| Author | Message | ||
     Colin Leslie (Blackabyss) Username: Blackabyss Registered: 02-2010 Posted From: 86.165.152.107 |
Without wishing to resurrect the ebook debate which Des kindly put out of it's misery, this article http://www.economist.com/node/21528611?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily &utm_campaign=47da53bb4b-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email seems to imply that many people are reading ebooks so others can't tell what they are reading. Can't say I've ever been embarrassed by reading horror, have you? | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Colin - I've been embarrassed by people claiming something isn't horror, whether on the printed page or as a film, or even a TV series. I also get annoyed with some writers, not all, claiming their work isn't horror, or science-fiction, etc. But then again, the writer/author has every right to describe their work as they see fit. But it does seem unfair to various genres, especially horror most of all, when a book that is clearly to everybody but the writer a horror novel/novella, etc. It's a contentious issue. For example, Jack Nicholson claiming WOLF wasn't a horror film. Perhaps the fact that it was dreadful rubbish and his statement was a good thing after all as we distanced ourselves rather swiftly from the offending movie saved the day, but you get the picture. Though I'm on the side of Margaret Atwood and her views on classifying The Handmaid's Tale. Like I said contentious and tricky. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
I did get a very strange look when I was sitting in a cafe once reading Ramsey's "Demons By Daylight". The elderly couple sitting opposite kept looking at the cover and then giving each other funny glances. I guess it makes it worse when I've been described as looking like someone who doesn't read horror - ie. female, middle-aged. Apparently, I look more like someone who'd read Catherine Cookson! But, no, I've never been embarrassed by reading horror. I always find it amusing when I tell people and they say something like "oh no, I'd never read that kind of thing!" I guess I am careful WHERE I read horror though. If I'm at a university delivering training then I wouldn't read a horror book in front of staff/students. It's not that I'm embarrassed/ashamed, it's just that it wouldn't create that "professional" appearance I'm afraid we have to project. After all, I want them to give me more work and not think I'm some kind of weirdo because of my taste in fiction! Unfortunately, many people seem to be prejudiced against us horror fiction fans. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.216.33 |
No. Maybe when you're young enough to care what folk think of you, but not now. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
No. I stopped caring what other people thought of my tastes a long time ago. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
I've actually encountered the opposite thing with a lot of people who've come into my home and seen the bookshelves loaded with horror books. They usually start having a look at what they might like to borrow. I would NEVER 'not read' something in public for fear of giving the wrong impression. Caroline - I don't know anybody in work or any of the jobs I've had who might consider me a weirdo because of the books I read. And I would think that students, especially having been one, would think twice about what you read. I met more horror fans at university than anywhere else. Do you mean fellow colleagues? | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
Not at all. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
No, and no. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 49.225.238.103 |
With John and Gary F. Don't care at all anymore. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I never did. Where I grew up, I used to be afraid to be seen reading Shakespeare or a book of poetry. Reading a gaudy paperback horror novel didn't get you called a puff or get you into a fight. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.27.178 |
No, I'm not. But I'd rather be seen blowing a goat than reading Guy N. Smith. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.144.33.232 |
In my first week at my new place of work I made a point of taking along this book... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Babys-First-Book-Seriously-Fucked-up/dp/1936383500 | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.81.238 |
I'm embarrased by that thing in the corner. No. I mean I didn't see it until you pointed it out. Yeah. That's what I meant. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I don't really like anyone seeing me reading. It's an intimate act, a private thing. I try not to read books in public. Seriously. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.159.146.177 |
paperback horror novel didn't get you called a puff or get you into a fight. =============== There's a Horror book in one of the HA of HA stories that gets into its own fight - i.e. a physical weapon in itself | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
On public transport I deliberately read books upside down. It's much cooler that way. Also it's impossible to tell what I'm reading. (; | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.191.137.205 |
I bought Lolita years ago in a big bookshop in Antwerp and was somewhat reluctant to skim through it on the train with people sitting in front of me. It wasn't the title, which was readable even from a considerable distance, but the (otherwise delightful) Balthus painting on the cover: a prepubescent girl leaning backwards in a chair, deliberately showing her knickers. On another occasion I was reading the ***teenth Pan Book of Horror stories, the one with Sir Gore on the cover and people did cast anxious glances in my direction, as if I were a rabid maniac or something. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I was reading through the little intros in the 11th 'Best New Horror' volume on the train last weekend and got that prickly feeling of being stared at. I lowered the book and a little girl with her mother, sat opposite me, was staring pale-faced at the cover, seriously disturbed looking. I glanced at the skull-face cover, smiled and disappeared behind the book again feeling contented with the world. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
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| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.58.73.80 |
I'm actually rather proud to be seen reading horror. But then again I load up the exterior of my house with all sorts of goulish creatures at Halloween to "entertain" people driving by, so it's no big secret. I'm guilty of trying to discreetly check out what people are reading. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I do that too! If it's something horror related I invariably warm to them. Which kind of creeps them out. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 220.138.163.24 |
This is a good one to be seen reading in public:http://dontbetonit.tripod.com/mammoth.html | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Frank said: "Caroline - I don't know anybody in work or any of the jobs I've had who might consider me a weirdo because of the books I read. And I would think that students, especially having been one, would think twice about what you read. I met more horror fans at university than anywhere else. Do you mean fellow colleagues?" Both students and staff, Frank. The thing is I'm self-employed freelance, so I have to give the "right impression" to both staff and students so that (a) I get good feedback and (b) I get asked to do more freelance work for the various educational establishments. If I was in a secure full-time permanent post it'd probably be different!  The other thing is, you're a young man whereas I'm an old woman - that makes a difference too. I do a thing in class sometimes when I'm covering the topic of perception with students. I get them to decide the answers to questions about me like "who's my favourite author/actor?", "what's my favourite film?", etc. I then give them the actual answers to see if it differs from their perception of me - it invariably does! I simply don't look like a horror fan I'm afraid! But, no, I'm not ashamed or embarrassed by my tastes - I just have to be careful not to show them in a professional context (apart from when I'm doing that perception exercise with students). | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.205 |
In the early 90s, several weeks after I started going out with a girl, she saw me reading Ramsey's 'Scared Stiff'. She looked at me with raised eyebrows and said "Tales of sex and death?" We'd only been out on a couple of dates. She knew I was into horror. But I thought I saw a strange look cross her face. However, I managed to pursuade her to read a couple of the stories, and she quickly understood why I loved Ramsey's work. I think she'd been expecting explicit necrophilia or gratuitous violence, instead of the subtle, low-key, disturbing stories she encountered. Needless to say, we've been married for 14 years, so it didn't put her off. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.14.90 |
Bless. There is necrophilia in Scared Stiff, as well as erotic strangulation, psychedelic sex and lots more besides. That such reading formed the starting-point for a happy marriage says something very positive about both literature and sexuality. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.205 |
"There is necrophilia in Scared Stiff, as well as erotic strangulation, psychedelic sex and lots more besides." Joel, but it's tastefully done. | ||
| Greg James (Greg_james) Username: Greg_james Registered: 04-2011 Posted From: 86.160.232.86 |
Nope, never been embarrassed by it though I have been told on many occasions that I don't look like the kind of person who would enjoy such things. Or I get told I'm sick. Either response is fine with me. |