror texts can be “allegorical readings that make their subjects appear wholly appealing and that do not acknowledge their repellent aspects.” However, repellency is part of the horror genre and is largely encountered. But if a moral lesson or message can be taken away from the plot, then the repulsion and fear felt before is just a part of the process associated with learning. For example, Dracula is a text that induces much fear and repulsion in the reader, but there is an allegorical lesson to be learned in the ending. The lesson is that trust must be placed in a higher deity, and to believe that evil will get its come-uppance. This overshadows the fear and disgust felt earlier, but does not obliterate it. Caroll says that fear leads to awe and wonder, and that it is this awe that affirms our deep seated human convictions about the world and our god.
We are attracted to the horror genre is because the emotions it prompts are comparable to the ones that we hold towards religion. H.P. Lovecraft mentions cosmic fear in Supernatural Horror in Literature and classifies it as something that gives the reader a profound sense of dread. According to Lovecraft, fear and religious feeling are instinctual and this is why we are drawn to them. Supernatural horror and religion are associated because they both incorporate concepts that are beyond the ordinary and can cause a fearsome paralysis if we feel threatened by its power. Yet, we find the power appealing. Monsters like Dracula fulfill our fantasies for coming into contact with something infinitely more powerful than ourselves. Dracula is ordinary in some ways, but not in others. He has the guise of a human being, and he can also live forever by draining the lives of others through bloodsucking. He is able to transform his shape(depending on the time of day) and has the strength of twenty men. Dracula even extends his power to control the beings around him. He can paralyze his victims(Mina and Lucy) and exerts his influence over wolves, rats, and the mentally ill(Renfield). Dracula is therefore able to rightly inspire cosmic fear in the reader, and is a force to be reckoned with. After all, he does have world domination on his mind.
To conclude, the paradox of horror is not a solvable one for scholars. However, the rationalization of it’s popularity is slowly being obtained over time. The reasons why an art-horror character such as Dracula are able to draw in so many readers are numerous. Yes, he does inspire fear and revulsion, but we also find him thrilling. The cosmic dread he evokes draws us in, and we marvel at his powers and abilities; and when we inspect him closely enough, we even begin to see bits of ourselves mirrored in him(pun intended). The fact that we can learn a moral lesson from the Dracula tale only enhances its popularity with readers. This is a story about coming together to confront wickedness, while stressing that one should never give up or give in to evil. The question that gets posed by Caroll when he discusses the paradox of horror is “Why horror ? ” For anyone who has read Dracula, the easy answer to this question would be “Why not ?”
Abby Murphy
Free Essay Topic
The Judge’s House was easily one of my favorite short stories for this course. It made for an extremely gripping read. It certainly falls under the horror drama because of the fact that horror is the primary emotion evoked in the reader throughout the duration of the story. There are three reasons why this tale of horror is so successful at evoking fear and disgust in the reader. The setting, choice of villain , and plot conclusion all lend a helping hand in instilling the reader with a sense of dread and horror.
“ There was only one place which took his fancy, and it certainly satisfied his wildest ideas regarding quiet; in fact, quiet was not the proper word to apply to it- desolation was the only term conveying any suitable idea of its isolation. It was an old rambling, heavy–built house of the Jacobean style, with heavy gables and windows, unusually small, and set higher than was customary in such houses, and was surrounded with a high brick wall massively built. Indeed, on examination, it looked more like a fortified house than an ordinary dwelling. But all these things pleased Malcolmson .’’
“She was evidently curious to see the inside of the house; and though manifestly so afraid of the ‘somethings’ that at the slightest sound she clutched on to Malcomson whom she never left for a moment, went over the whole place.’’
Lastly, the plot conclusion greatly contributed to the overall mood of horror for this short story. Malcolmson’s world is completely torn asunder when he steps foot in the judge’s house. For the longest time, he tries to make the connection between the rats and the portrait of the judge. The knowledge that is derived from the moment of discovery does not end up saving his life however. The large rat manages to transform into the judge and hangs Malcolm with the sinister rope that hangs from the bell. What makes the ending all the more scary is that the judge is able to continue his reign of terror long after his own death. It is still evident that the judge takes extreme pleasure in taking the life of others. To round off the whole story, no outsider knows what truly killed the student. After Malcolm managed to ring the alarm bell he was strangled by the judge. When villagers arrived, they found the student’s body hanging and probably assumed that is was a suicide. The icing on the cake was that the judge’s picture was intact with the judge smiling malignantly in the portrait. So the truth will never be known by outsiders. Doubt is even cast into the reader’s mind as to whether or not there was a judge and army of rats haunting the house. Maybe it was all a figment of Malcolm’s imagination. He was by himself after all. Those lonely, late nights, tea drinking, and hours of studying might have placed too much stress on his nervous system. One could argue that he cracked under the pressure that he was placing himself under; and that the story of the judge that the land owner told him just grew in his imagination until the story merged with his reality. The choice as to what really happened lies with the reader. I personally believe that Malcolm was really seeing what he thought he was seeing. What all readers can agree upon is that this is a definite horror story that won’t be quickly forgotten. This is truly Bram Stoker at his best.
Abby Murphy
Aspects of Horror and the Fantastic in Carmilla
Out of the all short stories that fall under the horror genre, one of the more renown works is Joseph Sheridan La Fanu’s, Carmilla. This short story contains everything that defines a classic horror tale. One can even extrapolate further to classify Carmilla as art-horror. It first helps to look at what defines a written work as art- horror.
