Star Wars Horoscopes

From blogthings:

Star Wars Horoscope for Virgo

You show efficiency when working for a good cause. You tend to be a bit fussy when it comes to doing something out of the ordinary. Like many Virgos, you want to stay out of the spotlight. You do well at picking up the smallest details. Star wars character you are most like: C3P0.

What is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

Eye See You (flash-in-the-pan horror)

          Guy Metrey put the dismembered remains of his neighbor into the walk-in freezer. All except the head. He was going to take that and have it mounted, yup. He wanted a souvenir of the hunt. He closed the door and brought the head to his trunk, where he carefully began wrapping it in wax paper to put it into the ice-filled cooler.
          The eyes on his former neighbor's head stared accusingly at him as he wrapped it. He bent down to whisper, "Icy you," into the lifeless ear. But as the ax fell to cut off his own head from an unseen enemy, he heard a maniacal cackle behind and to the left of him.
          Felled in his prime by someone who wanted to get a head in life...

LEVELS OF HORROR

LEVELS OF HORROR
by Elizabeth Anne Ensley

     I know that Dante's Inferno had nine levels of Hell; but how many levels of horror do you think exist in the genre? I suppose this could be divided into types, say:

Psychological/suspense
(much of Hitchcock's movies seemed to work on this level) (suggested by Darrell Pitt)

Gore
the splatter films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the Thirteenth, Halloween (no relation to Al).
* Comedic -- I'm thinking of the Nightmare on Elm Street series here. Even though I saw V before this so the image of Robert Englund as the word-twisting but nice-guy Visitor never left my mind, the character-driven one-liners of Freddie Kruger (though horrifying in the context of the story) always cracked me up. Humor in horror...
* Fantasy -- even in some writing as well as in the cinema, the blood-soaked scenery shines through, especially if you've vicariously lived through the carnage.

Retro (Lovecraft, Poe - suggested by Cathy Freeze)

Dark
Urban

Supernatural
* ghosts
* ghouls
* witchcraft
* psychic
* alien"

~#~

     "Also, I wonder where the differentiation is between horror and fear. Is horror signified by something that is shocking and `horrifies' the reader? What is the definition of horror?"
Darrell.


From theparasitoruim@yahoogroups.com:
     "I consider Fear to be a biological response, an activation of the sympathetic nervous system--the fight or flight system. Fear is an immediate gut reaction to a threat.
     Terror is primarily psychological. Fear has to be there too, but terror is about expectation, about that something that is ABOUT to happen, and you don't know from where it's going to come.
     Horror is where fear and terror meet. Horror is when you have both fear and terror and are face to face with either the thing itself that is threatening you, or with clear, visible signs of its handiwork, as in a dead body. I think that horror always has an element of disgust to it."
Charles


~#~


     Liz,
     I dunno if this qualifies as a separate level of horror or not, but to me the character-driven horror tale has always been very powerful. This could very well fall into the "psychological/suspense" genre. I'm thinking of tales such as "A Rose for Miss Emily" by William Faulkner, or maybe "The Open Window" by Saki (H.H. Munro). I tend to separate those types of tales from the work of Hitchcock, for example, but that may just be me.
     You probably already know this, but Stephen King has an interesting discussion of the horror genre in his book "Danse Macabre."
Thanks,
John Puckett

© Copyright 2005 CElizabeth Anne Ensley (Chaos Smythe) (UN: liz_ensley at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Chaos Smythe has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.

A Tale of Two Raindrops [second response to prompt)

It was the best of rain, it was the worst of rain. The droplets fell upon the building like paws upon drumskins, the bark of thunder chasing after.


Charles Dickens (I might ont have it quite right but at least I tried).

First thing to prompt by a familiar poet

The feline's fray
The houndish bray
The water's splash
The storm clouds clash.
-Anonymous

Writer’s Forum: WRITING PROMPT

WRITING PROMPT

Rewrite a common phrase, such as "It’s raining cats and dogs," in the style of three famous authors (e.g., Stephen King, Nora Roberts and John Irving).

To post your response, visit the Writer’s Forum:

Change Your Voice

I'll try to poat a response to this soon. Terror's waking up now LOL.