The expository mode（narrow saying, emphasizing the data and materials）:
Collecting horror stories is one interest for me. I read and researched stories when I was young. Since I insisted on this hobby for many years, I have also done three taxations for them.
The first one is texts, which are easy and common ways to record or create horror stories. A writer only needs one pen and one piece of paper(or the computer) to write or create a horror story. Horror stories evolved from Gothic horror. Gothic horror formed in 18 century, which could be considered the ancestor of the horror novel. The elements of Gothic horror are mysterious, dark, and terrible, which also can describe contemporary horror stories. Lots of horror story secondary creations are based on the texts. I categorize them into crime, monster, hell, paranormal events, and doomsday.
The second one is comics. As a kind of visual art, comics can express horror stories for audiences to read. Comics convert texts to pictures and dialogues, which help audiences to achieve the stories line in their minds. However, comics create by people, which means the style of different artists will have a distinct visual feeling for audiences. The same horror story is made by two style artists, which will give various visual effects for audiences. I may not categorize them into contents but the regions(Asia, European and American area, and so on).
The third one is Films, which are the new style way to express horror stories. As a kind of visual art, films realistically describe the horror story. Audiences can feel the terrible atmosphere through these plausible frames and experiences with protagonists to do the adventure. Same with the horror comics, I will categorize this collection in different regions(Asia, European and American areas).
Howard Phillips Lovecraft said, ‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.‘ Most people enjoy the feeling of unknown fear when they read horror stories. I understand that curiosity is a human being, all of us are interested in paranormal and unknown objects. However, when I reflected on my collection, I noticed many “ghosts” or “Monsters” in horror stories have definite goals. Such as vampires wanting to suck blood from people, the zombies capturing people for their meat, the ghosts wandering in a place because of their obsessions, the series killer killing people so that to satisfy their distorted psychological desires, and so on. Though their goals relate to mental or physical wants, their behaviours make people scared or threaten humans to death.
In daily life, people may meet lots of bad things that threaten their physical or psychological wants. Such as workers’ promotion competition in the company, innocent humiliation for somebody in public, unequal treatment, etc. Most of them will make people angry and sad, sometimes will let people go to extremes. Law won’t work in horror stories, but it is different from the realistic society.
Don’t let evils into your mind.
The poetic mode(Focus on the mood transmission ) :
Have you ever seen horror stories, comics or films at night?
Well, you may see a lot of plots from them.
Vampires, monsters, wolfmen, zombies.
Ghosts find you to capture your body,
Series Killers hope to cut down your head through his axe.
You’re run far from them, into the deep and intricate dark forest.
You keep running, running.
They almost catch you！
You close the book and keep calm.
They are just stories. But what do they want?
Blood, money, meat, spirit.
If you are caught,
the consequences for you are unthinkable.
Luckily, they are just stories.
It is easy to meet situations which about interest competitions daily.
Sometimes you may want to make somebody die, too.
Remember, it is wrong.
Don’t let demons into your mind.
Good night, tomorrow is another new day.
The reflexive mode(focus on the reflection):
‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.‘ by Howard Philips Locecraft.
I have collected horror stories already for many years. I divided them into texts, comics, and films. Most horror stories have definite goals that make people feel scared. Vampire, zombies, wolfmen, ghosts, evils, paranormal events, and so on. The plots of different horror stories are familiar to audiences. Why do people love to read horror stories or watch their secondary creations? After researching data on the Internet, I make a list below:
1, Curiosity is human nature. Horror stories satisfy the human thirst for the unknown.
2, People fear familiarity and enjoy the shocking adrenaline rush of fiction’s plots.
3, Horror stories give people opportunities to think about something which goes against normal society.
4, People have a chance to research dark emotions (sadness, emptiness, loss, depression, despair, shame, and fear).
Because flair for unknowns goes against normal society, people read horror stories to satisfy their thirst and adrenaline rush. Sadness, emptiness, depression, and fear are considered dark emotions in daily life. These can be allowed to feel in horror stories by readers too. But in a realistic society, if somebody wants to research unknown or get the adrenaline rush, he should be safe and careful. It is easy for everyone to get dark emotions when they face bad things, but people hard to exceed them.
Compared with curiosity and adrenaline rush, dark emotions are the most dangerous things because they will blow up after suppressing for a long time, which will let people do extremes, such as autonomy, suicide, or murder. We may meet lots of unfortunates in our daily. Sometimes they will get us crazy and mad. Horror stories may allow people to vent their dark emotions without being responsible for their illegal ways, but the realistic society won’t do this.Don’t let evil into your mind.
Reference:
Lovecraft, H(1927), Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature.The magazine: The Recluse.