Noel Carroll states that art-horror is, “ identified as narratives and/or images predicted on raising the affect or horror in audiences.” Carroll then goes on to stress that horror is primarily emotion based. Horror is evoked by two emotions-fear and disgust. Horror is induced in short stories and novels when something unnatural invades our natural world. This can be typified by the presence of a monster of some sort -vampire, werewolf, etc. Not only must there be a monster, the monster must make the main character(and consequently the audience) feel revolt and disgust. This entity tends to be a violation against nature and soon comes to represent the battle that exists between good and evil. The monster also tends to go against social boundaries and is associated with being impure and unclean. The typical human response to such a creature is physical agitation( tension, cringing, shuddering, recoiling, paralysis, nausea, and sometimes screaming). This physical agitation then gets translated into an emotional state(horror). As an audience, we might be aware that what we are reading is fictional, yet we easily come to view the protagonist under threat of the monster as someone worth identifying with. Art-horror tends to bring out biological responses that not only stem from the need for self-preservation, but the need for preservation of our fellow man too.
Carmilla, is a tale of that would have certainly been scandalous in the days of La Fanu. In a nutshell, it’s basically a story about a lesbian vampire that’s in the process of finding her next meal/lover. A girl by the name of Laura is one of the main characters. She lives in Styria with her father in a countryside castle. Little entertainment by way of visitors ever happens at her lonely, country abode. However, one day a foreign carriage crashes outside the front gates and we are introduced to Carmilla. Carmilla ends up staying at the castle for an extended period of time while her mother is off handling urgent business. Laura quickly notices that Carmilla looks an awful lot like the woman who visited her one night in her childhood nightmare. The encounter with the unknown woman was terrifying and painful, yet Laura ends up liking Carmilla off the bat. They find that they have much in common and Carmilla is of extremely beautiful countenance. Eventually, Laura begins to have strange visits in the night from something and village girls in the town are dying from an undetermined cause. The truth about Carmilla being a vampire later comes due to a friend of Laura’s father. Carmilla is then hunted down by the townspeople and staked through the heart.
Carmilla is an art-horror drama for numerous reasons. Carmilla’s character is one that causes fear, revolt, and disgust once the audience comes to realize who she is. Even before the moment of discovery, Carmilla was held in suspect just because of the mere fact that she looked like the woman who visited Laura in childhood. Laura would even feel a nervous chill when she was in Carmilla’s presence and noticed that whenever she felt at her weakest, Carmilla seemed stronger. This yo-yo effect had an emotional and physical toll on Laura. Her health suffered when she was around Carmilla. Once Carmilla’s identity was revealed, Laura’s emotional outlook then proceeded to one of total disgust, fear, and horror. Carmilla does not evoke disgust based on her appearance. She had strangely beautiful facial features and knew how to verbally charm Laura. Laura would feel overcome with passion, adoration, and love whenever she was in Carmilla’s presence. They established a very close and strong bond early on in the plot. However, as we’d soon come to find out, Carmilla was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Part of the reason why her identity remained a secret for so long is because she was able to blend in with normal people. Likewise, human beings are naturally drawn to beautiful things( exterior and interior) and Carmilla was said to be striking by all those who met her. Carmilla was at the end of the day, a perfect predator. She was able to seductively lure her victim in willingly and was met with little resistance.
Carmilla was also an unnatural creature that was infringing on the natural world. Everything about her existence violated the laws of nature. Vampires are what Carroll refers to as a type of horror fusion. Vampires are both living and dead. They must slowly extinguish the life of others in order to keep themselves living. Not only just living, but living potentially for all eternity. Unless they are stopped that is. The natural order to things is that we must age and die. Vampires go against the laws of nature by stealing the life of those that abide by natural order. Carmilla was also much worse in some ways than the typical vampire because she violated the social norms of the time. Lesbian love was frowned upon, and made her character all the more thematically forbidding. Parallels are drawn between vampires and a sexually charged atmosphere to begin with, but a lesbian vampire only enhances this image further. This is a violation against the normal sexual tendencies expected for a young woman. Sexual perversion is oftentimes associated with impurity and uncleanness. Again impurity and uncleanness, no matter the source, is part of what makes up the horror genre.
Additionally, Carmilla is a story that falls under the classification of fantastic/marvelous. The fantastic/marvelous is classified by thinking initially that there are naturalistic explanations for abnormal incidents, but towards the end of a plot there’s the conclusion that the incidents are supernatural in origin. Carmilla is not thought to be the cause of Laura’s ailments, childhood haunting, and the reason why townspeople are dying. These are all explained away by saying that there is disease and an overactive imagination to blame. The resolution of the story verifies that there is, however, a supernatural force to blame for all the town and Laura’s hardships.
In conclusion, the Carmilla tale not only typifies the art-horror and fantastic genre, it exceeds expectations by additionally being quite provocative, weird, and suspenseful. It has no true explanation at the end for why Carmilla singles out her particular victim, and it leaves open the fact that there might be are other vampires still roaming the country(Carmilla’s family, servants, ex-lovers, etc.) Horror therefore has a chance to live on in the minds of those readers most susceptible to their own imagination. The feeling of cosmic fear is perfectly maintained throughout the story and the conclusion still leaves one feeling suspended between two emotions. Relief that Carmilla met her demise, but questioning uncertainty that the story might not truly be over for long. Carmilla may be deceased, but she will live on in the imaginations of readers for years to come, making this the ultimate art-horror story.
I feel Turner’s quote could be applied to both himself and the writings of Stoker. They both use the uncertainty of nature to control the feelings of the viewer or reader. Stoker’s descriptions of the landscapes seem to very similar to the visual representations of Turner’s. Both create a feeling of smallness and lack clarity in a way that it leaves you to fill in what is unknown. I feel that Turner could have been Stoker’s muse in the descriptions of nature in Dracula.
Doodled this during class.....serious post later.
