Welcome to the Asylum, here is a report on crazy stuff in my mind

POST HORROR CONVENTION THOUGHTS
By Alex Ness
October 16, 2023

11 YEARS NOW GONE

I write this remembering my mom died in October 2012. Alzheimer's stole her memories and cancer finally came in and killed her. But it was a hollow victory for it. She'd beaten it 4+ times before the end. Including 2 terminal diagnoses. She would have been a patron Saint of People who are stubborn and those People who can't be convinced against her will. When I had cancer, and throughout the last 4 years of hell, for my health, I've often thought of the scenario if she had had such troubles. It wouldn't have slowed her down, not even for a moment.

I LIKE MONSTERS AND BLACK AND WHITE WEIRD SCI FI BUT...

I was asked by a person who thinks Horror is a vulgar expression, violent, ugly, and foul. Well I don't like slasher films, or most Zombie films and I don't like many color horror films except for Hammer Films, and they are more monsters than horror. I don't care about the killer or victims of crude evil angry guy using claws, ropes, ice picks, lawnmowers, hammer, tire irons films.

I've said before, and it remains true, actual events in human history bother me way more than horror movies evoke. The crimes of and famous serial killer Jack the Ripper and the resulting wave over the century since and beyond of popularity of such a person, genocide in WWII Germany, the 1990s Ethnic Cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, Rwandan Massacre, Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire are all far worse in scale, imagery and actual horror happening live on the news, than any movie maker can possible reach.

I would suggest that horror is something that is so different for each of us, that I am not suggesting anyone else shouldn't enjoy the genre. In fact I think horror in fiction, poetry, prose or plays, that it can be used to expose human flaws, by exposing the fact that most monsters in a horror film are innocent, while the humans are evil, and violence loving.

Being at a horror convention that had many cosplayers, I saw maybe two costumes that moved me... A MechaKing Kong, and an attempt at a human size Godzilla. I say I liked them because I don't love horror, but because people tend to focus on unpleasant bloody story-less, plot-less films that require no imagination over Monsters. If one studies or considers them seriously, they tend to be more human than humanity is, and more innocent in their heart than humans as well. Frankenstein's Monster wasn't about how an evil monster rampaged through 1800s or early 1900s Bavaria, it was about how a man thought he might create life, and in the attempt, transgressed against God and universal laws. It was idolatry, thinking one might become better than or more powerful than a God.

You might rightly wonder if I am nuts. It wouldn't be the first time someone thought such. Well, for me, being able to feel sympathy for a "villain" such as the unnamed monster of Dr. Frankenstein or King Kong or whoever, allows a more emotional connection to the work. I guarantee that no one of a moral or even a-moral heart and mind would feel sympathy or a connection to a Nazi Death Camp Officer, or praise the acts of other murderous humans. It is just in our nature to find certain things, rightfully abhorrent.

No one pities Jason, or Michael Myers or a serial killer who uses a special tool to kill his victims. Having said all that, I do hold out an exception for one really well made, even bloody horror film. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With just enough gore that the story requires, rather than much more, there was actual horror, the film maker emphasized the sound, the shadows, the senses in such an event, and never made the chainsaw using villain into an anti hero, with some noble reason for killing people in such gruesome ways.

In fact, those figurative unknowns have an impact upon the resulting story. I'll call them shadows were used in the fashion that great artists and writers use, in comics and stage plays to emphasize the events described. Certain comic artists David Mazzucchelli, Mike Oeming, Alex Toth and others realized that it is better to show the important things, rather than aiming at the small details, which aren't what the viewer/reader should be focused upon. Aiming that focus is the point. There is more to horror when not all the facts are known, or the scene is chaotic with no path, no obvious signs to guide you through them. It is an organic way of telling a story, as if the viewer (or reader) can feel all the movement, the frenzied brain, the sound of your impending death, fear is impossible to avoid. And there are other movies that spooked me a bit, but it was always events about my life at the time that made the movies more frightening.

Still, I did enjoy many of cosplayers presentations, it took work and creative minds to get the costuming right. And there were many nice people I met there. A new audience for my work? Perhaps, but there weren't people complaining I also wrote poetry, which happens every comic book show. So, getting a different audience, may not help THAT much, but I remember well, HP Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Brian Lumley, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch and Robert E. Howard all wrote poetry along with their prose and other works, with no pretense about borders between genres, format or worth. They wrote poetry because it moved them, and wrote about things in the fantasy realm of writing, in poetic form.

Instead of people thinking of Horror as a lesser form of genre or form, they seemed to me to be very capable of appreciating many things, and didn't automatically assume something sucked because they'd not considered it before.

Am I saying no more comic shows? Hell no. I love comics. Am I saying horror cons bring out the best in people? I doubt it. What I am saying is that I am grateful for the people who bought my work, grateful for the good interactions, and happy for the cosplayers who authentically came to the show as Elvira. (That is a joke, btw, I didn't see any Elvira costumed women.)

FAREWELLS

When I went to send some emails to professors of importance in my journey, I learned that three of my favorite as well as most influential professors had passed away. Ron Marchese, Professor of Ancient History and Classics in the Humanities at UM-Duluth,  Joseph Maiolo, Professor of English, Author English Department UM-Duluth, and John Helgeland, Professor of Religion and History, NDSU all passed recently, or since I last made contact. Each played a role in my intellectual development, and I will miss them, and I herein thank them for their role in my life.  

REVIEWS AND STUFF

FINALLY...  I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address.If you send hard copies for review I will try to always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.

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Published works   AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html

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