First, let me admit I only read paranormal romances because whether the hero is a shapeshifter, vampire or fallen angel, we always know he is perfect for the heroine, whatever she might turn out to be. Most scary stories never interests me. You can keep that Steven King stuff far away from me (Although I might watch the Stand in December.)
Deep inside, I'm still a romance writer. My idea of horror is in-laws trying to keep the happy couple apart. I look for happily ever after, not horror. I don 't write it, and I don't read it.
But for some reason I did find myself watching Lovecraft Country.
Not the book. I have not read that, so I don't know the exact words the author used to describe the various creatures and magical transformation used to deal with the characters. People such as a woman who works to prove herself to the dead father who never felt girls were good enough for the family legacy of magic. Or her distant male cousin who inherited both the family skills and its curses.
It don't get scared about the various monsters, or the sight of flesh peeling away as one human body shifts into another. Not even the all-powerful space woman with a strong resemblance to Grace Jones phased me.
I thought I was good, until the scariest thing I could imagine happened in the most recent episode. I'll try to be vague and not give away any spoilers if you intend to see it but the writers were awesome.
I watched a character travel through time to their own childhood in 1921. Of course they received the obligatory warning about not changing anything for fear of altering the present before going. That's standard time-travel information. They arrive in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 31, 1921. I instantly recognized that as the first night of the infamous Tulsa Race Massacre. The character is paralyzed by memories. Their mother and beloved grandmother were burned alive inside their home that night. Yet, as awful as that is, they have no trouble fighting the urge to warn them, save them.
Someone else died that night, a bullet blew away a young man. The character is almost paralyzed by memories while standing in the shadows, watching, knowing there are only minutes before the first members of the invading white mob enters the black neighborhood and fires his gun.
The writing was so compelling, I felt like I was right there, inside the character's head, burning with the knowledge that all I had to do was step out of the shadows and warn my lover. I could save him and put an end to the lonely future I had to endure without him. Added bonus, he and I could then run home and save Mom and Grandma from the mob that will set their house on fire with them still inside.. and get back home to save his mother and grandmother who are about to be burned alive inside their home.
Only, my child came into the past with me and is right at my side. The son who will never have existed if if I save my lover. If he lives, my child will vanish before my eyes and I will never have a offspring. I have to chose between my child and reliving an event that hurt me so deeply never even let myself remember my love's name until now. I have to chose, the past, or the future; a dead lover and a lifetime of pain or a never-born child and I love with all my heart.
To me, watching that, feeling the agony as the minutes ticked by while the character struggled to chose evoked real horror. Don't change the past was no longer something theoretical, and it had real consequences. No matter what they did, someone they loved with all their heart was about to die right before their eyes.
That's why I fear I will end up having to read the book after all. Not for the monsters, like the Korean Kumiho, a soul-sucking succubus who takes the form of a beautiful woman to fulfill her quest to kill enough men to make herself human. No, I need the kind of horror that haunts someone's mind forever.
If you write that kind of horror, the stuff that takes a reader right to the source, I want to read it. Let me know.
And if you want to write more inclusively, you can join me on a webinar on October 24. We'll discuss imagination, and why you need more than that to succeed. Head for https://alaska.scbwi.org/events/imagination-is-not-enough-with-author-b-a-binns/ to learn more.
2 comments:
I'm the same way about horror, Barbara -although I also make an exception for The Stand.
Now I HAVE TO WATCH LOVECRAFT COUNTRY!!! Your post is so compelling, I will risk it! In real life, sometimes we must make seemingly impossible choices-horrifying, heartbreaking choices.
This sounds like a worthwhile and well-done series. Thank you for introducing me to the show.
Loved this comment: "My idea of horror is in-laws trying to keep the happy couple apart." So true and real!
Your description of Lovecraft Country and the time-travel paradox issue is one I wish more SF writers would tackle. Lovecraft was very good at putting those personal dilemmas in context so that the decision was as important if not more so than whatever science and technology was present in the book.
That said, I am not a Lovecraft fan in general. His stories often reflect a kind of fatalism. Though many of his characters are driven by curiosity or scientific endeavor, it also seems there is no direct power or ability to have agency. Furthermore, the knowledge they uncover though initially seeming powerful, ends up filling the protagonist with regret for what they have learned, destroying them psychologically, or completely destroying the person who holds the knowledge. It is as if though one seeks knowledge it can never help change your circumstances--which does seem to reflect his view of his own life.
Do let us know how the series continues and if you end up loving it.
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