What do you think of the differential between horror and suspense? I think the latter is often lumped in to promote a sense of the former, but they can be distinct as well. I love suspense much more than I love gore. That is what makes Jaws and Alien scary. Good points, I hope to do a piece on sub-genres soon. Suspense takes much more talent to create! Crafting an atmosphere is hard work regardless the genre or medium.
You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Create a free website or blog at WordPress. This is my collection of stories an articles. Most the stories will be either science fiction or urban fantasy.
Including Dreamlands, an on going story about the mysterious Morpheus Foundation and their research in to the dimension of dreams. Though there will be stand alone stories too. The non-fiction articles will be about whatever strikes my fancy. Pop culture, urban legends, comic books, or anything else I think is weird enough to write about. Science Fiction Vs Horror Can a story be both science fiction and horror at the same time, or does one have to defer to the other?
Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading I love how two people can see things differently in the same story. Extremely frighting. Parlor of Horror February 16, Completely frightening in my humble opinion! I had forgotten that Bradbury quote. Tessa Reply. The Shameful Narcissist February 17, Pietroschek April 11, Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.
Email required Address never made public. Name required. Navigation Previous post. Next post. Follow Following. Dave's Corner of the Universe Join 2, other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Every Nightmare reader has at least a passing familiarity with this work, if not from reading the novel itself then from watching any of the legion of movies, television shows, and cartoons that have featured Frankenstein or his monster or recognizable variants as characters.
Shelley set out to write a horror story, but in doing so she not only created one of the most influential horror novels of all time, but she also wrote what is arguably one of the first genuine science fiction novels. Why do science fiction and horror go so well together? There are lots of places where the two genres can successfully mesh. But some of the fears that science can invoke are far more visceral, as any high school student who has had to dissect a fetal pig in biology class can attest.
But in some horror stories and movies, science and science fictional themes are not used to amplify the terror but to ground the reader. In these works, the creators use elements of real science and technology to build a richer, more convincing story world against which intrusive horrors have a greater impact. Science fiction acknowledges its own dark side, and that genre regularly explores horrific themes in many of its dystopian sub-genres. Most every motif in science fiction can—and has—been viewed through a dark lens.
In science fiction adventures like Star Trek, technology is cool and alluring; in science fictional horror like The Terminator and the game Portal, high-tech robots and computers run amok and wreak havoc. And the landmark movie A Space Odyssey portrays both shiny and sinister technology. In the real world, scientists working for the SETI project search for extraterrestrial life with the expectation that any discovery of other civilizations will benefit humankind.
That's not to say that the setting is the story, no, the characters or ideas are what make the story, but it's the setting, new world, magic systems, futuristic, technological that defines which genre a story will fall under. Horror, on the other hand, is not about setting. Horror is about perception.
Horror is about feelings. The great thing about horror is it can take place in any setting, because the setting does not define the genre. You can have horror in sci-fi, take a look at the Aliens movies.
You can have horror in fantasy, contemporary, mythological, steam punk, etc. Horror transcends setting. So why do so many people seem to have such a hard time accepting these horror stories that are science fiction based?
I just want to throw this discussion out here and see what others think. Re: Science Fiction vs. Horror Reply 1 on: March 13, , PM. Disclaimer: I have submitted a story to this competition with an SF setting - I'm not saying whether it's shown up yet or not ;- Quote.
Horror Reply 2 on: March 13, , PM. I totally agree with Cutter that our loose understanding of genre separates out genres according to different elements. For instance: Genre of setting: fantasy, science fiction, western, etc.
Genre of feeling: melodrama, pornography, horror, etc. So theoretically, you could mix and match: science fiction quest porno!
A These genre splits are pretty contentious. I may say "sf is defined by setting and stuff," but you can bust in here and say, "sf is defined by its sense of wonder and therefore belongs under feeling genres. So we all read "Sims" or "Bound" or "Dwindling Dawn," etc.
I might also be a little horrified by the story, but it might seem more like "horrific SF" than "sf Horror. B Also, I think identification is part of the horror feeling.
There's a reason why "women's weepy" movies of the s had so many women crying both on screen and in the audience. As for pornography, well, you get the idea. So if I'm asked to identify with Joe, cubicle worker, that one layer of work; if I'm asked to identify with Joe X, space marine, that's at least two layers of work.
At least, that's the theory. Horror Reply 3 on: March 13, , PM. I've never seen a point in saying things like "It would've been better on Escape Pod. As far as genre, I don't consider any genre mutually exclusive. Saying that a story is horror doesn't mean it's not SF, or romance, or comedy. Horror Reply 4 on: March 13, , PM. Alien is one of the best horror films of all times. The Color out of Space is a great horror story.
Horror Reply 5 on: March 14, , AM. It cuts both ways. I'm pretty sure at least a couple of stories in the Escape Pod Flash contest were critiqued with something along the lines of: "This is too dark--it might be more suited for Pseudo Pod". Horror Reply 6 on: March 14, , AM. Quote from: daneyuleb on March 14, , AM. Horror Reply 7 on: March 14, , AM. Horror Reply 8 on: March 14, , PM. The horror genre is so all encompassing that it is hard to define exactly what horror is.
Like has been mentioned before, it's more the feeling you get than anything else.
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