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Stephen King On Fear
Stephen King On Fear
Rational: thoughts or behaviour that are guided by intellect and logic rather than emotion
Irrational: thoughts or behaviour that are guided by emotion that seem to conflict with
what is logical
1. How does King “hook” the reader? How does he create atmosphere/mood in the first
few paragraphs?
King writes: “Let’s talk, you and I.” He draws the reader in by inviting him or her into a
conversation. He creates mood by describing the setting in which he’s writing as though
it’s the setting for a scary story: “It’s night. Sometimes when the wind blows the way it’s
blowing now, we lose the power.” “Let’s talk very rationally about moving to the rim of
madness”
-vampires
-werewolves
-trucks that start on their own and drive themselves
-monsters in the closet
-demon lovers
4. What is his purpose in inviting the reader to compare these types of fears?
He does this to show the difference between the types of fears that horror writers write
about and the types of fears we experience in everyday life.
They learn from their parents. When children discover a parent won’t always be there
when they cry, or that they can’t always help even if they are there. And they learn from
seeing the expression on a parent’s face when they do something dangerous.
They allow us to exchange our rational fears—the ones we don’t have solutions to—for
irrational fears—the ones we do have solutions for. Once the story is done we feel like
we’ve dealt with a fear, even if it isn’t what’s really scaring us.
7. Find two interesting metaphors and explain why King uses them.
Fable about the seven blind men and the elephant: The elephant represents the source of
fear that makes us blind. We are unable to understand fear on our own. The blindness
represents the absence of rational thought. When the men get together in the fable, they
are able to understand what they are touching in the same way we get a better
understanding of our fear if we talk about it and deal with it.
Welsh sin eater: The sin eater is supposed to take away the sins of the dying person by
eating his food. King compares the horror writer to the sin eater. He allows you to
substitute one of your fears (the ones you can’t deal with) with one of his (the ones you
can deal with).
8. King’s thesis: People enjoy reading horror stories because they allow them to deal with
their real-life, rational fears in a manageable if temporary way.