I have been ruminating on this post for awhile. I was sitting here reading and I just read the following statement in the book Brooding by Andy Williamson. "Living in his grandmother's house, Tyler knew about fear. But his mom had also explained to him the difference between real fears and pretend fears. She never read him any of the spooky books she bought, but there were enough frightening moments in the classic lit that she did read him for him to discern the difference." (By the way, I will be reviewing this book in the near future, but I do have to say that I am really enjoying it.) Reading this paragraph brought this theme to mind and since I am not sleeping, I will get these thoughts down.
I love monsters. I realized this when a friend asked me why I loved Dr. Who so much. I told her that Dr. Who makes me think and I love monsters and Dr. Who has great monsters. Then I started to consider why I love monsters and I realized something. I can watch a movie or a program with monsters and there is no fear, well not any real fear. I can get all charged up as the storyline unfolds and the hero/heroine has to battle the monster and then they usually win and all is well. Then I walk away and that is that. But if I watch a movie or a program that has a villain that is a person, it is not that simple. After a program like that, even if good triumphed, it does not stay behind me. I find that I may have nightmares or an inability to stop thinking about that story and I find it much more difficult to walk away. A monster is not something that I am ever going to face, but a person who chooses to prey on others is something that I have faced and may face again and that is too real a fear for me. Coming to understand this also helped me to explain why I hate so many movies that others love and think that I should appreciate as well. If I am going to be frightened, in my entertainment, I choose to be frightened by pretend fears, as Mr. Williamson indentifies them. I tried to explain this to my husband the other day and he thinks that I am pretty ridiculous, and others probably feel much the same, but it works for me.
Reminds of the statement made by Steven King the horror author on why he writes such creepy novels. He said he had many fears, nightmares, and thought none would come true if he could imagine them so he started imagining the worst that could happen. It has worked. Nothing bad has happened to him.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! Madsen went to a movie that scared him and we were surprised by that because it was not as frightening as other movies he had seen. He explained that he knew the difference between things that can not really happen and those that can, and that movie was one that could happen and it scared him. Makes sense to me!
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