| Author | Message | ||
     Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I love roller coasters and thrill rides - the freedom to scream, the "safe danger" of being terrified for a short period, the adrenalin rush, the post-terror euphoria, the catharsis of purging extreme feelings... And for me horror has much of the same appeal, though I know Ramsey (for one) doesn't like the comparison. I never agreed with people who told me as a child that I had nightmares because I watched so many horror films. I think the nightmares were there already. The films helped me channel my pre-existing fearful nature, giving me an outlet for all that primal angst. And roller coasters did the same. So I'm curious. Do you guys like thrill rides? Or is it the wrong kind of scary? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
All the physical buffeting just gives me a headache. I prefer my insides stirred while my exterior remains largely immobile. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I think the 'thrill ride' metaphor can capture some horror - the visceral stuff like Texas Chainsaw etc. But maybe it's not appropriate for other stuff - Repulsion etc. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
True. Thrills are certainly not about psychological dread. But the "shock" moments - like the first sighting of the creatures in THE DESCENT (possibly my favourite film scare ever) - certainly trigger the same exhilaration in me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Yes, me too. Or the 'hand' scene in Carrie. Or the whole second half of Wolf Creek. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 93.97.93.216 |
The thing about jump out of your skin, scream out loud moments is they don't linger; that fear is experienced and expelled in the same moment. Then you can laugh at being such a wuss and hope it doesn't happen again ... But the under your skin stuff, that's what always gets me. There are moments from certain films/novels/short stories I saw/read years ago that still have the power to make me shiver. It's the difference between personal fears, and universal ones; most people jump and cover their eyes at the appropriate moments, but those subtle, sometimes even innocuous cues that inspire terror are different for everyone. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Scariest scene for me was both a 'thrill ride' and a 'lingerer': the body rising from the water in LES DIABOLIQUES. One of the truly great moments in horror fiction. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I'm certainly for exhilaration in or more correctly from horror. I still remember experiencing it as Frank's remains were reconstitued and rose up in Hellraiser (it had partly to do with Christopher Young's music at that point). I equally get it from "The Willows" and "The White People", for just two more examples, and the final movement of Janacek's Sinfonietta (which on a first encounter I found utterly and inexplicably terrifying). But when it comes to fairground rides I'm a wimp. | ||
| Guy (Guy) Username: Guy Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.41.185.205 |
I used to love them but I took my stepson to a local theme park in the summer and found myself battered and bruised and not a little unsettled in the stomach. Either Spanish theme parks are rough around the edges -- and that's certainly possible! -- or I've lost the knack. Having said that here's a difference between a smooth running and thrilling ride and simply being beaten to a pulp by physics. That feeling of 'fear' though Niki? I can empathise wholeheartedly, somewhere between a scream and hysterical laughter. Sometimes seems my whole chidhood was built on it. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I love the first T-Rex scene in the original Jurassic Park, largely (in hindsight) because of an absence of any music. Plus the stonkingly good special-effects, natch. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I don't like thrill rides - amusement parks leave me cold. I do enjoy mountain biking for a similar kind of thrill (or I used to, before I got out of the habit). I wouldn't mind doing a bungee jump - I get a real thrill from heights. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.74.221.2 |
The T rex scene in Jurassic park did it for me as well. It was stunning. Also the scene In Jacob's Ladder where Jacob Singer is pushed through the asylum. And in The Thing, the scene with the legs kicking the bulb- the Bellmeresque inverted torsos shuddering. And the Alien chest burster scene kicked my ass, I was eight or nine when I saw it- also the masked button-eyed Decker who kills the family in the beginning of Nightbreed. Amusement park rides don't do it for me either. I don't trust the technology- there was just an accident this summer here in Copenhagen. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I HATE heights. Hate them. Terrified. Uh. I remember when we were up the CN Tower, Zed. I stepped across the glass panels, but my legs were wobbling. Simon didn't dare even look.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Ya big cissy.  I love heights because they're so scary. I think I've confronted most of my own phobias: deep water, public speaking, insect life. The latter is the one that still bothers me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
You haven't conquered the Chilli Chicken Balti dish from Akbars... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Actually, I should confess I'm a Disneyland person - that's about my fairground thrill level. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Ramsey likes those huge teacups that spin on the giant plate. Woe betide anyone who sits in the same cup, however... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.74.221.2 |
