I Heart Characters! is a weekly meme hosted by Dani @ Perspective of a Writer to showcase our book blogger lover for characters! Each week she’ll supply a topic and you’ll supply the character. Post on whatever day suits you, about characters from whatever media you love (books, movies, K-dramas, television, manga, anime, webtoons, whatever!) and link up on Thursday so YOU and others can blog hop and share the character love.
This week I will tweak Dani’s topic so far that you won’t even recognize it! Dani wanted us to speak about “a character from Stephen King’s creative mind that you love! It can be based upon ANY of his adaptions… Let’s prepare for the Halloween season!”
Well sorry but I am too chicken sh@t to read horror or spooky stories! And I was wondering why I stayed far away from such stories while others were such great fans! Does it take a blood thirsty person to love horror stories? Let’s push the reasoning further and enter reader’s psyche.
I am an Atticus fan versus Cujo any day of the week!
I am unable to read an horror story or a story about ghosts except the gentle kind. Why? Because I’ve been traumatized while young and innocent!
One day or rather one night when I was about ten years old I was reading late at night in my bed about a haunted castle.
It was late. Around midnight.
The night was black with no moon.
Everything was silent in the house as my parents went to bed hours ago.
I was reading about this haunted castle, the weird noises at night, blood trails left in the corridor. The killer ghost was roaming the house.
He floated silently to the door of the room where the main and foolish character was sleeping. One move further and he would enter the bedroom….
I was IN the story, holding my breath, a kinck in my neck as my shoulders were really tense, waiting, waiting….
And the door to my bedroom opened suddenly!
I screamed and screamed! So loud I must have awoken the neighbors!
It was just my dad checking why the light was still on ….and my heart beat like a wild horse!
Weeks even months after that read I checked below the bed, in the closet, behind the curtains and never dared sleeping without any kind of light.
Needless to say that I never finished that story and never attempted to read an horror movie again.
Mind you I was the kid who hid behind the couch, peering through a slit when the donkeys/kids were whipped in Pinocchio!
I was the one asking every two minutes behind my hands if “Is it over already?” each time a movie was too tense and had some creepy music. As soon as you hear some specific tunes play you just KNOW something bad will happen to the dumb/unsuspecting girl who insists on exploring the attic in that old mansion while girls are disappearing for months in that small isolated coastal village.
Seriously why would she want to check something so spooky right?
So that’s established that I have been traumatised and go for gentle jokester Atticus.
But then why do people read or watch Cujo? Or horror stories in general?
You know that sweet dog who’s been bittend by a rabid bat and gets rabbies, becoming a killer. Killer as in lots of blood and crunching bones and ….
Well we try hard to keep our environment safe and secure but reading horror stories is an outlet for our fears. We can explore them, analyse them yet keep them at a safe distance …or not.
As Stephen King himself said: “the great appeal of horror fiction through the ages is that it serves as a rehearsal for our own deaths.” If a collective anxiety is fear of death, then the ability to explore death in literature is cathartic. If you explore what you fear like death it will lose it’s frightening edge and stop causing such great anxiety. You become accustomed with the idea of death. Well that’s his theory as I don’t know if I ever would become accustomed to it!
We try to keep the bad guy at arm’s length in real life yet hunt it in books and movies because this way we can control it! He’ll never jump from a book to kill you *even if for me he feels too real*.
There is also the thrill, the adrenaline. Everyone who’s experienced a dangerous moment like avoiding a car crash knows we feel so alive after. When you read an horror story it gives you a kick. You feel alive blood rushing in your veins and heart pounding hard. Try to go to sleep after watching an horror movie or reading such book and you’ll never be able to rest your brain. You feel buzzed and charged like a power plant.
Maybe for some it is an easy mean to brag about your ability to withstand fear. “What? You never read spooky stories? You’re such a little girl!” It could also be like a rite of passage to become a member of the closed club of “The Dauntless”!
Well I prefer to be “such a little girl” and never explore my fears. Maybe I’ve been an ostrich in another life? Who knows 😀
Now do tell me all about your relationship with horror stories and King’s characters!
Thanks for reading.
Sophie
Cujo! But Atticus was a fun read x
ahaha I loved reading this post! I don’t read Horror Stories much but I love watching horror movies! I have a weird obsession with horror movies since I was a young kid and I still look out for some good movies.
You are braver than me Raven! Reading or watching … is impossible for me!
