Initial Stages of a Yearning for More

Let's talk about e-books and what can be done with them that can't with dead tree books.  Let's start with that first, it's been quite some time that I have been referring to them as dead trees, not just out of deferment to the sacrifice of trees to make them--I have certainly proliferated the slaughter of trees for my fairly large book collection, especially on the RPG front, of which I have more, and they are also bigger requiring more paper to make them--but also due to the unchanging nature of them.  You put the works on the paper and there they lie, immortal and static, a testament to whatever went into them for as long as the paper and ink shall live.  This is a fine thing, a far nobler deed than--well, not nobler than living in a forest sucking up carbon dioxide and spitting out oxygen.

Still, this is not about the environmental impact.  Nor is it about the immutability of unchanging words on a page.  We are not at the stage that a book can easily be altered, not even e-books.  They can't be upgraded, only a newer version downloaded.  Narratives, stories, are best left alone, not updated anyway.  To carry on, to expand the narrative is what sequels and series are for.  While not new, one advantage e-books can have is that annotations can be kept with the page they belong to, hidden until necessary, and if done correctly viewed along with text they accompany.  Certainly people can annotate their books with a pen, or the author can include footnotes or endnotes--though endnotes pull the reader to another page and induce flipping back and forth.

The amount of information in the annotations is also limited in size, endnotes aside.  This all so far is indicative of the old school thought about not only books but also information in general and how to organise it.  Further, it is about limiting it as well.  Take for instance Stephen King's The Stand, or any film with deleted scenes available in the extras for the movie.  What if a book could have extras?  What if a novel could have deleted scenes?  With an e-book they can.  Ever heard of the book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski? Among other components, some of which are not recommended for just any book, it has footnoted footnotes, and references to different information sources.  It is a step in the direction of what can be done, but just a step in one direction.

Mood: inspired.

Music: Original Sin by Meat Loaf and I Surrender by Stratovarius.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-8: Industrial Phantasmagoria

Victorian Age horror is rife not only with the supernatural but also the mechanical and the scientific.  Steam locomotives had been in use for quite some time.  Photography came about as the age began.  Gas lighting became widespread.  The London sewer system was built. People were working on and produced motorised vehicles.  The tail end was witness to engineering feats like the Brooklyn Bridge, and modern innovations like the incandescent light and phonograph.  On the science front Darwin published his "On the Origin of Species", and Faraday laid the groundwork for understanding the connection between electricity, magnetism, and light.  Medical breakthroughs brought about surgery with anaesthesia, the creation of vaccines, and the first use of X-rays scans.

These wild and exotic innovations provide great twisting points for horror.  They start at a basic level with the mundane.  The industrialisation of the textile industry, the spread of mining, and the rise of tenements and slums provided hellish environments with dangerous and desperate conditions.  Child labour was an all too common occurrence.  Any of these could be the basis of revenge from beyond the grave or from the living.  As marvellous as the phonograph was there was also much fear over what it implied, which was compounded by later attempts to combine it with spiritualism ideas to build devices that could communicate with the dead.  Such merging of spirits and science owes its due back to Doctor Frankenstein galvanising the dead back to life.

Mad scientists also followed in the perverted footprints of Frankenstein, but with their eyes open, intent on creating monstrosity and working toward world domination--since Britain showed it could be done.  What kind of scientific perversity are they into though?  The process of Eugenics can be used to make super men and women bringing about a master race.  Hybridisation mixes different animals together or men with animals.  Mechanisation is another route.  Tear a subject apart, amputate limbs, remove organs and create openings.  Fill those voids with gears and mechanical assemblies and replace limbs with faster and stronger motor driven parts of cold hard steel.  All of them could ultimately be combined even, with a supernatural element added for extra terrifying potential.

Mood: relieved.

Music: Haunted by Evanescence and March Of The Pigs by Nine Inch Nails.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-7: Out of the Woodwork

The grand exploration of the world that took place in the Victorian age opened the doors to different stages upon which familiar characters held sway cementing the validity of their imagined reality even as it forced alterations. Wherever the British went they found tales of what could only be faeries and other familiar beings and creatures of legend. There were some differences and occasionally new and strange additions to add to the lore of the day. As with at home there were good faeries and evil faeries though dealing with either was something to be avoided if possible. Of course there were exceptions such as the Brownies, which were reminiscent of the Domovoi or house spirits of Russian lore, at least in terms of helpfulness around the house and farm.

It can be hard to differentiate the origins of the beliefs in the fae even between the English, the Scottish, and the Irish so an amalgamation of the mythologies is the way to go. The division between the Seelie--good faeries--and the Unseelie, nasty faeries--courts is a common one. Court in this case indicates groupings or members of the royal fae court more than a place of judgment though the Seelie certain had those and used them to enforce their will upon humans who interfered with their affairs. The fae also fall into several categories or species each with a particular name, or some overlapping names depending on which culture was describing them. Many of them were of human size and stature while others were diminutive, unlike in fantasy where most are small.

