Here is an excellent article by sci-fi and fantasy author Catherine Tavares (@c.j.tavares) via Interstellar Flight Magazine (@interstellarflightpress), where she explores the sense of comfort that one can find by reading and writing horror stories.
Tavares draws inspiration from Trinidadian-Canadian speculative fiction writer Suzan Palumbo, who said in a thought-provoking interview she finds comfort and catharsis in horror fiction because it is honest, “because it doesn’t feel like it’s lying to me”.
Here is the quote from Tavares:
“In the real world, the stakes are sky high and the solutions, if there even are any, are complex and difficult and locked behind walls of privilege. The end is unknown and years off. Those with the luxury of looking away have, the rest have gone numb, and there are so few people left pointing at the atrocity of the day and screaming, ‘Do you see this!'”
“Horror stories see it. They see it, and they say it. They paint a vivid picture of the terrible things, show all the dark and twisted possibilities, bind it all up, and shove it back at you with no sugarcoating. And I welcome it. It is a relief to have something, even something fictional, receive and reflect my sadness, my rage, my terror.”
I suppose it goes back to the idea that reading helps cultivate empathy, as it puts us in other people’s shoes so we can understand those experiences and views that are different from our own. But, from Palumbo’s and Tavares’s perspectives, reading horror stories helps us feel less alone because it shows there are other people out there who see what we see, especially the dark side of humanity. That, in Tavares’s words, “is extremely comforting”.
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 