(no subject)
Sep. 6th, 2019 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreWhen I first started listening to (read: "consuming as though I were starving") The Magnus Archives, I mentioned that I was braced for the small disappointment of a continuing plot with connections and answers, because those make a story less scary.* And yeah, that is happening because that sort of thing is inevitable in a story with a continuing plot and yeah, the connections do make it less scary, but I appreciate that the writer has acknowledged that and is clearly doing his best to avoid those moments of letdown.
For example! Today on my lunchbreak, I listened to episode 61, which calls back to the second episode of the podcast, in which there was a mysterious locked box. In episode 61, the box is opened. Now, of course, any horror fan can tell you that, no matter how scary something you can see is, it is always less frightening than the thing you can't see, can't identify or quantify. Seeing inside that box was almost inevitably going to be a disappointment. Except! What was the box wasn't quantifiable or explicable. What was in the box was an infinitely long down-staircase**, leading into a dark and sightless abyss. Essentially, what is in the box is a larger and more frightening box that we still can't see inside. It gives us an answer - which solves a mystery and is thus satisfying on one level - while giving us a further and more terrifying question. That's so good! As a person who enjoys the sensation of a good horror story, I am pleasingly unsettled and as a person who enjoys the craft of a good horror story, I am pleasantly impressed.
*Connections mean that, on some level, a thing can be fully tied together and possibly described, which means it can be understood, and understanding inevitably diminishes fear and, in conclusion, that's why there are conspiracy theorists.
**The only thing keeping me from shouting "We have found ftaires!" was the fact that I was in the breakroom with my headphones on and people would have looked at me funny. At home, it would have been another story.
For example! Today on my lunchbreak, I listened to episode 61, which calls back to the second episode of the podcast, in which there was a mysterious locked box. In episode 61, the box is opened. Now, of course, any horror fan can tell you that, no matter how scary something you can see is, it is always less frightening than the thing you can't see, can't identify or quantify. Seeing inside that box was almost inevitably going to be a disappointment. Except! What was the box wasn't quantifiable or explicable. What was in the box was an infinitely long down-staircase**, leading into a dark and sightless abyss. Essentially, what is in the box is a larger and more frightening box that we still can't see inside. It gives us an answer - which solves a mystery and is thus satisfying on one level - while giving us a further and more terrifying question. That's so good! As a person who enjoys the sensation of a good horror story, I am pleasingly unsettled and as a person who enjoys the craft of a good horror story, I am pleasantly impressed.
*Connections mean that, on some level, a thing can be fully tied together and possibly described, which means it can be understood, and understanding inevitably diminishes fear and, in conclusion, that's why there are conspiracy theorists.
**The only thing keeping me from shouting "We have found ftaires!" was the fact that I was in the breakroom with my headphones on and people would have looked at me funny. At home, it would have been another story.
