Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

PaterFamilias Today

Home
Evangelical
Is Horror Fiction Immoral?

Is Horror Fiction Immoral?

Last updated on: November 3, 2016 at 10:20 am by C. R. Wiley

Is Horror Fiction Immoral? 2016-11-03T10:20:39-04:00 C. R. Wiley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ8fMCvhvSM

Last evening I was in attendance for a reading at a local library by contributors to a collection of spooky stories. I enjoyed myself and I was happy to become acquainted with some fellow authors who live nearby. (By the way, here’s a link to the book on Amazon–I recommend it.)

The readings all ended where things just began to get interesting. They wanted listeners to buy the book, after all. Since I had already purchased the book, I knew how some of the stories ended. (I haven’t read them all, yet.)

But the experience got me thinking. I don’t consider myself a fan of the horror genre. This may surprise some people since my own writing for young adults could be classified as horror. Why, I’ve even written about H. P. Lovecraft in my spare time. (See here, and here.)

I suppose the reason I’ve never thought of myself as a writer of horror is because I’ve come to think of the genre as so overrun with slasher, blood-and-gore that I don’t want to think of myself as being in the same camp with that stuff. But as I’ve considered it, I’ve come to see that I probably am a writer of horror. And I may have even been unfair to slasher stuff, at least to a degree. Here’s why:

Here’s the book I mentioned at the beginning of my post. https://booksandboospress.com/tag/tricks-and-treats-a-collection-of-spooky-stories-by-connecticut-authors/

The power of suggestion

The best stuff, the stuff that really raises the hair on your arms, proceeds by suggestion. It is hinting, and foreshadowing, that really gets you. Your mind races ahead, and the heart begins to beat faster. You know what’s coming, but you can’t pull away, and you don’t want to. There’s something there that must be resolved. That was really the case for me when I read my favorite ghost story, Lex Talons, by Russell Kirk. (That begins on a deserted street in a tough neighborhood one evening and ends in the basement of an abandoned house–two places you’d probably avoid in real life, especially at night.)

This tendency to follow the story to places we’d never go in the real world says something about us. It isn’t just a need for resolution. If that were the case we wouldn’t avoid dangers in real life, we’d run right into them.

So what is it that propels us along when we read a ghost story? I think it is this:

There’s a moral substructure

It is not enough for someone to get it. They have to have it coming to them. Justice must be served.

The really good stories have this moral structure so embedded in the telling it is simply assumed; and it may not even become fully conscious. You just know and you feel it in your bones, at the end, the person, or thing, just had it coming.

That doesn’t mean that there are no innocent victims, just that criminals must get a comeuppance. Again, it’s subtle, often there’s nothing explicit, just a knowledge that somehow it’s right when all is done. Sometimes a rule has been violated. We don’t need to understand the rule, but somewhere early on we learn of a taboo in passing, and sure enough, someone breaks it. Or there is a real crime committed, some injustice that must be judged, and who better to execute judgment than the ghost of the victim?

Now, as I said, I’m not a fan of the slasher stuff. But I suspect that even that stuff requires violated justice to justify itself. (Let me know if I’m completely wrong about that, but if I’m correct, please provide some examples in the comments section below.)

What I’ve come away with in my reflections is something diametrically opposed to what I started with.

The horror genre may be the most morally-structured popular literary form we have.

Now you may scream.

If you’d like to see my forays into horror, such as they are, here are a couple of links. (Please forgive the shamelessness of this self-promotion. I’m running the risk of something horrible happening me, I’m sure.)

My Young Adult series:

Here’s Book One at Amazon–The Purloined Boy

Here’s my author site. (It’s still under construction): mortimusclay.com

Here’s a short-story I wrote that appeared in Mythic Circle (originally published by The Mythopoeic Society).

Republished at The Imaginative Conservative: Sister Coulsey’s Furnace

Previous Post

October 20, 2016

What ARE Children For?

Next Post

October 27, 2016 Put Your Kids to Work, Go Ahead, They'll Thank You for It

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advising a Daughter Aristotle Art Atheism Author and Speaking Appearances Beauty Building Working Houses C R Wiley Children Community Creativity Cultural Apologetics Fatherhood Fiction Fidelity in marriage Film Freedom Gravitas H. P. Lovecraft Happiness Household Economy Infant Baptism Inklings Interpreting the Bible Interviews Jack Donovan Liturgy Localism Man of the House Manliness Martial Virtue Medieval Cosmology Metaphysics Mortimus Clay NecronomiCon New Left New Testament Household Codes Nietzsche Nominalism/Realism Politics Poverty Preaching Productive Property Reaching men Science Self-Sufficiency Side Hustles Social Ethics Social Security Spiritual Disciplines Sublime Techno-gnosticism The Pastor's Survival Guide Theology of the Family Tradition Uncategorized Virtue Weird Fiction

Select a Month February 2019 November 2018 October 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does James say we should be quick to do and slow to do?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry Quick to obey, slow to question Quick to pray, slow to doubt Quick to forgive, slow to judge

Books by This Author Books by PaterFamilias Today

See All Titles »

Books by C. R. Wiley

The Purloined Boy (The Weirdling Cycle #1)

C. R. Wiley

Man of the House: A Handbook for Building a Shelter That Will Last in a World That Is Falling Apart

C. R. Wiley