The joys of horror.
“There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust.” – The Masque of the Red Death, Poe
I love horror. Horror movies, ghost stories, thrillers, there’s almost nothing so voluptuous as the sensation of terror. I love horror, but I hate fear. Horror is delicious, fear is disgusting. Curling up with a wonderfully written, tightly-plotted horror film is wonderful, as the ominous opening music starts and you settle in for the anticipation of terror. Fear, however, is the ultimate buzzkill. Fear leaves you weak, exhausted, powerless and hesitant.
“We’re all sort of wandering spirits.” Lets Scare Jessica to Death, (Paramount Pictures, 1971)
I’m an entrepreneur. I started my business from scratch. I know alll about fear, trust me. The fear of creating something from nothing, of bringing your most secret dreams to reality, the day-to-day fear of small business life. Many has been the time where I relaxed, after an eviscerating 18 hour day as an entrepreneurial soldier of (mis)fortune, with a particularly gruesome horror movie, since watching women crawl out of TV sets, hell-bent on torturing errant teenagers is a great way to clear one’s mind.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.”- H. P. Lovecraft
I write this as much as for myself, as for you. October is a dark and lovely month to drink spiked hot chocolate, read ghost stories and, hopefully, understand our fears as much as ourselves. Our fears require us to do the hard work of keeping them alive. Their lives naturally impede upon ours. When our fears live, the best parts of us die. What could be scarier than that?
I just recently went onto Amazon.com, and ordered the books of some fantastic horror writers I’ve just discovered: I look forward to having my skin crawl, and reading with every single light in my apartment on. I look forward to being terrified.
But I won’t allow my fears to control me. My fear doesn’t get to win; I do.
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