I visited Disneyworld- the one in Florida, in 2000 and they had the 'It's a Small World Ride' Every nation was represented by a pair of mechanical puppets dressed in their respective national costumes, and they would do one or two motions repeatedly, over and over again, and there was this very cold war recording of the song, Its a Small World'playing in loop. That was very disturbing! You would hear the song over and over again as you waited your turn for the ride outside as well. The employees were all wearing earplugs. That was the most frightening ride I've ever been on- Next door at Universal they had the Birds in 3D and they had the Psycho shower scene set up as it originally was shot, showing how Hitch had rigged all the cameras- that was fantastic. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I liked the 'Back to the Future' ride in Disneyworld. This was in 1988. Probably rubbish now. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.74.221.2 |
I was just about to say. The back to the future ride was amazing. I was in line for what- an hour, the ride was 7 or so minutes and I almost went for it again. It was brilliant. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
I never agreed with people who told me as a child that I had nightmares because I watched so many horror films. I think the nightmares were there already. The films helped me channel my pre-existing fearful nature, giving me an outlet for all that primal angst. That I can relate to absolutely. I suffered terrible nightmares as a child that were cured by scary films & the Pan Book of Horror. Fairgrounds scare me of course. When I was growing up Abergavenny the May & September fairs were veritable smorgasbords of raw terror, from the scary men who operated the rides, the lupine dogs chained to those huge scabby caravans, and the huge artwork that was somehow always slightly wrong. September was better because it was dark as well. I never went on the rides, of course, I just stood there taking notes. Sorry - the actual topic. I don't like going on rides at all. The last fairground ride I went on was the dodgems a few years ago. I was wearing a dinner suit and my lady companion had a white evening gown on. I think we were in Wales somewhere, it was very late, and we weren't supposed to be on the ride. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Yeah, but the illusion was shattered if you looked to your right or left to see all the other cars jerking around. Silly, that. They should have put walls between them. Listen to me talking about friggin theme-park rides. Tsk! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
>>>Sorry - the actual topic. I don't like going on rides at all. The last fairground ride I went on was the dodgems a few years ago. I was wearing a dinner suit and my lady companion had a white evening gown on. I think we were in Wales somewhere, it was very late, and we weren't supposed to be on the ride. Ye daft apeth! | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Everytime we hit someone the champagne went all over the place | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
@ Zed: I have a compulsion to confront my fears too. I'm currently working on one of my biggest fears now: needles. **shudder** The odd horror movie (or scene therein) still has the ability to scare or disturb me, but they're sadly few and far between these days, so I relish the ones I find. But thrill rides scare me reliably, tangibly, which I guess is why I'm so drawn to them. I don't like being battered by physics either and I hate spinning rides - being sick down my front isn't any fun. What I want is the feeling of being out of control, the exhilarating freefall sensation with the *tiny* background worry that I could be the one in a million statistic if something should go wrong with the mechanics. Just to up the emotional ante. And I'm desperately keen to try skydiving. Totally agree re: Jurassic Park! There's nothing like the T-Rex scene on my huge projection system with surround sound and the sub-woofer threatening to loosen the beams in the ceiling below. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
White evening gowns should only ever be stained with blood, not champagne. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.11.219 |
Don't mention those giant teacups to me I've just had a greasy tinned mackeral sandwich for lunch...uh | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
White evening gowns should only ever be stained with blood, not champagne. I see you've been reading the same book of etiquette as me: when in a moving vehicle one should always studiously avoid spilling champagne on a lady, even at the expense of her lower limbs being mangled in a hideous accident which could indeed lead to the situation you describe ;-> | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
How do people feel about ghost trains? I remember being taken on one in Whitley Bay in the sixties by this girl (babysittter) and there being what looked like a cave full of skeletons with a wall of sheer red light behind them. It was such a vision of hell it never left me. In fact, ghost trains scare me more than rollercoasters and the like, and I still avoid them. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
You and Dennis Ethison, Karim! He likens the Small World ride to a very bad trip. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
