The Philosophy of HorrorEdited by Thomas Fahy
University Press of Kentucky, April 2010
ISBN: 978-0813125732
From literature and urban legends to film and television, horror's ability to thrill has made it an integral part of modern entertainment. Thomas Fahy and twelve other scholars reveal the underlying themes of the genre in The Philosophy of Horror. The essays here suggest that the genre of horror might be looked at through a philosophical lens. In one of the strongest chapters, Philip Nickel demonstrates how horror films essentially make us philosophical skeptics for a couple hours before we return to everyday life.
Nickel uses the 14-minute diner scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" to demonstrate different philosophical stances taken by the townspeople in the film. They come to realize skepticism is the only defensible philosophical stance in the face of such observable irrationality.
Some of the chapters do overreach. Jeremy Norris' chapter picking up on Kant's theory of autonomy to defend torture-horror films is a little torturous itself. The final chapters seem to stray from the philosophical mission of the book into familiar critical-theory territories. Still, this new book made me take "In Cold Blood" off the shelf and consider it in a different way, as I saw for the first time the familiar horror elements Capote managed to include. His killers could be described as being in a "state of nature," as Thomas Hobbes described it.
This work swings from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" to "The Hills Have Eyes" to "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," and manages to be both enlightening and (mostly) entertaining. Who knew "Twilight" is derivative not only of the Buffy spin-off "Angel", but also of John Locke's ideas about personal identity?
The Philosophy of Horror provides new insights into a familiar genre. This book covers a broad span of time, beginning with horror’s unofficial inception in the 1800s and investigating the genre’s changing artistic and philosophical ideologies. A must have for all fans of the horror genre!
