Horror Panel
And Then She Screamed
Sunday October 5
Horror has been a recurring theme of Durham's 2003 Literature Festival, with poets exploring their dark sides and story tellers drawing on traditional horror themes. But Sunday's panel discussion was the session at which the professionals emerged from the shadows to reclaim their territory.
Gail-Nina Anderson, cultural historian and Goth icon, wrested control of the panel from Chaz Brenchley, and led him and fellow-writers Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark and Elle Ludkin through a spirited discussion of what horror is, and why we do it. She led the way with a brief poem of her own, The Vampire's Own Alphabet, which illustrated the breadth of themes and styles available to contemporary horror:
A is Anatomised, cut up and pickled
B is for bruises, which shouldn't be tickled
C is Cadaver, greyish and greenery
D is the Devil's Gorge, Satan's own scenery
E will Eliminate, terminate, End
F is the Fiend oft disguised as a friend
G is the Ghost, wraith-like and liminal
H is the Hangman who waits for the criminal
I is the Incubus, riding your nights
J is the Jugular, throbbing for bites
K is the Kite flown to harness the lightning
L is the Lamia, lovely but frightening
M is the Mistletoe, sacred for Druids
N's Nosferatu, who'll sup on your fluids
O is for Orgasm (refer back to I)
P is the Poltergeist, making things fly
Q is the dusky-robed Queen of the Night
R stands for Runes which you never pass, quite
S is the Succubus, sin in your dreaming
T is the Terror that wakes you up screaming
U's the Uncanny you hardly dare mention
V is the Vampire, of sanguine intention
W's Werewolf, all bristling and lupine
X stands for Xena, who'll lay you out supine
Y is the YETI, who's not just illusion
Z signals Zero, and draws our conclusion.
While the discussion didn't manage to cover all of these topics, it did range from Ramsey Campbell's earliest memory of a frightening experience (a spooky tale of Rupert Bear and a sentient Christmas Tree, which may explain the terrors of the forest in his latest novel The Darkest Part of the Woods) to Simon Clark's analysis of the richly horror-related vocabulary of a poem by Dylan Thomas, a poet not usually associated with the genre. But then again, as Gail-Nina Anderson remarked after Chaz Brenchley's reading from his unpublished novella Being Small, the word which he had deployed to most horrific effect was porridge.
Simon Clark continued the demonstration that horror doesn't have to depend on time-honoured props by conjuring up some fine frissons with a passage from his novel Vampyrrhic Rites in which a group of sub-aqua enthusiasts prepare for a dive in a lake in Yorkshire. Finally, Elle Ludkin demonstrated that women's role in the genre is not limited to that of the screaming victim, firstly by challenging the audience to name women horror writers other than Anne Rice (a challenge to which they responded with gusto) and then by reading some of her own poems, which fixed an unflinching gaze on the gruesome horrors of real life.
For readers who like nothing better than to be scared out of their wits, the evening was an obvious delight: "I thought the event was wonderful." commented one member of the audience. "I've been a reader of Ramsey's for over twenty years and to meet him was quite a big experience for me. Even meeting authors I wasn't familiar with was enlightening - it made writing feel 'do-able'." For those of us who would rather have our spines left un-tingled, readings from the best the genre has to offer, accompanied by the thoughtful and entertaining commentaries of their authors, at least showed us the appeal of what we were missing.
Books by panel members are on sale at the festival bookstall:
