is horror a dead genre?

CharlasThing(amabrarian)s That Go Bump in the Night

Únete a LibraryThing para publicar.

is horror a dead genre?

Este tema está marcado actualmente como "inactivo"—el último mensaje es de hace más de 90 días. Puedes reactivarlo escribiendo una respuesta.

1ollonois
Editado: Oct 10, 2012, 7:11 pm

Shaun Hutson, the guy who have done for literature what Hitler did for Poland, think so

I’m not sure the horror genre has got a future to be honest. Not with big mainstream publishers. It’s weird because there are so many horror films at the cinema and yet, for the only time in my life as a writer, that trend hasn’t been adopted by the publishing business. Horror films appear by the dozen every year and yet the publishers still cut back on their horror and bookshops stock less and less of it. It’s very depressing. They obviously need more shelf space for all the crime novels and the truck loads of ghost written fucking celebrity books that now pollute our bookshops. When Jordan can have the number one selling novel and Chris Moyles autobiography is a best seller then you know how deep in the shit the book business is. And how bad a state society in general is in for that matter…but anyway…

http://scary-radio.com/2011/05/16/the-sickest-writer-on-the-planet-interview/

I'm not entirely sure about this, Ellen Datlow and Stephen Jones are releasing anthologies with the best of the year and there are writers like Bentley Little, Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson... what do you think?

2BruceCoulson
Oct 10, 2012, 7:24 pm

No, I don't think so. (Most of the movies that are billed as horror are really shock/gore fests, not truly horror.)

These things come and go in cycles. Perhaps horror is on a down-trend at the moment, but there's always another generation to discover the field, read the classics, and want more.

3TheBentley
Oct 11, 2012, 12:19 am

It depends on what you mean by horror. EVERY generation has its own horror novels and stories because each generation fears different things and has different metaphors for them. As long as there is comedy, there will be horror, because they are two sides of the same coin. (Crazy guy from an asylum chasing Jack Tripper around the house with a knife in his hand? Comedy. Crazy guy from an asylum chasing Laurie Strode around the house with a knife? Horror.)

However, if you are prepared to argue that Western civilization has completely lost its sense of humor--and therefore its sense of horror--I'm afraid I have no real response for that. And, frankly, that horrifies ME, so I guess there's something to be said for that. :-)

4cfink
Oct 15, 2012, 3:56 pm

I have watched for years as space on shelves has diminished for horror. Fortunately, there are a lot of online resources, so all is not lost.

I am new to Shaun Hutson. What book would be his best as a starter?