Horror The Supernatural Genre Essays - Speculative Fiction

Horror: The Supernatural Genre Horror is an ancient genre, it roots lodged in ancient myth and folklore. Since then the genre has evolved, even sometimes doing without elements of the supernatural on which the original horror stories where founded. Despite the emergence of natural horror, horror which incorporates elements of the supernatural still remains superior. While horror can be successful using only natural circumstances, horror that utilizes elements of the supernatural evokes a more effective response from the reader. ?A Rose for Emily? is a good example of horror which contains no supernatural elements. While pieces of the story contain the unusual or violate societal taboos the story conforms very much to the way in which we think the world operates. The reader could easily imagine that this story might really have occurred at some time. While the realism of the story makes it more plausible to the reader, it also lessens its effectiveness. The idea of a woman lying down next to a dead body for decades is revolting, but not very horrific. No sense of dread is imposed upon the reader, and the only visceral response is one of disgust. While the piece in effective at entertaining the reader, it lacks the ability to truly inspire horror. Dahl's ?A Man from the South? also lacks the ability to impress a sense of terror and dread on the reader. Like ?A Rose for Emily? the story is entertaining, but the reader is not really terrified by any of the events that happen in it. There is a slight sense in revulsion at the idea of collecting human fingers but there is no overall sense of doom in the story. ?The Call of Cthulu? however is of a completely different nature. In it H.P. Lovecraft weaves a tale full of dread and unfathomable terror. The mystery of what exactly Cthulu is, what portents the strange dreams hold, the mysterious statues created in deep antiquity, all come together to impress a sense of fear upon the reader. An overriding element which makes the story so effective is the use of the supernatural, which allows Lovecraft to create beings to terrible to exist in the world we know. Throughout the story pervades a sense of the unknown, of some ancient mystery which mortal man should never venture to know. The story evicts a visceral sense of horror from the reader, one of realization of what might happen if such things were ever to exist. While any sane person would never claim that a giant god from the stars will ever rise out of the ocean to destroy the world, the reader can nonetheless envision such a horrific event. ?The Call of Cthulu? shows how effective the super natural can be in horror. Another excellent Lovecraft story that incorporates the supernatural is ?Nyarlathotep.? The plot centers on the arrival of Nyarlathotep, a modern-day prophet who throws the world into madness. The entire basis for the story is the supernatural, the predestined end of man which comes bellowing out of the depths of antiquity. While short in length the story nevertheless manages to build a sense of dread before Lovecraft unleashes the terrible truth of Nyarlathotep's purpose upon the reader. Unlike ?The Call of Cthulu? ?Nyarlathotep? ends with evil succeeding, in the world being engulfed by unspeakable horrors. The tale truly grabs the reader with a pervading sense of doom and predestined destruction, making it a highly effective piece of horror literature. What is it about the supernatural that lends itself so effectively to the horror genre? The truth is that it is a combination of factors, which come to play in different stories. In a tale such as ?Nyarlathotep? the role of the supernatural is to impress upon the reader images and ideas which would not exist in the natural world, to horrify through that which is unknown and evil. This is one of the primary roles that the supernatural fills in the horror genre, being a vehicle to allow the author to create images and events in which the reader is left to his or her imagination as to what the dreaded thing is. Soley relying on natural events and occurrences allows the reader to build from his or

In the nineties the world has been faced with many different crimes and social deviences essays

In the nineties the world has been faced with many different crimes and social deviences essays In the nineties the world and society has been faced with many different crimes and social deviancies, most of which have been as a result of rebellion and a form of expression. Whether it is to force a change or to create something new deviance is at a strong high. At the dawn of a new millenium some of society feel the need to express themselves in proscriptive norms and leave our mark on the world. The words deviance and crime are two words often mistaken for each other. Crime is a unlawful activity while deviance is a behavior that is different from that of the accepted social or moral standards. Deviance most of the time is the gateway to crime. A strong example of this would be the recent exploits at the Woodstock 99 music festival. In the September 2nd issue of Rolling Stone magazine the author Kurt Loder writes about the transgression that takes place when the music festival turns sour. He writes about how amid the music and peaceful motto of the festival some individuals feel the need to be malicious and irregular. He goes on to tell that when the band Limp Bizkit performed the song Break Stuff the violence took place. There was an unending blizzard of empty plastic water bottles sailing through the air and bouncing off skulls further down front, across the field people were ripping up the plywood barriers...and launching big, splintery crowd-surfing boards atop a sea of upsteached hands...The bonfires roaring out of control, the looting, the explosions, the whole stupid riot. Festival security, such as it was, collapsed in the face of this sudden war-zone situation. There was also accounts of different and unusual sexual activities. Kurts interpretation was like most others. This day that was supposed to be a social gathering in a peaceful atmosphere turned into a battle field of abnormal de...

Wiki Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Wiki - Essay Example As far as the disadvantages are concerned, viruses are created that keep the capacity of infecting the information saved in a system. Moreover, it appears that people are getting away from physical exercises, as they are much involved I doing computerized tasks. I would like to have a fully computerized cell phone with the help of which, I can do all my computer related tasks. The movie that I have selected for the review of information technology is â€Å"GoldenEye†. It is one among the James Bond series and uses a lot of information technology such as computer systems, emailing, data management, information retrieval, online data access, digital photography and much more. James Bond uses computer accessories for accessing to information and the information that is also secret and confidential is accessed online by the villain of the story. James Bond along with some other characters are shown as mastering the technology but of course, James Bond is the best among them, as he can access all kinds of information that he needs. The technology that deals with the use of power such as the pen by which, a grenade can be set off is portrayed fantastically. James Bond’s movies are always welcoming new technologies and also showing ways for new technologies to come. The web resource for teaching Excel that I have selected is www.techonthenet.com. This resource informs in detail about the Excel and its usage. It informs about the functions and procedures on Excel. The function that I have learnt on internet because of this website is Excel: Min Function. The Min Function, according to the web resource is able to give the least value among many other values. For example, among 2, 4, 6, 2 is the minimum value and the Min Function will give that value. We can place the sign of â€Å"is equal to† that is â€Å"=† and then write Min, afterwards, we put braces. In the braces, we have to give the numbers from