Ppl (my mom) be like oH eDeN iDk wHy yOu LiKe hOrRoR MeDiA iT's sO sCaRy wHy wOuLd yOu iNtEnTiOnALly mAkE yOuRseLf uNcoMfOrtAbLe
Art is intended to evoke an emotional response
fear is an emotion
art that can evoke fear, discomfort, revulsion, or horror from me
is art that is doing its job and doing it well

in fact
no offense to ppl who don't care for horror but to me being willing to explore negative and unpleasant emotions like fear and discomfort within yourself in a safe venue like horror media
is a green flag to me in a person

This is why I love Beksinski as a painter bc it is Difficult to make paintings that can evoke such an unsettling aura
it takes a great level of skill and a deeper understanding of the human psyche than many ppl would be comfortable delving into
also he often paints Creachurs and me I love me a Creachur

for example
look at this guy
he's such a little guy and I love him
sitting out here in his little gas mask as crows fly ominously overhead

but SIKE he is not wearing a gas mask that is simply His Face

creachur!

yes!!!!
and this one too
I don't even know what to make of this fellow but he looks like he makes a skuttling sound when he moves

emotions successfully Evoked

oooh

Also horror is a genre that is very unapologetic
many other genres will dance around an issue so as to not step on toes
horror will be more likely to show you grim realities as well as grim fictions

Faith: the Unholy Trinity for example, is mostly lies but underlying the whole storyline there is the grim reality that the Catholic church does expect selflessness to the point of endangering oneself under the assumption that "God Will Protect You From Anything You Are Meant To Be Protected From"

which is not smth you can really show in a story without showing the kinds of things that happen to ppl who believe they cannot be harmed
granted you are not likely to be attacked by daemons like in F:TUT but it is an Idea and the Idea is worth exploring to it's full potential

US is a perfect and glorious and beautiful example of this
probably my favorite horror movie ngl
not the one that unnerved me the most but definitely in my top five
it's a story about the American Dream and how it turns ppl into greedy monsters while poor and working class ppl are thought of as monsters just for trying to get by

gosh that movie was Amazing
Carrie was also really good
Crimson Peak too
Jennifer's Body
each and every all of these stories make points that can be made without horror
but the points that they make are intended to evoke the same emotions that horror is intended to evoke
so it fits

these points are supposed to make you uncomfortable and afraid and kind of disgusted
so the story you use to tell them will do the same
and that tracks and I like that

art is not intended just to show the beautiful sides of us
art is to reflect reality
and reality is not a monolith, sometimes it is horrifying
as Gavin De Becker said in The Gift of Fear, if you can't imagine that a horrible act can be done, you can't prevent it
which isn't to say that you should watch slasher movies so you can catch serial killers

it's to say that Someone Thought Of The Things In Tese Movies and that is worth making art about just for that reason bc if it's in someone's mind, it is a reflection of someone's reality

and there doesn't need to be a deeper point to make than "hey wouldn't this be messed up and crazy?"
when there is, I like it better bc then I can analyze it
but ppl can make unrealistic art that makes the point "hey wouldn't this be wholesome and lovely?" so they should be allowed to make art that spans the entire range of human emotions

Purity Culture tells us that it's important to only have good, clean, righteous, pure, and noble thoughts, so you should only have good, clean, righteous, pure and noble art
but humans aren't good, clean, righteous, pure, or noble all the time
they certainly can be but there's no morality to not being that way

and when it comes down to it, that's all it is
it's a matter of personal taste
some ppl don't like gratuitous fluff
I don't like slice of life media bc I see that as the same vein as playing pretend but pretending to be grownups with taxes to do
"Let's Play Real Life" uh I already have a real life...?
but that doesn't mean it lacks value as a genre

just bc I don't see worth in it doesn't mean it has no worth
I'm not going to ascribe moral value to it just bc I don't like it
and I'm very frustrated with sitcom and slice of life brand people thinking it's okay to do that to the kind of media that I like
my mom specifically will do this not just with horror but also fantasy

she assigns moral value to fake stuff
which is frustrating bc it's literally fake

but art is all fake
it's a reflection of reality, not actual reality and bc of that, anything you make art about is safe and ultimately okay
and I mean
anything
even crimes
even if you write a story about someone doing a crime and you don't stop and say "hey guys this is a Bad Thing that you shouldn't be doing"
art can teach ppl morality

but it is under no obligation to do so

so even if witchcraft was real in the same sense that it is in CS Lewis's fake fantasy world, and even if it was vile and wicked and associated with the devil, the chronicles of Narina are Fictional
and as such
they do not necessarily effect reality At All

And I'm serious
art is not reality
even photography is only a reflection of reality
it's a perspective offered, but rest assured
photos do not mean a thing Happened
ask any journalist
even writing a nonfiction book
you could be mistooken
you could be biased
you could be straight-up lying

Jordan Peterson writes Nonfiction
nonfiction does not necessarily mean Real

that's not where the value of art comes from
the value of art comes from Someone thinking it's valuable enough to make art about it
that's it

Anyway
back to cackling gleefully as I listen to the Magnus Archives Guys get copy-and-pasted

this is really interesting!

thanks I love art and the concept and the process of creation and all things associated

yes!!!!! creation is truly wonderful

one of my favorites quotes from Rent is "the opposite of war isn't peace,it's creation"

Oh I've heard that before!! I didn't realize that was from Rent though

it was!!!