COSMIC HORROR

[Anonymous No.21867013]

How do you write cosmic horror, /lit/? I've read a great deal and you would think I'd be at least somewhat equipped but a lot of just isn't there for me. The novel I'm currently working is going to start as something else and gradually show to be horror and I'm currently at the point when I need to begin implementing.

[Anonymous No.21867023]

>>21867013
That "cosmic horror" feelinf js mostly utilizing a mix between fear of the unknown, and a Carl Sagan-esque awe of the universe. Usually some themes of very large scales in size of some material objects, and the nullification of human free will are involved. Here's a tip: read a little bit of Kierkegaard, he sorta presents God in a cosmicy horrory way if you squint your eyes really really hard? The description of Abraham before God is very heavy. It IS called "fear and trembling" after all

[Anonymous No.21867055]

https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/nwwf.aspx
Your cosmic horror should be an exaggeration of something that scares you, like consciousness, air conditioners, or underground caveman witch cults.

[Anonymous No.21867063]

>>21867023
>>21867055
Thanks a lot guys, this is some good advice. I have another big question. What way would you ride the line of being vague effectively? I know if done wrong, people will think you're either lazy or copping out.

[Sage No.21867136]

Conrad’s ‘heart of darkness’ has the creeping of floating down a river vulnerable to monsters(gators or hippos) waiting to capsize your boat along with hiding indigenous people hanging from trees. Walking in the forest at night and it’s dead silent besides the occasional squirrel or branch falling to the ground. Fear vial or a fear candle bellowing noxious vibes. An insect that easily enters your body to lay eggs in your body. The movie alien is a good example of that sort of with the face crawlers. Half life is another example of cosmic horror. Mindflayer lore in dungeons and dragons. Cannibals used to be a human horror of uncivilized humanity. We aren’t very space oriented as a species but the van allen radiation belt is a looming threat to our Mar’s mission. The fact that we may never leave earth since we’re evolutionarily molded to the atmosphere and gravity of earth. Did I miss anything? Lol I guess I’m into cosmic horror being a sci-fi fan. I’m reading the Rama series and it has some cosmic suspense elements. Hard sci-fi.

[Anonymous No.21867149]

>>21867013
Tim Curran writes good cosmic horror (Dead Sea), but the book goes on for way too long. Brevity is the soul of creeping, mind-breaking horror, apparently.

[Anonymous No.21867151]

>>21867136
That's an interesting take on Heart of Darkness. I love that book and is one of my favorites and yet the "cosmic" tones went right over my head.

[Anonymous No.21867155]

>>21867063
I can't give you a technical crash course on it. But I guess the art would be on giving enough detail that the reader can create a mental picture of what he is reading about (how big it is, what sound it makes, shit that alludes to the creature but doesn't reveal it I guess). But not enough where the author is telling you what it is and how it looks.
>>21867055
Brb making a Cosmic horror story about emotional intimacy

[Anonymous No.21867161]

>>21867136
>>21867151
Personally, I thought it alluded more to a dreamlike foreign dimension where nothing was ever fully real. Where hidden and forgotten things lie just things you cannot know, lurking. The last scene where Kurtz was being evacuated sold me on it.

[Anonymous No.21867168]

>>21867155
>making a Cosmic horror story about emotional intimacy
Cthulu romcom

[Anonymous No.21867187]

>>21867168
I'd be fine with that

[Anonymous No.21867188]

>>21867168
oh, they exist

[Anonymous No.21867190]

>>21867168
>Barely functional /lit/ user gets hounded by a woman who might've fell from a meteorite 2 days ago
>Coming soon to a self-published amazon website near you.

[Sage No.21867207]

>>21867155
>the art would be on giving enough detail that the reader can create a mental picture
I hate to say it but Michael Crichton is a great example of this with many books to digest the style. Not necessarily his books but his themes. Im not the biggest fan of his but he seems to write in a movie script style. This is probably cliche to say but I’ll say it anyway. Each sentence needs to lattice to the next in a way to allow the reader to
>jiggle the door knot (of the imagination) of the mind.
>Suddenly your hand is stuck to the door knot when your (mind begins to race off course) palms begin to sweat.
‘Your mind begins to race off course’ would be another paragraph and it’s easy to jump ahead yet lovecraft is an alchemist with his suspense concocting a palpable taste to savor. You have to know how to create suspense yet dial back each word to allow it to jump to the next sentence like a maelstrom or the mesmerizing effects of water floating down a drain. I bet it takes an eye for it as well as storytelling practice which is a discipline in writing. I personally like the dnd 5e module curse of strahd to enhance my writing/storytelling suspense.

[Anonymous No.21867611]

I think if Lovecraft could've peered into the future he'd definitely have written a story about horny trannies accidentally creating a great old one in cyberspace

[Anonymous No.21868588]

>>21867013
>create something so horrible that mere words can't even describe it without destroying the mind of the reader
>keep the whole story with this undescribable thing menacing the very fiber of reality
>end the story with the character dying for some reason completely unrelated to the undescribable thing
>be famous 100 years after your death

[Anonymous No.21868638]

>>21867013
>>21867136
parallax

Set up: 'quantum immortality'. Now put the subject in a situation where suicide is both rational and imperative; Groundhog Day but all memories of your past life are retained from birth onward in anticipation of something excruciating, heinous, tragic, and/or evil.

[Anonymous No.21868642]

>>21867013
cosmic horror
comic sorrow
frantic borrow
aids.

[Anonymous No.21868668]

>>21867207
Huh. Way to go, Crichton! I guess a busted clock really can be right twice a day.

[k-man No.21869725]

>>21867013
Make it nautical, then simply remove the sea.

[Anonymous No.21869975]

>>21867063
You may find "American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction" by Allan Lloyd-Smith useful...I did.
As far as "cosmic horror" goes...you have to be willing to stare into the darkness until it stares back, and keep right on staring.
Most people don't have the cojones for that.