>"The short story Cat Person was published a couple of years ago, and received widespread attention from both readers and the general public. It isn't marketed as a "horror" story, though there is something very disconcerting about the narrative, the relationships of the two characters, and what it represents in wider society. Many people who read the story responded with disgust and, indeed, horror at the way it portrays modern dating for example and vowed to stop using online dating as a result.">"It is interesting to note that the author of the story (whose name I can't be bothered to look up or attempt to remember) actually had a background in horror writing, and she lends this experience and energy to this story (and to her subsequent book of short stories). It is a kind of horror that penetrates the facade of modernity and inter-personal relations (hook-up culture, etc) and reveals the horrors lurking within.">"A similar example is the story The Feminist (again by someone whose name I can't remember, Toby something). It again is the story from a perspective of an "incel", much like ER, who penetrates the facade of modernity, sexual liberation etc and reveals the horror lurking in the psychologies of those who do not succeed in this environment. There is plenty of material there still to be had; after all, much of the "energy" of modern life is found in the frustration of sexual longing and failure, the coldness of life (for men) in a system where most men are judged to be inferior and unsuitable, despite society's constant grinning face telling us it's all fun and games.">"Consider much of the terminology surrounding modern hook-up culture and romance: ghosting, creep, haunting, zombieing, etc (https://www.themanual.com/culture/modern-relationship-terms-explained). These are terms straight form traditional horror. Consider the "norms" of modern sexual relationships: hitting, choking, sadism; it's again the kind of action you would find in more violent horror stories.">"In short, modern horror will struggle to find much material in the traditional subjects of horror and cosmic horror (e.g., unchartered territories, unfamiliar ethnic groups, unrecorded goings-on in remote farmhouses etc). The *unfamiliar* has been thoroughly explored, mapped and neutered. Conversely, the *familiar* is now what causes us great distress and horror: maladjusted psychologies in a world of sterile conformity, sinister truths lurking beneath the facade of a grinning lie, dark personas existing hiding in the spaces yet to be revealed by a highly public (i.e., not private, esp. digital) character, immoral urges breeding and multiplying beneath the surface of equality, diversity, "virtue signalling" etc. Modern life seems to be wholly transparent (see The Transparency Society, for example) and any threats to the virtues dictated by those moulding this society should in theory be easy to identify and nullify, and yet the darkness persists."?
>"Consider the sources of horror in traditional societies: supernatural forces, superstition, unfamiliar ethnic groups, etc. There was still a safety and security to be found among one's own group and ideological peers. Yet, as Putnam and others have written about in great deal, this secure community has now evaporated and left people isolated, atomised and bound (increasingly) only by brief sexual encounters, economic competition and parasocial (i.e., unrequited) relationships. This sort of situation, where each person is without a default community and the security such a community allows, is a breeding ground for paranoia, dark psychological adaptations (e.g., unrestrained lust, envy, misanthropy, deep loneliness).">"Whereas in the past a horror was to be found in the gap between tight-knit communities and the unfamiliar (e.g., Lovecraft's work finds horror in foreign ethnic groups, mysterious locations, outer space, other dimensions), we now find find ourselves in a position wherein the proposed sources of horror have been explored and sanitized (space is just hecking awesome, Papua New Guinea has its tribes but they are quite laughable and quaint, Innsmouth can be explored on Google Streetview from the comfort of your home) but now the horror is among us, between each atomised person, in the spaces which grow increasingly wider each day between neighbours, between countrymen, between fellow atheists, between those whose daily lives are spent expressing on social media etc just how virtuous, unsinister, pure and normal they are. It is a solipsistic horror, the fear of being rendered insane not due to overwhelming external stimuli but by internal pressures which *should not exist* if society was developing towards the utopia which stands shimmering on the horizon.">"The security of the traditional has given way to the horror of the modern: a potential romantic partner may just be a creep, a sadist, a murderer in disguise; the kind, smiling feminist may be a lustful, malevolent seducer who has artfully donned the feminist attire in order to be granted entry into the chicken's coop; the shiny, superficial society of equality and happiness may in fact be the city of Omelas who relies on your personal suffering (suffering you dare not validate for fear of being truly exiled left to rot in isolation) in order to propagate itself."
I women had the chance to have a million dollars and to take a million dollars from somebody else, they would take the second option
>>25350653Old school horror:>scary monster (monster)>scary monster (crazy guy)>scary monster (metaphor)>deranged protagonist's psycheFeminist horror:>a guy
>>25350669Worse, a nice guy.
>>25350657>>25350653Written by someone with a social science degree I’m sure. Consider much of the terminology used. Declarative sentences left hanging. No connective tissue forming a real argument, just things that may happen or things that exist. Now it’s time to end the argument so emphasize how important it is and make a literary reference, cross your metaphorical arms and look smug. QED, fellow slop scientists.
Not gonna bother analyzing this unless you post a link so we know which shit site published it.>>25351874This. Someone tell the author that if you need more than one set of parenthesis every 5 paragraphs you're over-elaborating.
