In this article the author recognizes that horror most likely has been around as long as stories have, but as a genre it is more of a recent hapenning. Similar to the assigned reading "History of Horror" the article attributes the witchcraft and stories of as contributing to the beginnings of the horror style. Also, Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, and Robert Louis Stevenson had a part in the origins of horror. Most horror stories were in the short story or novella form and not until the 1970's then the thriller novels caught on. It was Stephen King who really brought popularity to the horror novel. But when considering the horror genre it only makes sense for it to be relatively young in its appeal. Horror is made-up terror. Up until recently there was plenty to worry about in regards to survival, so intentionally scareing oneself didn't really come up. Fear was a normal part of daily life, so not much entertainment played on fear in those days. Today, we lack ever feeling truly afraid if anything, or we fear different and less substantial things. Survival is no longer a driving force of what we do for the day, therefore a certain amount of amusement can be derived by creating visual or textual situations that replicate horrifying times. If anything horror will continue to evolve as the times change, but our fear will always be an inherent part of our complex matrix of feelings.
North, Anthony. 2007. 'A History of Horror Fiction'. WordPress. retrieved November 4, 2007 from http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2007/03/06/a-history-of-horror-fiction/
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