 |
| Photo: Wikipedia |
Darkness commands its own peculiar kind of emotion: fear and awe.
Writers of the shock/suspense genre have harnessed this natural process and resource through all ages and generation. The dark seems to be a staple of the horror genre. Yet, we know it's not every scene in a story meant to terrify us that happens in the dark. There are frankly, quite a few stories which take place in the light that send the chill down our spines faster than would have been the case if the event occurred in a dimly-lit alley.
Men and women called into the ministry of fear understand people's reservations about dark, lonely places especially, the spots that have been deserted for quite a while. Such places bypass our rational minds and cry out to our subconscious with tales often difficult to believe but impossible to push to the back burner.
First, there is Fear of the Unknown, this is possibly the strongest case a horror writer can present for attaching so much importance to the dark. In moments of high-octane version of terror, a crumpled jacket lying on the floor of the closet could bear a really strong resemblance to the baby, dead and motionless or to some colossal creeping shadow that's waiting for the right moment to pounce on a victim and cause unthinkable harm.
The Element of Surprise is another very strong case. In the dark, nothing is what it seems. The writer of horror can manipulate the mind of his character(s) and reader(s) to believe one thing is really going on while in matter of fact, the reverse is the case (whatever the reverse might be).
"If there had been no such thing as darkness, the makers of horror movies would have needed to invent it." (italics mine)Stephen King,Danse Macabre
All in all, it is the idea, I call it the general phobia we all reserve in our deep subconscious for the dark that fuels the drama in the horror genre. Writers in this genre seem to have their fingers on the stuff that freezes our breath in our lungs and stops our heartbeats if only, for a fraction of a second.
Think of all the dreadful places thoughts of the dark dredge up in your mind-places like the inside of a closed coffin, the bottom of a well, the depths of the dungeon, the inside of a cave, blindness, the inside of a closet, the closed boot of a car, the depths of the ocean, the basement, concussion, coma, death. Is it a wonder we consider evil a dark matter? We even believe painful memories are stashed away in the dark places of our psyche.
Think of all the dreadful places thoughts of the dark dredge up in your mind-places like the inside of a closed coffin, the bottom of a well, the depths of the dungeon, the inside of a cave, blindness, the inside of a closet, the closed boot of a car, the depths of the ocean, the basement, concussion, coma, death. Is it a wonder we consider evil a dark matter? We even believe painful memories are stashed away in the dark places of our psyche.
The dark (be it in our minds or outside of it) is a world, a universe on its own and it never comes without its magic and do not forget, its box of misery.
Keep your pen bleeding.
Akpan
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feedbacks welcome and appreciated.