Flights of Fanciful Fandom: Elegant Horror
Nov. 4th, 2019 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhodrymavelyneBrian Fuller referred to Hannibal as elegant horror. All of the artist flourishs from the beauty of nightmarish objects to the bella figura Hannibal himself cuts walking through a palazzo in his Italian suit add to the elegance.
Watching this show has brought back memories of another example of elegant horror, one I fell in love with when I was very young. The monsters cut a dashing figure across the moonlight, savouring the taste of blood, even as they felt the value of the human they drained. Hannibal makes me think of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, not the least for the tender, intimate moments which happen between two men amidst the horror. These moments meant as much to me as that horror, making the horror all the richer for their dramatic pauses, transforming it into art.
It’s hard to analyze this transformation. It’s so easy to simply to let myself be swept away by it, whirling my imagination around and around like the dominant partner in a dance, carrying my thoughts away in a rush, leaving me too giddy with the sensations to truly study them.
I want to do this myself, though. I want to create such elegance. My work is nowhere near as dark as Hannibal. I’m not sure if it’s as dark as Anne Rice’s, although Tales of the Navel: The Shadow Forest comes close. I want the Gardens of Arachne to be a place of elegant horror. I’m hoping to bring a touch of it to Omphalos. Fairy tales can be vehicles for elegant horror and I try to carry fairy tale magic to all of my stories.
The trappings of civilized, polished society can be a mask for something else which means to hunt, stalk, and bring danger into the heart of civilization. Crafting my own masks for my own characters is an art form I hope to polish, while I introduce them to stories. Creating my own mixtures of elegant horror is something I intend to explore, even if at times, I only add a dash, and at others, I mix in a generous portion.
Wish me luck.
Watching this show has brought back memories of another example of elegant horror, one I fell in love with when I was very young. The monsters cut a dashing figure across the moonlight, savouring the taste of blood, even as they felt the value of the human they drained. Hannibal makes me think of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, not the least for the tender, intimate moments which happen between two men amidst the horror. These moments meant as much to me as that horror, making the horror all the richer for their dramatic pauses, transforming it into art.
It’s hard to analyze this transformation. It’s so easy to simply to let myself be swept away by it, whirling my imagination around and around like the dominant partner in a dance, carrying my thoughts away in a rush, leaving me too giddy with the sensations to truly study them.
I want to do this myself, though. I want to create such elegance. My work is nowhere near as dark as Hannibal. I’m not sure if it’s as dark as Anne Rice’s, although Tales of the Navel: The Shadow Forest comes close. I want the Gardens of Arachne to be a place of elegant horror. I’m hoping to bring a touch of it to Omphalos. Fairy tales can be vehicles for elegant horror and I try to carry fairy tale magic to all of my stories.
The trappings of civilized, polished society can be a mask for something else which means to hunt, stalk, and bring danger into the heart of civilization. Crafting my own masks for my own characters is an art form I hope to polish, while I introduce them to stories. Creating my own mixtures of elegant horror is something I intend to explore, even if at times, I only add a dash, and at others, I mix in a generous portion.
Wish me luck.
