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/lit/ - Literature

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22082704 No.22082704 [Reply] [Original]

I think books are not a good medium to portray horror. Movies and video games have audio and visual cues that will hook the viewer. Whereas a book is only up to the reader's imagination.

>> No.22082716

>>22082704
In my memories all the books I read are films and plays. Like I don't remember reading the words.

>> No.22082718
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22082718

>>22082704
i never seen a book do jump scares

>> No.22082721

>>22082718
Wait til you see pop-up books anon

>> No.22082722

>>22082718
Nice fade bruh

>> No.22082726

>>22082721
every second page is a BBC

>> No.22082729

>>22082704
Counterpoint: with a movie or game, you just rely on somebody else's imagination.

But you're right it's quite hard to do a few horror tropes (like jump scares, like them of loath them). Books do excel at building tension and horror though.

>> No.22082743

>>22082718
BOO!

>> No.22082762

>>22082729
That's the point, we fear the unknown. If the horror is up to our imagination, then that horror is not unknown. If it's up to another person imagination, then it is unknown (At least the first time you experience it).

>> No.22082781

>>22082743
Chill

>> No.22082788

>>22082704
Literary horror and horror in film/video games are fundamentally different. They cannot rely on the same methods of discomforting the reader/viewer.

>> No.22082794

>>22082704
>>22082762
But a book can reproduce the fear of the unknown just as well. A good horror story will focus on the concrete elements that make a given situation eerie and dreadful (surrounding sounds, smells, darkness, whatever) without necessarily giving away their cause (a monster, a criminal). So the reader is thus faced with the unknown as well as in any visual or sound medium. The unknown we fear is not our immediate surroundings, but what is beyond them, and writing can recreate this unsettling ignorance just as easily.

>> No.22082940
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22082940

>>22082718
then I have a recommendation for you

>> No.22083063

>>22082704
Why are people scared of spiders again? They’re just animals. Also list some spider books that aren’t Charlotte’s Web.

>> No.22083075

>>22082704
Visual cues make it less scary, though. There's a reason there's never been a good film adaptation of Lovecraft or Kafka. "Horror" as a film genre should more properly be named "gruesome."

>> No.22083175
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22083175

When I was a teenager the thing that genuinely spooked me most on the internet was this creepypasta. Not movies or games, just this small block of text. Sounds and visuals are amazing for setting up mood and scares but it's definitely possible to do it through just text, you just need a different approach.

>> No.22083189
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22083189

>>22082704
this book scared the fuck out of me when I was a kid, I need to reread it

>> No.22083195

>>22083175
Nice one. Have any more like it?