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iv. lack and language
Jun. 23rd, 2021 09:36 pmI have a hard time describing emotions, and lately I've been considering how many words I know in English for terms to explain or express violence, but how difficult of a time I have trying to get out what I want to say about how I feel. I use a lot of metaphors for both, but it sounds really pithy to be like, "my language knows more about violence than love," or something else suitably dramatic. I've previously posted on tumblr about feeling like neither English nor Kannada feel like my mothertongue, but rather that I'm a nonnative speaker for both because as a kid I didn't learn them separately, and I'm still thinking about that feeling, but have even less ability to explain it. In other news, I'm hypothetically going to try duolingo out again, because I keep looking random words up on pleco and it's kind of fun.
The meat of this post is actually about black humor vs tragicomedy. The description "[laughter/jokes/comedy] filled with glass shards" is really accurate for the type of thing I like to watch. Tragicomedy is pretty much exactly like what the portmanteau suggests, but lately I've been thinking about 'offbeat horror' which, to be honest, is a term that gives me zero context. What makes something offbeat? What makes something onbeat? If life is a song, I'm tonedeaf. Some time ago, someone in a server I'm in (if you're reading this tell me dhdhdh I can't remember who exactly said it) mentioned the idea of [daylight/sunlight] horror. I can't remember which it is, but I'm assuming daylight works better. The hot sun on bleached bones, the smell of rot as the temperature rises, the tower of bodies on the beach in that NBC Hannibal episode. I still haven't watched Midsommar, but I think it was brought up as an example. Horror but in daylight? Horror, but the fear comes from seeing something? Horrifying things that happen because of the sun? There's a few interpretations, I guess.
One of my favorite types of horror (and tragedy actually, although I get uncomfortable with comedy for this) is the sense of impending doom, or just a lot of dramatic irony. Actually, I like irony in general, but I think there's something really appealing about fitting pieces together and seeing that the sum is greater than the whole (in a bad way, of course). Straws break camels' backs, but it's not as appealing if you only see the last one. The buildup is what gets you - the slow waiting, the feeling that eventually, something will happen. Someone will come and stop this, you think. Someone will see this. Bystander effect/syndrome is not a thing (I have citations but I've decided to stop posting them every time I talk about this) but I would argue that books play on its cousin, in which you as the audience aren't able to step in and do anything for the characters, so you just watch them walk into the trap, and then you see them try to pull free, and fail, and try again, and you see them consider stopping before they think about how they just have to do! one! thing!
Anyway, I've been having a bit of a hard time finding the right type of horror that I want to read. A lot of the available subgenres don't seem to strike the right note - I want like. Tragic horror, except that implies that horror doesn't usually have a downer ending. I think there's a difference between a bad end and a tragedy! You have to work up to a tragedy in a way that you technically don't with bad endings. Of course, you need foreshadowing before the characters die, but tragedy takes it a step further because you have to know exactly what the good end could have been, or at least some of the steps for how to get there. It's not tragedy if there never was a way out - or well, it can be but everyone needs that flicker of hope. (I said flicker because I was thinking of 'flickering' but should it have been spark?)
under the cut is discussion of two novels (spoilers for 2ha/The Husky and His White Cat Shizun -- watch out for discussion (not explicit/descriptive) of revictimization, abuse (sexual and otherwise) and relationships with abusers.
( Read more... )
The meat of this post is actually about black humor vs tragicomedy. The description "[laughter/jokes/comedy] filled with glass shards" is really accurate for the type of thing I like to watch. Tragicomedy is pretty much exactly like what the portmanteau suggests, but lately I've been thinking about 'offbeat horror' which, to be honest, is a term that gives me zero context. What makes something offbeat? What makes something onbeat? If life is a song, I'm tonedeaf. Some time ago, someone in a server I'm in (if you're reading this tell me dhdhdh I can't remember who exactly said it) mentioned the idea of [daylight/sunlight] horror. I can't remember which it is, but I'm assuming daylight works better. The hot sun on bleached bones, the smell of rot as the temperature rises, the tower of bodies on the beach in that NBC Hannibal episode. I still haven't watched Midsommar, but I think it was brought up as an example. Horror but in daylight? Horror, but the fear comes from seeing something? Horrifying things that happen because of the sun? There's a few interpretations, I guess.
One of my favorite types of horror (and tragedy actually, although I get uncomfortable with comedy for this) is the sense of impending doom, or just a lot of dramatic irony. Actually, I like irony in general, but I think there's something really appealing about fitting pieces together and seeing that the sum is greater than the whole (in a bad way, of course). Straws break camels' backs, but it's not as appealing if you only see the last one. The buildup is what gets you - the slow waiting, the feeling that eventually, something will happen. Someone will come and stop this, you think. Someone will see this. Bystander effect/syndrome is not a thing (I have citations but I've decided to stop posting them every time I talk about this) but I would argue that books play on its cousin, in which you as the audience aren't able to step in and do anything for the characters, so you just watch them walk into the trap, and then you see them try to pull free, and fail, and try again, and you see them consider stopping before they think about how they just have to do! one! thing!
Anyway, I've been having a bit of a hard time finding the right type of horror that I want to read. A lot of the available subgenres don't seem to strike the right note - I want like. Tragic horror, except that implies that horror doesn't usually have a downer ending. I think there's a difference between a bad end and a tragedy! You have to work up to a tragedy in a way that you technically don't with bad endings. Of course, you need foreshadowing before the characters die, but tragedy takes it a step further because you have to know exactly what the good end could have been, or at least some of the steps for how to get there. It's not tragedy if there never was a way out - or well, it can be but everyone needs that flicker of hope. (I said flicker because I was thinking of 'flickering' but should it have been spark?)
under the cut is discussion of two novels (spoilers for 2ha/The Husky and His White Cat Shizun -- watch out for discussion (not explicit/descriptive) of revictimization, abuse (sexual and otherwise) and relationships with abusers.
( Read more... )