visited Disneyworld- the one in Florida, in 2000 and they had the 'It's a Small World Ride' Every nation was represented by a pair of mechanical puppets dressed in their respective national costumes, and they would do one or two motions repeatedly, over and over again, and there was this very cold war recording of the song, Its a Small World'playing in loop. That was very disturbing! You would hear the song over and over again as you waited your turn for the ride outside as well. The employees were all wearing earplugs. there's a classic episode of Family Guy where Stewie goes to disneyworld and we find out that they're not robots, they're all the lost children being put to work. Sounds like that section of the show would be even funnier if you've been on the ride | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I've been on that hideous "Small World" ride. It was a school trip and we all had that horrific song stuck in our heads. Consequently, we'd often pick a victim to start singing it to and mimicking the freaky puppets until the person cracked and pleaded for it to stop. I've never actually been on a ghost train before, though I'd love to find a proper old-fashioned one. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.7.145 |
I hate roller-coasters. I went on the "Back to the Future" ride when it was over at Universal Studios, and - no, I was not on anything (never have taken to "stuff"), but I was totally bad-tripping - I fully believed I was in space, dinosaurs were attacking me, etc., and was abjectly terrified. I couldn't understand why all those around me were feeling glee and exhiliration, and I was the only one f*cking out of my mind in fear. They should do a "thrill ride" where you're strapped into a commercial jet going down. People screaming, oxygen masks falling, papers flying around. "It's a Small World" playing on an endless loop. Wouldn't that be fun. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.11.219 |
You have just reminded me of that terrible slide in the shape of the sinking Titanic. Where people enjoy themselves. Very bad taste. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.192.8 |
I like ghost trains, Tony! Haunted houses too. I got into trouble once in the Haunted House at Disneyland (California) for taking a photo during the ride - I was only a teenager back then, but I guess I should've known better. My fears include spiders, big, deep bodies of water at night, and, to a lesser degree, heights. I've always felt a strong urge to step over the edge when I'm up on a high building or cliff. I think I find that feeling more unnerving than the actual height itself. I often dream of suddenly finding myself stranded on a high place. Last night I began to get out of bed I found I was miles up, perched on the edge of a towering precipice. I expect it's not an uncommon thing in dreams. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.192.8 |
As for roller-coasters, I haven't been on one in years, but I never minded them. I like the ones that shoot through water. I got violently sick once on a big wheel, though, as a child. The operator went off to get something to eat, apparently, and just left us stranded up there. Zed, bungee jumping is a real thrill, especially with the rope tied to the ankles. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
I always wanted to bungee jump off Victoria Falls, but scrapped that idea when someone warned me about the whiplash effect. (I've been in more than my share of car accidents, so I don't know if my neck would be up to it.) Is it really a problem? What's it like? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.180.47 |
It's an exhilarating experience, but I wouldn't recommend it if you have a bad neck or back, Niki! There's no way I'd even consider doing it now, what with my spine problems and all. I wish I could, though! | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Damn. That's rather what I feared. Yeah, my spine would never forgive me. Oh well. I'll give skydiving a go instead. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
I am terrified of fairground rides. I hate any form of physical danger & risk - call me a wuss, I don't care. Getting up on a stage, and jumping around with an electric guitar shouting for 45 minutes is no problem though... I think because I cut my teeth as a DJ, and that IS scary, and hard work. gcw | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 204.104.55.242 |
Thank God I'm not the only one who thought that the Small World ride was a disturbing one! All but one of the Floridians I was visiting Disneyworld with thought that the ride was 'very sweet'. Haunted houses never did it for me, however the haunted house ride in Glen Hirshberg's story 'Mr. Dark's Carnival' is more terrifying and unsettling than any ride I've experienced in real life. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.23.20 |
I'm always looking for genuinely frightening Haunted Houses, and alas it's always the same rubbish - plastic bleeding heads and hands, sheeted spectres like something out of a comic book . . . I wish they'd let me design a proper one. People would come out of it white-haired. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
There's also a very funny Simpsons parody of Disneyland that includes a Small World equivalent (from which Lisa emerges traumatised). | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Oh yes, bring it on, Hubert! I've also always dreamed of a "proper" haunted house. Station a phony psychiatrist outside and warn people as they go in that it's proven too much for some visitors. Make them sign consent forms too. I'll quit my day job to work there. Ramsey, I'd never have guessed you were a Simpsons fan! I've always found the animation a little disturbing. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
