Author Topic: Horror: a genre doomed to literary hell?  (Read 4203 times)

walkertexasranger

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on: November 07, 2012, 02:42:22 PM
The status of the crime and SF genres is being raised by great modern writers. Why hasn't horror received the same treatment?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/nov/07/horror-genre-literary-hell



Alasdair5000

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Reply #1 on: November 07, 2012, 07:02:06 PM
It has. The article's enthusiastic and unbelievably badly researched. Moving aside from the fact they don't mention any of the literally hundreds of authors we've run at Pseudopod, there's no mention of Adam Nevill, or Sarah Pinborough or Gary McMahon from the new wave or Ramsey Campbell's short fiction, Rio Youers, Tim Lebbon, poeple who have bestselling books that are excellent and who don't attend the right cocktail parties for pieces like this to notice they exist.

This stuff kind of gets to me. It's not you, don't worry:)



walkertexasranger

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Reply #2 on: November 07, 2012, 08:09:01 PM
Well, I guess something had to replace sci-fi as the ghetto genre. lol

But more seriously, this is an extremely myopic view of the entire field. To him, it starts with Frankenstein ( which I thought science fiction had already claimed ) and ends with House of Leaves. There's a lot of in between he missed. No mention of Clive Barker? The jibe at Stephen King, he's a juggernaut that can't finish his stories properly. Edgar Allen Poe seems to be missing from the earlier authors.

Hopefully someone takes him to task, it'd be an interesting dialogue.

Also, hasn't the genre fragmented anyway-- dark fantasy, urban fantasy, etc ... I'm sure if we looked we could find the mainstream authors with works with element of horror

 
« Last Edit: November 07, 2012, 08:10:54 PM by walkertexasranger »



Fenrix

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Reply #3 on: November 07, 2012, 08:14:31 PM
Also, hasn't the genre fragmented anyway-- dark fantasy, urban fantasy, etc ... I'm sure if we looked we could find the mainstream authors with works with element of horror

Twilight is horrific.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


walkertexasranger

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Reply #4 on: November 07, 2012, 08:24:41 PM
Also, hasn't the genre fragmented anyway-- dark fantasy, urban fantasy, etc ... I'm sure if we looked we could find the mainstream authors with works with element of horror

Twilight is horrific.

Yes, a good example of a mainstream success.

Though, I'm not sure if it would qualify under his criteria. His complaint seems to be that horror hasn't had a literary writer come to rescue it yet.

I've been reading across the genre extensively over the past six months and have found that horror has a pretty wide interpretation.



Fenrix

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Reply #5 on: November 07, 2012, 08:57:40 PM
I think folks would consider Cormack McCarthy literary.* I would consider The Road horror. It has two of the most evocative horror scenes that I've read in years.

World War Z also counts as a mainstream success. Does it count as a critical success as well?




*I say folks since I find him to be an obnoxious artiste - and that pretensiousness seems to be a prerequisite for critics to consider an author literary.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Sgarre1

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Reply #6 on: November 07, 2012, 11:05:09 PM
And Joyce Carol Oates keeps churning away....