Toronto Spec Fic Colloquium Notes #1

Phrases in " " are direct quotes. Any mistakes or misattributions are mine. You can watch the lecture on YouTube: Part 1 and Part 2.

"The Care and Feeding of Horror – Or How a Very Unpleasant Emotion Became a Very Unstable Genre"
by David Nickle - author of Monstrous Affections

Definition of horror - feeling of "no options at all"

Example of things that caused horror (when he was a kid): "dark rides" at CNE, "haunted barrel works" at Centre Island -- things that "blast away your sanity"

quote - Douglas Winter: "horror is not a genre, but an emotion"

Steven King - injected realism into horror

Horror requires "mature innocent intelligence" in order to work: you have to approach horror without any expectation of it

Problem with horror is that it gives itself away (as compared to SF, which evokes sensawunda) -- ideally, horror preys on innocence -- therefore, need to get reader invested in characters, in emotion, in order to really evoke horror

audience Q: horror vs uncanny?

uncanny is:
- tool for pulling rug out from under people
- a tool to evoke horror
- realism and the contradiction of leaching in of tiny unreal (eg sizzling cat food)
- that feeling of "this is my world... but it's not"
- Suggested reading - Headhunter? by Timothy Findlay

horror, on the other hand, is: very "operatic" - eg Hannibal, Dracula