A great topic, Niki. I'm not much for roller coasters these days, but my kids occasionally manage to pull me onto one. I like the thrill of it, and that minute splinter of real danger that Niki mentioned, but unfortunately my stomach just ain't what it once was when it comes to such things. I'm glad Tony brought up ghost trains. Those (and similar attractions) remain a source of pleasure for me. I love waxworks, "haunted" house attractions, corn mazes, etc. and I frequent them. I agree that ninety-nine percent of the time you are seeing the same rubber masks and feeling the same fishing line cobwebs across your skin, but that's the joy of it. Entering those pitch-dark artificial environments still manages to summon a sense of fear in me. When I'm feeling my way through a haunted attraction, I often wonder things like 'What if some mentally-ill soul with a penchant for straight-razors decided to wait in here for some unsuspecting wanderer? Would any of the other patrons notice if a real attack took place? Would they assume that all those screams are simply part of the show?' I look for fear everywhere I can --- in films, on art gallery walls, on tattooed flesh, in the woods, in amusement parks, and of course between book covers. Horror bleeds into almost every facet of my life. I fear pain and death and the loss of my friends and loved ones. This primal, fight-or-flight, visceral fear may be touched upon by haunted house exhibits and, as Gary Fry said, films like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. On a more refined level, the horror stories of Machen and Blackwood led me to read more widely in the fields of metaphysics and mysticism; wherein I learned that the cosmic terror and awe-tinged dread of the ineffable has long been thought to have a basis in reality, eons before humans bought and read stories for entertainment. Between these polarites lie many other shades of fear, the possibility that true terror can manifest if one element of an experience is tilted just slightly. This kind of "the horror is everywhere" potential is what I see addressed in Ramsey's work, which is why he shall always be a favourite of mine. I don't think there is a wrong kind of scary, Niki. Part of horror's power is that it reminds us that we are alive. Yes, gentler forms of art can do the same, but for me I find more joy and beauty in the grotesque than I do in the placid. We often live stilted lives. Fear (along with weirdness, grotesqueness, eeriness, disquiet, and the alien) can be the force that wrenches us from the womb. We may not like it, but we *know* in those moments that we are alive. Here endeth the rant. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
'Horror bleeds into almost every facet of my life. I fear pain and death and the loss of my friends and loved ones.' I feel like that and I'm sure many horror writers feel the same. An eloquent rant Richard | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
OK; what frightens you when you go to the loo at night (our loo is downstairs btw)? For me the number one is the Exorcist girl, Regan. Ghosts are a second, but by a fare amount less. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 160.6.1.47 |
Poor you, with your downstairs loo, Tony. It means you've got to negotiate the two creepiest things about a house at night: something standing at the bottom of the stairs and something standing at the top of the stairs. I saw Dressed to Kill when I was 9 (the B-feature in a double bill with The Amityville Horror) and the thing I didn't want to see reflected in the bathroom mirror more than anything was a transvestite in sunglasses. A teenager was killed inside a ghost train a couple of years ago here. It was death by misadventure. Poor chap. They'd just finished their exams; it was a final fling with childhood before life began, perhaps. On the outside, the ghost train looked so cute and parochial too. So harmless and lovely. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 192.26.212.72 |
Not to make light of the situation, but I've always thought that "death by misadventure" was one of the greatest phrases in the English language. It sounds so Romantic. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
DRESSED TO KILL is a seriously scary film. I used to dread the doors opening when I was in a lift by myself and if someone had put a pair of nurse's shoes just outside my bathroom I'd probably have screamed. (Not a bad idea for a prank to do to someone ELSE, though. Heh heh...) Fortunately, my bedroom is en-suite, but it's an old creaky house, so its "settling" noises sometimes creep me out. (And they seem especially loud and frequent when I'm alone.) Then there's my obsession with whether or not the front door is locked. I'm too scared to go down there by myself to check, so if I suspect it's not I can lie awake for ages. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.252.53 |
DRESSED TO KILL really freaked me out as a kid too, and I mean, just that elevator scene (wholesale copied in BASIC INSTINCT - but there's an example of imitation really being the highest form of flattery, because BI is one of my all-time favorite films, and one of the best thrillers of the last 25 years; definitely Verhoven's masterpiece). I look for fear everywhere I can --- in films, on art gallery walls, on tattooed flesh, in the woods... The woods I find particularly frightening, and of the, oh, let's say the Lovecraftian variety of fear: I always feel like I'm in an alien landscape, in deep woods. The thought strikes me, that in all the centuries of human civilization, no peoples have tamed where I stand... rendered it "human," the-unknown fear-free... and no peoples ever will... the woodland animals, the very plants, decry my presence, they have no use for me or any other shambling human... you might as well be on the moon... I usually shiver in fear in the woods, quickly pee on a wild rabbit, and go my way.... | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
Craig wrote: "I usually shiver in fear in the woods, quickly pee on a wild rabbit, and go my way...." I love it!  | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