Changelings in particular were normal human size, which helped them in stealing a human infant and replacing it with their own baby for the humans to raise, similar to cuckoos laying their eggs in other bird’s nests. As strange as their customs, and in spite of their innate magical qualities, the fae are seen as native to the world, a natural part of it, and in tune with it. This adds to the mystique of the world, the idea that the strange and fantastical is the norm. When dealing with faeries for the setting use less focus on the mischievous members of the Seelie court and more on the malicious and violent types of the Unseelie court. The Unseelie are more frightening figures any way. They are solitary, greedy selfish, and enjoy terrifying their victims even before the real torment beings.

Mood: relaxed.
Music: My Fairy King by Queen and The Power and the Glory by Twisted Sister.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-6: Give Three Knocks

The Victorian era embraced the mystical even as rational thought, science, and industrialisation gripped Britain, the empire upon which, near the end of that time, the sun never set. This was especially apparent in the love affair with mediums and séances. Previous discussions have considered the impact of speaking with the dead on a horror setting, but the methods of communication were not covered. Séances with or without a proper spirit medium present have a unique flavour. There is a particular phenomena that is associated with séances and mediums that doesn’t see a lot of coverage elsewhere. That would be ectoplasm, oft exteriorised by mediums and the foundation upon which a ghost may build limbs or a body with which to exert itself on the physical world.

Among the options for the setting there is an allowance for different expressions of the physicality of ectoplasm. Historically speaking comparisons have been made to gauze, and less interestingly mucus. There is a suggestion that apparitions are indistinguishable from the living in non-contact situations, the realisation arrived at only with the dissipation of the ghost or similar impossibility for a living person. This distinction and the scientific definition of ectoplasm as the outer part of a cell’s cytoplasm supports the option of ectoplasm that is fleshier, like the gelatinous extrusion of fat and other material from cooking meat. This meatier ectoplasm will come out of the medium through the skin rather than being excreted through the mucus membranes and it will be more substantial.

Along side ectoplasm’s highly visual physical manifestation of the spirit world there are the psychokinetic displays associated with séances. The simplest is the request that the spirit summoned show its presence by rapping or knocking on the table around which the participants are seated or some other object in the room. The sound can also simply manifest in the air. The spirit can answer yes and no questions by knocking using one knock for yes and two for no. More complex questions can be asked using a Ouija or Spirit Board. Less helpful to the séance but more exciting are the poltergeist-like outbursts, and being fiction there can be straight up voices and even pyrokinetic displays. It is also common that called spirits may not be truthful, the one asked to appear, or a devil instead.

Mood: C.H.U.D.-tastic.
Music: When Two Worlds Collide by Iron Maiden and Love At First Bite by Wolf.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-5: Brave New Horrors

There is another popular time setting for fantasy stories. It borders somewhat on the modern, but only as a matter context--it’s a matter of scale. It is also a time setting that is conducive to horror. This makes it only fitting that it is a good time period within which to set up horror fantasy works. It is the Victorian horror fantasy period. The Victorian Age is the same as the Industrial Age within enough leeway for the purposes of creating a setting. Any discrepancy is lost due to the fictional aspects dealing with technology in the setting. Even the fantasy elements will pull the setting away from true. There is still some need to watch for anachronisms though. Any anachronisms should be on purpose and fill a horror need, or be part of one of the fantasy tropes.

The Victorian era has an automatic built-in horror meme. It was a time rife with the exploration of not only the physical world, and the mechanical world, but also the spiritual world. It was a high time for mediumship. Séances came into fashion in a big way--it actually peaks late in the period so real, historical time, gets manipulated as part of the fantasy requirement. This same era also believes extensively in the fae, faeries, and the Seelie Court--as far as existing settings in this time period are concerned. Again, this is another built-in source of possible horror. Monsters and unholy creatures are never out of style in any horror setting and will tend toward the fantasy aesthetic more than a modern approach. Magic also tends the same way as the monstrous and infernal.

The Industrial Revolution brought about several kinds of horror from the mundane, to the science-fictional. This makes for an exceptional number of elements and variants that enhance the setting options available even as it further blurs the genre lines. The time period was one of exploration in many senses. The usual focus of these settings is the British Empire, whether the location is in Britain, or abroad in such places as North America, Africa, India, Australia or elsewhere. The British explored all over the place--as did the French and Spanish--and claimed whatever places they could. On the home front the exploration was in science and mechanics. Machines hardly imagined before became reality and made massive changes to the world.

Music: All the Money in the World by Black Lab and Inside The Machine by Bruce Dickinson.

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