What the Daemon Said: Essays on Horror Fiction, Film, and Philosophy

[Molly Grue]

I'll check into those links, and thanks for posting them. Clute adumbrates his four-fold framework for fantasy stories in a couple places, but its most complete explication is in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. He subsequently separately published a short addendum entitled The Darkening Garden: A Brief Lexicon of Horror that introduces an analogous conceptual apparatus for the horror genre.

Essentially, these are skeletal outlines of the links in the fictional world between plot and the basic ontology of that world, whether that fundamental reality is ultimately to be restored to its proper state (fantasy) or revealed to be inimical (horror), the worldview of the protagonist(s) having been essentially an illusion. This is just a basic analytical approach--in reality few texts exactly follow either, and can skip steps or emphasize or downplay certain aspects in various ways:

Fantasy:
SEASON EXAMPLE
Wrongess------------>Autumn---------------->The unicorn realizes she's alone and sets out to find her people
Thinning-------------->Winter----------------->She searches for others, arriving eventually in the bad place where they're imprisoned
Recognition---------->Spring------------------>After nearly forgetting her quest, she remembers who she is and faces the Bull
Return----------------->Summer--------------->The good king replaces the bad, the unicorn goes back to her forest

Horror:

Sighting--------------->Spring------------------>Man arrives in Innsmouth, is freaked out by how weird people are
Thickening------------>Summer--------------->The extent of that weirdness in Innsmouth slowly builds into real menace, both spiritually and physically
Revel------------------->Autumn---------------->Dude looks in the mirror, and realizes maybe he's lookin' a bit fishy himself, and accepts it (revels in it)
Aftermath------------->Winter------------------>Feel like a swim to a little offshore spot? [in this tale, Aftermath happens when the story is over]

[cannibal cop]

I like the idea that the basic progression of the horror story roughly corresponds to four successive stages of life.

Birth—A period of (relative) innocence/naivety.—Eden.

Maturity—A period of growth and developing awareness often leading to disillusionment.—The eviction from Eden.

Decline—That period during which the tolling of the bell grows increasingly unendurable, leading to the final confrontation with mortality.—Revelation.

Death—The never-discovered country, the desolation without end.—???

[ZC_HAWK]

An exemplary selection of essays, wrapped up my reading a month ago and have returned to read a number of works in isolation since.
The resident Cardin deftly navigates the interlacing webs at the heart of the chimeraesque grotesquerie that is strange tales, theologian cosmology, and the ontological nature of community through fiction.
An exhilarating read, probably one of my favorites of the year.