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Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid!
Halloween has come and gone, but it’s left me with some things to think about. Mostly, to be honest, I’ve been thinking about fear.
And not just because of the calendar; many of us find ourselves, this year, in great fear for the world around us and the potential for horrible things happening to vast swaths of populations. Fear is on a lot of people’s minds.
Of course, maybe horror as a literary genre isn’t your cup of tea. But let me ask you — do you enjoy roller coasters? How about exploring creepy abandoned places? Some of you may be nodding now. Everyone has a need, sometimes, to dip our toes, however tentatively, into the ocean of our fear.
We have a curious relationship with scary stories. We call them “thrillers” because we don’t only feel fear — we get excited, too. When we’re frightened, our brains release dopamine that increases pleasure — or activates the body for action. But no one really wants to be in a scary situation, do they? So instead we try to find ways to get that dopamine rush vicariously, through stories.
Most importantly for me, this year, is the understanding that feeling afraid in a fictional setting through a scary story allows us explore our fear from a safe distance. Our minds find the fictional experience exciting, and we get a “rush” of excitement as we pretend to get in and out of danger —…
