I don't mind being scared. Although, i don't get scared all that easily. I'm usually the one laughing in the back of the theater because the people getting murdered are so stupid. Maybe its just a lack of creativity by the writers because the only scary movies that get to me are the ones that could happen to me in the real world. Spiders are a fear of mine. I'm not sure where that fear came from. It was much worse in my childhood, but now i am beginning to overcome it.
I think fear stems from empathy. Horror movies scare people because the people watching the movies put themselves in the shoes of the people in the movie. For example, often times when a person is hiding from a "killer" he/she holds their breath. The same behavior occurs in the people in the audience, the viewers get just as scared. The fear of death or physical harm only apply to certain people, myself not being one.
A definition of madness would be the opposite of how the majority of the public would react in a given situation. The difference between madness in our time to Poe's is just a change in society. Today, people can be driven to madness by increasing bills, or the inability to "fit in." It didn't take much to scare people in Poe's day, so a simple story that let the reader's imagination really define exactly how "mad" the character went in this story. But in our time, it is understood that there are mental diseases that actually drive people to be insane. Before this, it was thought to the be work of the devil.
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5 comments:
I really like your definition of madness. Some people do, in fact have mental conditions that affect who they are as a person. However, I also liked how you acknowledged the fact that there are other variables that can drive people insane.
The idea of empathy being an effective element of scaring people is a good idea that I hadn't thought of. It's true that when something is imagined happening to you it seems much more real and frightening.
I totally agree with you about realistic vs. contrived horror movies. Alot of the plots of scary movies blend together. It is the unique ones that atsay with you and scare you most.
I'd have to disagree with you about being scared of scary movies. Yes, the plot can be cheezy but I deffinitely get scared by them. I'm happy to hear you have overcome your fear, I'm still working on that.
I think that the way you differentiate between madness then and madness now is interesting. We know that it is a chemical imbalance that causes madness, but we have the same stereotypes and prejudices that we did back then when we thought madness was caused by the devil.
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