Horror and Emotion

Fear needs to be examined. This seems strange, since fear has inspired countless short stories, novels, and movies, but there have been few philosophical treatises on fear. Let us take a look back to how earlier civilizations dealt with fear; we shall do this by examining some ancient mythology. In ancient Egypt the emotions had not yet been abstracted out of the feeling of an entity. Emotions were still part of the surroundings; there was no subjective (inside) and objective (outside) distinction. Fear belonged to the personality of feeling of an entity. This feeling or personality was called the "ba" in ancient Egypt. The ba was part of the Egyptian conception of the soul. The best way to illustrate the power of the ba, is that even a person's inanimate possessions were thought to contain the owners ba. This can be observed in the Egyptian god" Sobek. Sobek was usually represented as a human figure with the head of a crocodile. The crocodile head is the key to understanding Sobek. Sobek was the feeling invoked by the crocodile. The feeling of the crocodile is the ba of Sobek. The Egyptians has not reached the level of abstraction, where they could conceive of a god of fear. In Classical Greece we find a higher level of abstraction, and a god of fear. The Classical Greeks had abstracted out the emotions from the feeling of an entity. So we find a god of fear: Phobos. It was the terror of war that led the Greeks to conceive a god of fear. Phobos is the son of Ares and Aphrodite. The trouble with Phobos is that he is not the subject of any myths or stories. This situation takes a drastic change when we move to the Medieval age of the West. The Medieval mind conceived all sorts of demons, and devils. Many of these demons had specialized functions; there were demons for every vice. We observe here a much higher level of abstraction than in ancient cultures. The interesting part of the Medieval conception of evil and fear is that it was the mirror or reverse image of their hopes. Hell was a mirror image of Heaven, where the Devil is at the bottom in reverse of God being at the top. Although there were demons of fear, one figure stands out; that of the Antichrist. Christ and salvation was the sum of the hopes of the Medieval mind. So it should be no surprise that the Antichrist is the mirror image of Christ. To illustrate let us take a quote from Adso of Montier-en-der c. 950 (Taken from the book: "Apocalyptic Spirituality" In the Classics of Western Spirituality series) "When you wish to be informed about the Antichrist the first hing you want to know is why he is so called. This is because he will be contrary to Christ in all things and will do things that are against Christ. Christ came as a humble man; he will come as a proud one. Christ came to raise the lowly, to justify sinners; he on the other hand will cast out the lowly, magnify sinners, exalt the winked. He will always exalt vices opposed to virtues, will drive out the evangelical law, will revive the worship of demons in the world, will seek his own glory (John 7:18) and will call himself almighty God" The above quote shows how fear and hope were connected in the Medieval mind. Their fears were the reversed image of their hopes, now we must move to the modern age. What are our fears; expressed in our mythology. When we move to the modern era, we must search for mythology in our stories, and most notably in our movies. We are fortunate pop-culture has given us many figures that inspire fear; we have a rich mythology about fear. Among the familiar figures on modern horror, we find vampires, werewolves, and zombies, since I have already written about vampires, we shall examine werewolves and zombies in this essay. Then try to tie everything together in a brief examination of the modern master of horror; H.P. Lovecraft. We shall begin with the werewolf. The werewolf myth is one of transformation of a human into either a wolf, or a hybrid of wolf and human. It is also the transformation of good person into a beast. The iconic movie is "The Wolfman" (1941). Where a young man after meeting a beautiful woman that he is attracted to, gets bitten by a werewolf. This is an important point that it is after meeting a sexually attractive woman that the young man becomes a werewolf. This movie sets the tone for what is to follow, the werewolf myth is linked with sexuality. We shall now turn to two more modern movies that explore the werewolf myth and offer new and interesting twists. the movies are: "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961) and "Ginger Snaps" (2000). The "Curse of the Werewolf" starts with a sexual assault on a young, beautiful, mute woman that results in a pregnancy. The boy that is born of the sexual assault is an unwanted child, he is brought up by the doctor that delivered him, because his mother dies in child birth. The unusual twist in the movie is that the boy transforms into a werewolf when he feels unloved, or unwanted; instead of the usual werewolf bite. As the alert reader has already guessed this is going to cause the boy a lot of trouble with the onset of puberty and the sex drive. Everyone feels rejection at some time in their teens or when they begin dating. Many people do take rejection well; sort of like being transformed into a beast. So turning into a werewolf becomes a metaphor for the feeling of rejection. Needless to say, things go terribly wrong for the young man/werewolf when he has his first serious love affair. The werewolf myth becomes a metaphor for the feeling of unrequited love. How emotions can take over a person's life, and make him take destructive actions. Actions that would not even be thought of in a calmer state. Here we see a characteristic of fear. Fear is felt when a situation arises in which a person does not feel in control. A person feels as if alien