Why this Horror?

It’s a Lovecraftian question: why this unpenetrable horror and from where did it arise? What does it do to the people who have knowledge of it, and what depths in their psyche spawned such terror? Students ask this question all the time, except they rephrase it: How come you have an interesting course that I can use for my liberal arts requirements? [What? Our other courses are boring? We don’t respond with that comment, but we have thought it.]

Avoiding the interesting-dull aspect which is not about literature at all, and more about the willingness to learn and grow, we put the blame on King and communication. “King!” say half the questioners. “He’s my favorite.” “King,” mutter the other half of the questioners, “he’s ruined good horror. One-plot-King.” Good teachers that we try to be, we follow-up on each line of thinking, asking for supporting details and noting that while King may or may not be everyone’s favorite writer, he’s certainly made the subset of horror more visible. He was also the impetus for creating the course.

The reader for our English 1 course has been for time immemorial (doesn’t this sound Lovecraftian?) Models for Writers. Faithfully, they create a new edition; faithfully we grumble about changing texts and the student grumble about not being able to resell their books. Consistently, they also grumble about many of the readings, with the general exception of King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Literature.” We want catharsis, King argues, and we also need the counterbalance of horror to keep us civilized. Our students anticipate that essay (What? A good read?) and were mostly disappointed that it was literary analysis rather than a rollicking bloodbath. “This is what we do in English 2,” we said, “we read good stories and then analyze them.” They sniffed. Their discussions though were eager commentaries on their favorite gore and horror, as they dodged the critique and analyze aspect of King’s essay in favor of the specific examples (body count, blood baths and rephrasing of villains).

That student enthusiasm was a major theme in our teacher-walk-and-talk discussions when Tom and I would argue our favorite readings and our current semester students. “We should have a course just in horror literature; the students would love it,” I said. But it was easier proposed than accomplished.