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5.
AOTW: How will the genre be affected, if at all, by the events of September 11? With the nation struggling with terror, do you feel horror novels may be in more --- or less --- demand?
Whitley Strieber: Horror has always been a refuge in dark times. In the 20th century, it received its first true stroke of commercial interest during the '30s, when people were afraid and sometimes hungry. It is when the beast stomps the streets that we like most to repair to our own caves and curl up with the little black cat whom we love...and don't.
To me, great horror unfolds in absolutely ordinary life, and so I would expect that the realities of the modern world would affect the best of the books to be written from here. When one looks closely at the portraits of Osama bin Laden, for example, and reflects on the precise way he holds his lips and the sadness in his eyes, one sees the true face of horror --- the determination of the thing, the ferociousness, and the strange way that the eyes of horror have of drifting toward the never-never and the beyond.
Tananarive Due: It's hard to speculate on how the genre will be affected by September 11. On "Larry King Live" last night, I heard a voicemail message from someone on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center right after the plane crash, and I had trouble sleeping. I'd heard many others but that one stuck with me. In some ways, as with science fiction writers, it becomes difficult to imagine how your imagination can create more horror than real life. But, on the other hand, the more we have real-life fears that terrorists are going to invade our airplanes, workplaces or neighborhoods, the more readers might seek solace in supernatural stories that aren't as "real."
Darren Shan: The attack on America was a sickening, tragic atrocity, but I don't think it will have any affect on horror writing as a whole --- most horror books are deliciously scary, like a roller-coaster ride, and as such have little to do with the problems of real life. The more serious horror novels which actually deal with death (such as my own books) also won't be affected, since I think novels which confront the genuine darkness of the world are necessary tools when it comes to understanding and living with that darkness. We live in a world where awful tragedies can and do happen (as we've seen recently), and those best equipped to handle those tragedies are those who are prepared for them. For me, the key paragraph in all my books comes in the prologue of CIRQUE DU FREAK: "Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins." I see this as a given truth of the universe, and I believe the best way to deal with this truth is to acknowledge it and explore it in fiction --- thus preparing ourselves for when evil or tragedy happens in real life.
Douglas Clegg: Will serial killer books die? One can only hope. But will supernatural thrillers, dark fantasy, genuine horror fiction (of ghosts and monsters and wild imaginings) go away during this time? I suspect they will become more popular. They seem to do less well in the market in relative peacetime. The Vietnam era may have produced many novels of Vietnam, but it also produced Rosemary's Baby as a megahit and The Exorcist and The Other. Like science fiction, romance, and fantasy fiction, horror fiction is both an escape and a focusing of the mind of possibilities and dreams and the seriousness of life outside of temporal reality. It both takes you away and returns you.
I think the genre to watch for death or life will be the technothriller genre --- will Clancy's sales explode now, or diminish? Will technothrillers about war and subs and carriers become more popular, or will people want to read about anything but that stuff?
Ameilia Atwater-Rhodes: I know horror movies are more in demand; the news was discussing how people are renting or buying the most violent stories, because they need a fight that ends neatly --- closure. I write for much that reason, and it seems that many people read for the same. Horror, especially horror including creatures we consider unreal, is a safe outlet. You can face something worse than reality and still have the safety of knowing it's only a story. And in the end, the pages are through, the good guy probably wins, and the ending is clean-cut and easy.
R.L. Stine: I feel that good fantasy will always be in demand. I think children especially need literature that helps them escape from the real world, which is very scary to them right now.
Christopher Schildt: After the terror of September 11, I believe horror will be in more demand. Horror is a release from real life, where the imagination may roam free. It is not a constant reminder of the realities of our daily existence. Horror literature is a form of escapism which we need in times of stress. True horror would be stories that glorify the attack or remind us the tragedy suffered by so many thousands of victims. It is not something I would write or want to read.
David Searcy: I can't think that big, in such terms. I've no thoughts except to remember --- for no clear reason at all --- that strange and terrible passage from Plutarch where there is heard by those on board a passing ship at evening, a single voice from the island of Paxi calling and announcing the death of Pan.
Kelley Armstrong: I think the question can be debated from both sides. On the one hand, people may decide that current headlines are frightening enough and consequently they have no desire to pursue horror as entertainment. Alternately, because horror novels often derive their frights from fantastical creatures (ghosts, vampires, werewolves) people could choose to take a break from the current situation by entering a world where the horror is far removed from the realm of possibility. My own opinion is that, like other forms of entertainment, there will be a lull in book-reading but, after a year or so, interest will return to normal levels.
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