I am not a fan of horror stories, I don’t see the fun in scaring myself when reading. I am okay with some tension or suspense tough, but I avoid thrillers and horror books usually.
Hahaha we are kindred spirits Lola!
I can’t read or watch Horror either and Pinocchio scared the crap out of me! Last time I went into a haunted house I had a panic attack and my mom had to take me out. I was in a movie theater and a trailer for a scary movie cam on and my heart rate spiked so suddenly my fitbit thought I was exercising So I am in the same boat!! I loved your story tho <3 how did your dad react when you started screaming?
Well Brittany he jumped! LOL He too was surprised and scared:D Now I am SO HAPPY to know I am not the only one who was scared by Pinocchio 😉
Love it!!! I think you fully transported me to your room all the years ago. I used to read Christopher Pike books before bed and then I’d end up relocating myself to my little sister’s room because I was too scared to sleep alone! Lol.
But yeah… I can’t do horror…. I’m scared baby like that.
Bwahahaha Nina thank you for sharing the anecdote with you migrating to your sister’s bed. I bet I would have done just that if I had any siblings. We can be scared babies together 😉
Loved this post, Sophie 🙂 Well, I love watching horror movies and shows. I remember watching a horror show in my childhood. Every Sunday we used to sit in front of the TV and after the show, I and my sister were always too afraid to go to the bathroom 😛 But still, we would wait for the next Sunday’s episode 😛
But in regards to the book, I don’t think that I have ever read any horror book. I don’t know why. I have never read any Stephen King book. I guess I have never been tempted enough to read a horror story. Hopefully, someday in future?
And I laughed so hard on your horror story 😀 I mean not on you, but that situation because I can totally relate to it. And yeah, it doesn’t mean that you are a little girl! And even then, there is no problem in being the one 🙂
You are braver than me Sim! But that does not surprise me in the least LOL I love reading about you watching these shwos and then being too afraid to go to the bathroom (dark hallways are creepy LOL).
That quote by Stephen King just gave me chills. I personally really love horror stories, even as a kid I was drawn to Goosebumps and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I like when a story gives me chills, it’s thrilling in a very twisted kind of way.
You have won your Dauntless badge Alicia! Congrats LOL
ahahah omg that life story xD
I still jump, being scared shitless when mom open my door for no reason in the middle of the night – but that was an awfully perfect timing !
also that little exploration of why was so interresting ! I just love your imput on Dani’s prompts so much !!
Thank you Kristina! And yes about 40 years later and I still see that scene and how scared I was LOL
Fun post! I’m too chicken to read most horror as well. I wasn’t traumatized or anything like that, but I just don’t like to be scared even if it’s just for entertainment value.
Exactly how I feel Suzanne! And thank you <3
You;’e killing me! LOL I laughed so hard my eyes were streaming. I love coming here! I love dog books in all genres. I have the movie Cujo. It broke my heart and I can’t watch it anymore. I know you already know this but I’m huge on horror. Hard to pick an individual character I love from King’s books. Salem’s Lot and Storm Of Century had some I’d love to see more of.
yes yes I know you are a big girl loving horror Laura LOL You should have written this week’s post from an “horror expert” perspective 😉
Hahhhaha oh wow Sophie! This is so good!! I also did a little discussion about King… I really agree with you about not getting why people love horror… I don’t feel like it makes me more comfortable with death at all! I feel like horror is more about feeling good that it was someone else and not yourself… that palatable feeling of relief that you dodged a bullet! I do think his paranormal stories though are pretty neat. He knows how to create an atmosphere that’s for sure! ❤️ Thank you so much for writing this!
Why didn’t I think of dodging the bullet???? You are totally right! And yes he knows how to create a tense and oppressive atmosphere! You are always welcome Dani even if I had to sweat once again for this week’s topic 😉
I don’t read or watch horror because, invariably, it’s laughable … and I mean, I laugh at it. Not from fear, but from the stupid stuff people think is horrific. It’s usually not so much horrific as blood-thirsty or brutal. And therein lies the problem with most so-called horror stories/movies in general. It’s all about blood, guts, and viscera … in other words, it is essentially about violence in one form of another.
That doesn’t scare me, it saddens me.
Well Alexandra you do have a point here! I could never laugh at them but the one who frightened them the most were not the one with gore etc as it’s overkill *pun intended* but rather when it’s suggested like “The Others”. You never see anything but all is suggested and you have the music, the looks the slow mo, the ….