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Friends,
Celebrating the release of my novel Hawk Mountain in paperback, I’ll be talking with creators of my favorite genre, HORROR. There are few genres that have inspired such a furor of regulation, stigma, and anger. Horror is regulated by governments, has been the topic of countless moralistic exams rations and moral panics, has been blamed for disintegrating societies, and more. Horror itself horrifies. And when horror does become accepted, at best it is said by critics to “transcend the genre.” Which means it’s really just transcending the stigma the critics have by re-asserting it. But who am I to talk about beleaguered horror? The fact is, it is also wildly popular. Even a terrible horror movie can be quite popular, and the most consistently bestselling author of all time is a horror writer. What does that mean? Across these episodes, I’ll be talking about horror in its many forms: cosmic horror, body horror, suburban horror, monster horror, possession horror, and more.
The previous episode in the series was AEWCH 233 featuring writers Nathan Ballingrud and Sara Gran. The first was AEWCH 232, with cosmic horror writer and scholar Matt Cardin.
Partially inspired by the 1990 Horror Cafe on the BBC2 featuring Clive Barker, John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Lisa Tuttle, Ramsay Campbell, and Peter Atkins, we’ll be investigating deep questions about horror together, and seeing what unlit paths they lead us down. What is horror for? Why do we condemn it even as we flock to it? What is the horror-nature of being? What happens when the imagination explores the violence, the darkness, and the screaming in the inner landscape and when we conjure it into art?
You don‘t have to know much horror or even like horror to follow along with these episodes; because horror locates itself in our lives in many ways – and that’s what I talk about at length in this episode. It locates itself in our lives in histories of violence, and of the supernatural. In our bodies, which in some ways are a site of daily horror. And in our loved ones – in their presence, absence, and our fear of both.
To discuss these sites of horror, I asked two prolific and award-winning writers on the show, JOHN LANGAN and SOPHIE WHITE.
John is perhaps best known for his Bram Stoker-winning novel, The Fisherman, composed of horror stories within horror stories as different characters deal with loss and a grotesque and supernatural presence in nearby waters. He’s also the author of numerous (excellent!) short story collections, the most recent of which is Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies.
Sophie is the author of the caretaking nightmare Where I End, which recently won the Shirtley Jackson Award. She’s also written a book of horror essays, Corpsing: My Body and Other Horror Shows, both out from Tramp Press here in Ireland.
SHOW NOTES
WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO?
Speaking of fairies and witches, here’s my discussion with Irish witchcraft scholar, Andrew Sneddon, on AEWCH 186. On the episode, we discuss why what looks like fairies in Ireland might be witchcraft somewhere else and vice versa.
WHAT BOOK SHOULD YOU READ?
To get an idea of how monsters, tradition, and horror can inhere and explode in a place, read The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story by Angela Bourke – about a woman who was killed by her husband after he suspected her of being a a fairy.
MORE ON JOHN AND SOPHIE
John’s website is here, where, among other things, he reviews other horror writers’ works. Along with the books mentioned above, he’s the author of many others. One of my favorites is The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies which features a great story about a space vampire.
Sophie’s website is here. And here’s a great interview with Sophie – with the amazing Irish humorist Patrick Freyne. She’s also the co-host of the Creep Dive podcast, which looks at morbid and grim news items with insight and a sense of humor.
Conner Habib 