I would like to share a little moral dilemma and hear your thoughts on it. I like to read horror novels and yesterday started ‘Kin’ by Kealan Patrick Burke. On the one hand I thought it well written and was caught by the story. On the other hand it was full of cruelty. During the night I deleted the book. Had read a tenth of it. Kindle warned: you have to buy it again if you change your mind. This morning I thought about buying it again. Now I am not certain if I will pay for it twice, what with the chance I’ll delete it again, but that is not my question. It is more in general: on the one hand I like horror novels, on the other hand I do not like cruelty (at least I hope so). Maybe I like soft horror. My favorite is ‘Boy’s life’. I especially like childhood horror, or coming of age horror as it is called. I like to read about boys being friends and still safe at home and free and dreaming and imagining and living in the here and now and all is wonder… And then there appears some danger from outside and they have to fight it together. It is as if the outside danger by contrast strengthens the cosiness of the group of friends and their safety at home. But I did ‘like’ the beginning of ‘Kin’ too. It is about a crazy family torturing people, and a boy wanting to help a girl who escaped. The guilt says: ‘So you like cruelty? You like people being skinned?’ Or it says: ‘So you need a kick and preferable a strong one? You think searching outside of yourself for fulfillment is going to do you good? Do you really want to fill the emptiness with empty fill that leaves you but with self-hate, instead of sinking right through the emptiness by facing in it in honest meditating and reaching your Self?’
I was raised with regular, old fashioned religion. I left that behind in favor of spirituality / mysticism and the concept of God as unconditional love. I know He or She or It doesn’t mind me reading horror. ‘Don’t take it seriously’, He maybe says, ‘your dark side needs some air too’. When I started reading horror novels (after much doubt) some time after I’d left the Old Testament god behind, I happened to begin with Richard Laymon. That upset me too much and I deleted it. But then I came across a YouTube talk by CriminOlly, who reviews horror novels on YouTube, about Laymon and his (Olly’s) trouble with this writer. After seeing that even a hardcore horror reader like Olly had difficulty with Laymon, I decided to give horror a second chance. And I did find several good books – made a list of ‘childhood horror’ books I liked, will share that beneath. But sometimes I come across a book that makes me wonder: is it only the ‘Old Testament god’ in me that has trouble with it, or is it my own true conscience speaking? Is it only false guilt that judges my horror reading? Or would I better just admit I am one of the ‘faint hearted’ and consequently throw away every book with too much cruelty for me, even though I then ‘sacrifice’ the good parts? After explaining all this I realize only I can decide my horror course, but thanks for reading anyway and here’s some childhood horror tips:
Robert McCammon Boy’s life
Dan Simmons Summer of night
Dathan Auerbach Penpal Bad man
Stephen King Hearts in Atlantis The body
Ronald Malfi December park Black mouth
Richard Laymon Traveling vampire show (this one is a non-splatter too)
I would like to share a little moral dilemma and hear your thoughts on it. I like to read horror novels and yesterday started ‘Kin’ by Kealan Patrick Burke. On the one hand I thought it well written and was caught by the story. On the other hand it was full of cruelty. During the night I deleted the book. Had read a tenth of it. Kindle warned: you have to buy it again if you change your mind. This morning I thought about buying it again. Now I am not certain if I will pay for it twice, what with the chance I’ll delete it again, but that is not my question.
It is more in general: on the one hand I like horror novels, on the other hand I do not like cruelty (at least I hope so). Maybe I like soft horror. My favorite is ‘Boy’s life’. I especially like childhood horror, or coming of age horror as it is called. I like to read about boys being friends and still safe at home and free and dreaming and imagining and living in the here and now and all is wonder… And then there appears some danger from outside and they have to fight it together. It is as if the outside danger by contrast strengthens the cosiness of the group of friends and their safety at home.
But I did ‘like’ the beginning of ‘Kin’ too. It is about a crazy family torturing people, and a boy wanting to help a girl who escaped.
The guilt says: ‘So you like cruelty? You like people being skinned?’ Or it says: ‘So you need a kick and preferable a strong one? You think searching outside of yourself for fulfillment is going to do you good? Do you really want to fill the emptiness with empty fill that leaves you but with self-hate, instead of sinking right through the emptiness by facing in it in honest meditating and reaching your Self?’
I was raised with regular, old fashioned religion. I left that behind in favor of spirituality / mysticism and the concept of God as unconditional love. I know He or She or It doesn’t mind me reading horror. ‘Don’t take it seriously’, He maybe says, ‘your dark side needs some air too’.
When I started reading horror novels (after much doubt) some time after I’d left the Old Testament god behind, I happened to begin with Richard Laymon. That upset me too much and I deleted it. But then I came across a YouTube talk by CriminOlly, who reviews horror novels on YouTube, about Laymon and his (Olly’s) trouble with this writer.
After seeing that even a hardcore horror reader like Olly had difficulty with Laymon, I decided to give horror a second chance.
And I did find several good books – made a list of ‘childhood horror’ books I liked, will share that beneath.
But sometimes I come across a book that makes me wonder: is it only the ‘Old Testament god’ in me that has trouble with it, or is it my own true conscience speaking? Is it only false guilt that judges my horror reading? Or would I better just admit I am one of the ‘faint hearted’ and consequently throw away every book with too much cruelty for me, even though I then ‘sacrifice’ the good parts?
After explaining all this I realize only I can decide my horror course, but thanks for reading anyway and here’s some childhood horror tips:
Robert McCammon
Boy’s life
Dan Simmons
Summer of night
Dathan Auerbach
Penpal
Bad man
Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis
The body
Ronald Malfi
December park
Black mouth
Richard Laymon
Traveling vampire show (this one is a non-splatter too)
Brett McBean
The awakening
Philip Fracassi
Boys in the valley