Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
There have been a few discussions in horror forums I'm a member of that have argued reasonably convincingly that horror works quite a bit better in short form than in long form.Personally I prefer long form, but I see the point of short form horror.
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That's very interesting. Looking over my post I noticed that most of the examples I cited were, in fact, short. That wasn't intentional on my part at all; it just happened that way. Bradbury was at his best in his unique type of blend of fantasy/science fiction and horror and his most effective work in this area was in the short story. M R, James, of couse was a master of the short horror tale-and though he isn't to everyone's taste, Henry James (IMO) created a masterpiece of horror in
The Turn of the Screw--which is no more than a novelette. Perhaps the reason for this goes back to Edgar Allen Poe's insight that the short story can create an amazingly intense experience--and Horror depends on that intensity. Perhaps Poppy Z Brite in her collection
Swamp Foetus (1995) is a modern example of this tradition.
Of course, there are some great masterpieces of horror in longer forms. Obviously
Dracula, Uncle Silas and
The Monk come to mind. Outside of Stephen King, I'm not as familiar with modern examples in the longer form but I'm sure they exist. I would love to have some suggestions from others as to where to start.