forces have control over their life. Powerful forces that they do not control or understand. This leads us to our next movie: " Ginger Snaps." In the movie "Ginger Snaps" we again see the metaphor of lycanthropy for the onset of sexuality. This time from a feminist perspective. The heroines of the movie are two sexually unawakened teenage girls. One of them gets bitten by a werewolf just as her menstrual cycle starts. This is when her sexuality becomes apparent to her and the opposite sex. Again, we see sexuality as an unconscious force that an individual has little understanding of or control. Making them do risky actions. In "Ginger Snaps" the metaphor of the onset of puberty and sexuality is pushed much further than in "Curse of the Werewolf." "Ginger Snaps" also uses physiological changes, such as the growth of unwanted hair in strange places as metaphors for lycanthropy. Female sexuality in the movie becomes a source of fear in the person it is happening to and those around her. Sexuality is an unconscious force that takes control of a person's life; a force that compels the person into risky actions. Situations arise in which the person loses control. The werewolf becomes a metaphor for the onset of sexuality. The time when a person's body changes, and becomes subject to drives and desires, that the agent does not control. We shall now move to the mythology of the modern zombie. Zombies have been around for a long time, but their mythology has gone through considerable changes to reach its modern form. When we view the older zombie movies, such as "White Zombie"(1932) and "I walked with a Zombie"(1943), we see the traditional zombie. A corpse that been reanimated to fulfill the desires or ends of a sorcerer, or voodoo doctor. The myth of the zombie had to undergo considerable change for it to become a metaphor for fear in the modern age. The seminal movie that change the zombie myth to its modern form was "Night of the Living Dead"(1968). This was the movie that transformed the zombie myth into a modern metaphor . The movie "Night of the Living Dead" got rid of the controlling sorcerer or voodoo doctor; the zombies are no longer controlled by an individual. Instead the zombies are motivate their hunger for human flesh. the desire or hunger for human flesh is another innovation. In "Night of the Living Dead" and its belated sequels, the there are masses of hungry zombies wandering around in an apocalyptic landscape. Civilization has collapsed under the zombie onslaught. the movies usually feature a small band of survivors fighting the hordes of zombies. Let us now take a closer look at the modern zombie. Zombies have no personality, no individuality, they are interchangeable. There are no leaders, no followers, no distinctions of any kind. A zombie's only desire is for human flesh; there only desire is to consume. Zombies are standardized; they have reached a total equality. Zombies are also contagious, if a person is bitten or scratched by a zombie, she shall become a zombie. The modern zombie is not supernatural; the movies always give some pseudo-scientific reason for the plague of zombies. These are the characteristics that have allowed the zombie to become a metaphor for our fears. The zombie represents our fears about societal evolution. It is the nightmare that haunts our Utopian dreams. The zombie is our passion for equality gone wrong. There are no distinctions between zombies; no leaders, no followers, no family distinctions, economic distinctions,etc. Zombies are standardized and equal, no zombie is better than any other zombie. There is also the connection between the modern zombie and materialism. This connection is brought out quite well in the movie: "Dawn of the Dead"(1978), where hordes of zombies mill around shopping malls. Remember the only purpose of a zombie is to consume. The zombie is not like the devils and demons of the Medieval age, they have no wish or interest to influence humans for evil, they have no interest in the internal states of humans. Zombies have their own agenda, their eldritch craving for human flesh. Zombies are the nightmare of the triumph of material and economic values gone horribly wrong. Humans have become the only commodity, for hungry zombies. This is the mirror or reverse image of the Progressive Utopia. Zombies only have economic values, there is no justice, liberty, or freedom, only the consumption of human flesh. Zombies are the ultimate consumer. The last point about zombies that is a metaphor for our society is that zombies are contagous, everyone can become a zombie, and will become a zombie after they die. There is no escape. This is of course, a metaphor for how governments standardize everyone. People become numbers instead of individual with personalities. In our society there seems to be no escape from the power of the government. H.P. Lovecraft was the master of modern horror, and the father of modern horror mythology. In this essay we can only barley touch on some of the themes of his fiction. Lovecraft created a new mythology to replace the older Christian mythology. Lovecraft's gods have no interest in the inner states of humans, or morality, there purpose is not to tempt or test us. Instead Lovecraft's gods have their own agenda. The part humans play is to be pawns in their plans. Lovecraft's gods have no interest in the destiny of humans as individuals, or as a species. It should be easy to observe how Lovecraft's mythology underlies the modern myth of the zombie. Lovecraft's mythology also connects with the werewolf myth. Lovecraft's heroes are never in control of their destiny, they are always controlled or compelled by outside or alien forces. These forces are outside of the control and understanding of the hero. To truly understand a society or a culture we must not only know its hopes and dreams, but also its fears. END