I Believe in Fear: Some Personal Musings on Horror

I believe in things greater than myself, greater than what our feeble human faculties can possibly perceive. I don't believe the world--the universe--is a "kind" or "compassionate" place. It's brutal. Things live and die by whim and circumstance.

Just the other day, while walking about in the afternoon, I was looking up at a flock of birds when I saw one of those bird's wings suddenly cease flapping, and the poor creature plummeted to the earth. I was sure it was dead before it struck the ground. One moment: alive. The next: dead.

Personally, I'm a bit of a non-theist. And what I mean by that is, I acknowledge the possibilities presented by various religions, but don't think of religion as all that important to life on this earth. In my experience, religion is interesting but is used mostly as a method of oppression and control, both historically and today. I believe we all need to think for ourselves, keep our minds as open as possible, and to question the authorities that surround us, including religious ones.

I also don't believe in good and evil per se, which can be a real problem when it comes to writing horror fiction. I don't believe in black and white. Everything is a muddled gray. Certain acts that can be perceived as "evil" in one scenario can be justified in another. I do believe in human cruelty. And I do believe in human compassion. I believe in ghosts, and I believe in psychic abilities. I believe there are forces larger than us that perceive us like we perceive a colony of termites, with little interest, occasionally bringing a foot down to smash one of us flat for no reason other than a passing whim.

I believe in fear. And that is, after all, what the horror genre is all about.

(I shared these thoughts with the DarkFuse Book Club already, but thought I'd share them here as well.)

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