"We may not like it, but we *know* in those moments that we are alive." Richard, that really sums it up for me and I couldn't agree more. Fantastic rant! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.180.47 |
Richard and Craig, I know what you mean. The single most awe-filled experience of my life was when I spent a night high up in the Taiwan mountains some years ago. The mountains here are high - twelve-thirteen thousand feet, many of them - and at the dead of night I decided to go for a walk. I left the little inn I was staying in, and headed down the road into the valley. I'd gone a half-mile, perhaps, when I was suddenly overcome with a profound sense of fear and panic, mingled with a sort of adrenaline rush. The feeling of insignificance, of being dwarfed by these huge, age-old, silent mountains rising up in the darkness all around me was so overwhelming that I had to turn around and go back. I was surprised, as I hadn't expected to feel that way at all. I came away feeling a new-found empathy for all those characters in Algernon Blackwood stories. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
Thanks, Niki. I'm glad I managed to rein myself in before I blathered endlessly. I can go on for hours about such things. Just ask my wife...or ask Simon. Fantastic account, Huw. Thanks for sharing it. I know precisely the feelings you speak of. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
Tony wrote: "OK; what frightens you when you go to the loo at night?" Nuns. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 93.97.93.216 |
"OK; what frightens you when you go to the loo at night?" The Grady twins from the Shining. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
Nothing. In my own house I walk about in the dark in the middle of the night. Another house would be a different matter ...and old hotels. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 192.26.212.72 |
Growing up, I used to be terrified that there was someone hiding behind the shower curtain who would shoot me with a bolt of lightning. I know this very specific image came from a movie my dad had watched on TV while I was in the room, but for the life of the me I don't know what movie it was. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.23.20 |
"OK; what frightens you when you go to the loo at night?" That I'll be pissing blood. This actually happened to a friend - turned out he had bladder cancer, poor chap. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
Sounds like some Titan film meets Psycho - Jamie. The more I tell myself that I create my own reality the safer I feel. A sort of be careful what you believe in because it will come true (of the supernatural kind of course). Repeat after me - there is no such things as ghosts...... I'll bet JLP doesn't believe in them. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 93.97.93.216 |
Ally, I remember having a conversation along these lines a few years ago, and someone responded to exactly this sort of argument with, 'but what if a ghost's faith in its own reality is stronger than yours?' An interesting idea, I thought. A sort of war of wills ... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
Very interesting Alan....shit. Now I'll have to walk around the house with the lights on. Mmmm - I believe in my own reality or I believe my will is stronger... and in that respect if I'm willing to do that then they exist and that way could lie madness. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 93.97.93.216 |
Or just buy a really big torch and save on the leccy bills. But it could be a bit of a mind bender, couldn't it? Fodder for stories, if nothing else... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
Perfect for stories Alan......... | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 192.26.212.72 |
It reminds me vaguely of a rather annoying Buckley's commercial, in which a fellow says he's more sure of Buckley's cough suppressant ability than his own existence, and promptly disappears. The idea behind the advert is fine enough, but it bothers me that there's a brief delay between when he speaks and when the camera cuts away, so that he says "Buckley's" without his mouth moving. As for the film, if I recall correctly, the lightning-bolt-zapper was a sexy lady. But I may very well be conflating two or three different half-glimpsed films at this point. I suppose I could put the scene into a story and wait until someone complains that I stole it from film x. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 93.97.93.216 |
Fodder for stories indeed, Ally - I can see the bones of it already: Protagonist moves into a new home (your classic haunted house setup), where the ghost has lain dormant for many years - it requires a very particular kind of individual to feed off. Someone whose hold on reality is potentially fragile; say there’s a history of mental illness in the family, and this person has lived in fear of discovering those traits within themselves. And lets say they’ve been caring for a mentally ill parent, whose recent death has freed them to move on, buy a new house, leave the past behind … As for the ghost, they’d have to be someone who, in life, was denied their own existence in some very real sense; for example an illegitimate child. Kept hidden away, ignored, treated for all intents and purposes as if they didn’t exist. Alive, but denied life … The desire - a kind of hunger - to prove that they are real, that they do exist, is then triggered when they come into contact with someone whose belief/faith in their own sense of self/reality is equally powerful, and equally vital for their survival. So for the protagonist, seeing ghosts = madness, because ghosts aren’t real. But denying the ghost its existence only makes it more determined to prove that it does exist … | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.51 |
