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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Terror Time

I was talking to my friend Tabitha last night, and at one point we started sharing stories that we love from our favorite blogs. After I shared this post from Books of Adam (one of the funniest blogs out there - you should all read and love it immediately), we needed to start talking about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, because one must. Every kid who went to Elementary School in the early/mid 90s has a passionate love/hate relationship with this book. It was an awesomely disgusting landmark of our childhood, and it needs to be discussed as often as possible.

Recently, there's been news buzzing around the internet saying that there are plans to add new illustrations to the book, toning it down to make the pictures a little more kid-friendly. I say that this is total crap. If an overly nervous eight-year-old me can handle a picture of this girl's spider-munched face, kids today certainly can.


When I hear about stuff like this happening, I can't help but wonder when people could have forgotten that WE ALL LOVE TO BE TERRIFIED. Scaring yourself silly is a universal pleasure - an adrenaline high for those of us who have no desire to jump out of airplanes or be chased by angry bovines through the streets of Spain. It's the reason why stories about ghosts and monsters are present in every culture, and why they've been passed down from generation to generation. It's why zombies are such a huge deal right now, and why people who make horror films continue to make a living. Deep down, we are all afraid of things that go bump in the night.

I have always been a bit of a terror junkie, though I couldn't tell you why. I scare easily, and I love to be scared (on my own terms, that's important), but it does tend to get the better of me sometimes. I remember one particular incident from my childhood, when I couldn't sleep for weeks after reading a Goosebumps book about a haunted amusement park. I was having nightmares about zombies with knives coming up through my bedroom floor, and while I can't say how much it actually had to do with the book, my parents wouldn't let me read them for the longest time after that.

Now that I am older and supposedly wiser, the only things that honestly frighten me are the real-life things that I can't control. Luckily, fear is a broad spectrum, and I can still enjoy having a little scare from time to time. I like to think it keeps me young.

I'm an adult, and I'm not afraid of the monsters under my bed.

Usually.

What are the things you love to be scared by?

1 comment:

  1. I remember that spider story!! Totally forgot the picture, though--it is gross. :) I DO like scary stories, but I prefer the suspense-type scary to the evil-type scary by 100%. The gross-type scary is ok, too... sometimes. :P

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