Return of the living blog!

What scares you?  Is it snakes?  Something under the bed?

What gives you goosebumps? What makes your heart race?

 Is it something strange? Or worse, is it something normal? 

 Do you avoid being afraid, or do you seek it out? 

 Does examining fear release it, or deepen it? 

 Within Gothic fiction, there is a literary distinction between horror and terror. Generally, it’s accepted that terror is what occurs leading up to a horrific experience. Terror is anxiety, anticipation of an event, and horror is felt at the time of the event. 

In a scary movie, terror is when the creepy music kicks in, and horror is when the monster bursts through the door. 

 However, horror and terror share the same root–fear. Fear is the driving emotion behind it all. And what is fear? And why is it felt?

 Fear is an emotional response to a perceived threat, which in turn triggers a physical response. 

 This is the fight or flight response, which is carried out by the body’s sympathetic nervous system. The brain picks up on a potentially dangerous situation and relays the message to the rest of the body to prepare so that you can either run away to safety, or stand your ground and fight. This involves increasing heart and respiratory rate, dilation of pupils and narrowing peripheral visions, altering blood flow to muscles, and temporarily suspending digestion.

 So fear is actually meant to be helpful. It’s a tool… 

 

However, many of us don’t have to experience survival in the traditional sense, we don’t often have to deal with direct threats upon our life, so we as humans, through evolving and moving up the food chain and the advancements of society… now we are able to fear all sorts of things…. rational, irrational, and downright strange. 
When we get to the more irrational side of fear, where the fear experienced is disproportionate to the threat... It's called a phobia. 

 
Here is a small list of phobias some may find unusual: 

 Ancraophobia–fear of the wind 

 Koumpounophobia–fear of buttons 

 Apeirophobia–fear of infinity 

 Numerophobia–fear of numbers 

 There’s even panphobia–fear of everything!

But doesn’t fear also intrigue us? Obviously, tons of us find interest and enjoyment in horror films and literature, the paranormal, and general strangeness and morbidity. Over time, homo sapiens developed advanced cognitive abilities unique to our species; we can think about thinking. We can examine and analyze our own thoughts and emotions, and if you–like Christine and I–are fascinated by fear, then you are in the right place. 

 Whether you are new to our blog, or an old friend, you can come here to read and take part in film and book reviews, discussions on art and music, and explorations on folklore, psychology, and general morbidity, from the perspective of two women who have been–and continue to be–fascinated by fear for a lifetime.

~Marie Robinson