No Ally I don't believe in ghosts. But I'm open to being proved wrong, hopefully by a very sexy one in a green velvet dress who needs to be laid to rest... What IS in this absinthe this evening? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
The only ghosts I believe in are those which we all carry around inside us. Often we see them reflected in the mirror of the world, but most of the time they stay where they are, and we haunt ourselves from within. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
I believe that I could do with some scream therapy right now... or a holiday. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.28.34.132 |
Easy scream therapy: find a railway bridge and wait underneath for a train to pass. No one will hear. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Actually, there is such a place round the corner from the office. Feeling slightly better now, at least 1/2 of the problem has been resolved. The other half has been ongoing for quite a while now and it's hard to know whether to try and live with it or try again to talk to the person in question. Last time it made utterly no difference. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
Last week Jonathan I gave up trying to talk to someone in person and wrote to them. Instead of the frustration/emotion/heated argument that always accompanied the subject - when in writing after much explanation I asked the person in question again if they could see my point of view and would they agree now? Got a simple reply. "I understand and yes." | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
I'd love to be able to do that but the person in question sits quite close by. Anyway, I'm hoping it will kind of resolve itself. Just occasionally I find it wears me down. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.7.77 |
I know - I feel like that about quite a few things. I really do hope it resolves itself. Horrible to not be able to escape from something/one when they won't see sense. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
It will be okay I'm hoping. It will have to come to some kind of resolution with the minor bit of restructuring that's going to be happening soon anyway. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Sorry to hear this, Jon. Take care. Regard it as intensive training for survival in the psychic morgue that is corporate publishing. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
BTW the only fairground ride I've ever really enjoyed is the amazing one at Blackpool where visual cues are used to deceive the passenger about what is going on. It's the Aickman of fairground rides. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 38.113.181.169 |
I never realised Jonathan and Zed worked together. (It has to be Zed, right? Who else could possibly be as infuriating?) | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
I may have to start a goth band now called Psychic Morgue. Yeah, it's Zed, that beardy horror writing bastard. Coming round here with his ways! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Didn't you know? I clean the office where Jon works, and have been leaving drawing pins on his seat every evening for over a month. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
You shall have to bow down before me in recompense! It's how I treat all my authors you know. MWAHAAHAHAH! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Good job I'm a masochist, then. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Shouldn't you be writing Zed? I dunno, let them out of their box for some air and they get all hoity-toity. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
 Don't worry. This morning I wrote my sick seduction scene; last night I wrote a scene involving a zombie that's so mutilated it looks like a tree. Seriously. A tree.  | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Splendid. I like the keep the tone of the Abaddon books appropriately light. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.25.221.27 |
Looks like you're cheering up, Jonathan. See, all you need's a spell in the madhouse to perk you right up.  Works for me anyway. And - sorry, Zed - I'm a masochist too, but drawing pins are too much even for me. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Aye, in a better mood than I was this morning. Getting another good chunk of the novel done helped. In this chapter I was burning heretics so you could say I was channelling some of that anger... obviously in a wholesome way. My parents would be proud. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
I remember on a school outing to Alton Towers I queued for an hour only to fail the height limit! What shame! Never lived it down. Or was that up! Mind you, I was 27 years old! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Ha! | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Twas true, except the 27 year old bit. Still, I doubt I've grown much since then. Might still not make the height requirement. I wonder if Prince has the same problem? I've been put off rides and such ever since a cable car without doors stalled over the top of a forest! I wasn't scared until my father started shouting for everyone to remain calm. Go figure! | ||
| Donald_pulker (Donald_pulker) Username: Donald_pulker Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 207.188.86.137 |
I can't tolerate roller coasters. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.96 |
Donald Pulker? Who's he? Welcome back D.! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.124.44 |
Hey Donald - hello! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.141 |
Donald, great to see you! |