I enjoyed reading your explanations. They have clarified that my reading preference in this genre falls solidly on the "Gothic" end of the spectrum. I've seen the work of both Stephen King and Peter Straub described as "Gothic Horror", with King's "The Shining" held up as a classic example. I read it years ago and was left with no desire to see the movie. Bring on the vampires! :-)
I remember that episode of Scooby-Doo. I would set my alarm so I wouldn't miss the show, the first in my Saturday morning line-up of cartoons. When gothic and horror come up in my literary genre classes, we sometimes read Clive Bloom's intro to Gothic Horror -- which I now realize is really only about kinds of horror and not about the gothic. One question: is Frankenstein supernatural? If so, is science fiction generally supernatural in that expansive sense?
That’s a good question re Frankenstein. My take is that Shelley’s science doesn’t quite cut it (“spark of life” etc.), pushing the book more into Gothic horror than sci-fi. But I love thinking about this!
I enjoyed reading your explanations. They have clarified that my reading preference in this genre falls solidly on the "Gothic" end of the spectrum. I've seen the work of both Stephen King and Peter Straub described as "Gothic Horror", with King's "The Shining" held up as a classic example. I read it years ago and was left with no desire to see the movie. Bring on the vampires! :-)
That’s exactly how I feel!
I remember that episode of Scooby-Doo. I would set my alarm so I wouldn't miss the show, the first in my Saturday morning line-up of cartoons. When gothic and horror come up in my literary genre classes, we sometimes read Clive Bloom's intro to Gothic Horror -- which I now realize is really only about kinds of horror and not about the gothic. One question: is Frankenstein supernatural? If so, is science fiction generally supernatural in that expansive sense?
That’s a good question re Frankenstein. My take is that Shelley’s science doesn’t quite cut it (“spark of life” etc.), pushing the book more into Gothic horror than sci-fi. But I love thinking about this!