The Trouble With Being God

What Is Horror? (And Am I a Horror Writer?)

Posted by William under Philosophizing

Since publishing The Trouble With Being God and releasing it into the wild, a strange thing has happened: the book has been repeatedly considered a horror novel. Now, while I can see this being easy to assume based on the first impressions of the cover design, or from a quick read of the first chapter, I never really thought of it that way.  With all the horror fans who have been picking up on the book (and a nudge from fellow author, Monica Valentinelli), however, I realized it was time to take a step back and think about just what horror is to me as well as others.  As much as I dislike defining things into set categories, it’s time for me to put together my own definition of horror.

When I think of horror, I generally tend to think of the kinds of books and movies I read during my younger years - in particular movies such as the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the Thirteenth franchises. Over the years I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of films that I consider horror, as well as read hundreds of books that I consider members of the genre as well.  As to what that means, however, I have to dig a bit deeper. You see, I have always thought of “horror” as different than “scary.” In particular (and especially in the examples above), when I think of “horror” I generally tend to think of stories where there is some sort of evil at stake, usually bent on killing or otherwise harming the “good guys.” In most instances this “evil” takes the form of a monster, ghost, zombie, alien or somehow damaged human being, and the story itself involves a high amount of suspense and tension, with a relatively small amount of large action pieces (although chase sequences are nearly mandatory).

So, given the definition of “horror” as I’ve stated it above, no I do not write horror. In fact, by the rules I put forth above very little actual horror really exists these days (at least in the mainstream), having been replaced in large part by the “torture porn” films like Hostel, High Tension and the Saw franchise. Still, many people do tend to consider these films to be horror - just like many people consider The Trouble With Being God to fall into the category, so there’s obviously something else going on here that defines horror, other than my own simple definition outlined above.

Taking a step back and looking at the most basic definition of horror, which the Wiktionary defines as “An intense painful emotion of fear or repugnance,” it’s quite easy to see how so many different concepts can fall under such a broad umbrella. If you take that step back, and consider horror to be anything that’s scary, there’s quite a bit more in the genre than your Frankenstein and Wolfman movies would lead one to believe.

And that’s the thing that really does make The Trouble With Being God fall into the horror category: even though I never considered it to  be “horror” while writing it, it’s meant to be scary. Not the monster-in-your closet, boogeyman scary, but instead the “oh my god, could I do something that terrible myself?” kind of scary. It’s a similar case with the novel I’m currently writing, The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr. David S. Sparks. The story itself is scary, but in a “is that where our world is really going?” kind of way. It’s not about monsters and it’s not about boogeymen (although in this story they do make their appearances) - but horror doesn’t have to be about them.

Sometimes the most horrifying thing is the thought of looking in the mirror and seeing yourself. That’s the kind of scare I’m going for.