OCCUPY DARKNESS
The revolt is underway. The mindlessly commercial, the undistinguished and barely literate will no longer be allowed to utterly dominate the genre. Not without a fight anyway. Here … have a brick.
The revolt is underway. The mindlessly commercial, the undistinguished and barely literate will no longer be allowed to utterly dominate the genre. Not without a fight anyway. Here … have a brick.
Why is dark fiction important?
Without the dark there can be no light. There’s a lovely quote from Yousuf Karsh: “Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.” I have little regard for writers who deny half our natures, regardless of which half. Many great works explore the shadowy corners of the soul, and many employ surreal or supernatural elements to establish their themes about the human condition. These are brilliant books, cultural treasures. But, somehow, in recent years, dark fiction has become the exclusive province of tales about lovesick vampires and superhero werewolves … until the genre now mostly reflects the reading preferences of adolescents. (Let’s not even discuss the zombie whores or hordes or whatever.) Craft and artistry have been marginalized almost out of existence.
It’s time for a renaissance. Perhaps even a revolution.
Without the dark there can be no light. There’s a lovely quote from Yousuf Karsh: “Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.” I have little regard for writers who deny half our natures, regardless of which half. Many great works explore the shadowy corners of the soul, and many employ surreal or supernatural elements to establish their themes about the human condition. These are brilliant books, cultural treasures. But, somehow, in recent years, dark fiction has become the exclusive province of tales about lovesick vampires and superhero werewolves … until the genre now mostly reflects the reading preferences of adolescents. (Let’s not even discuss the zombie whores or hordes or whatever.) Craft and artistry have been marginalized almost out of existence.
It’s time for a renaissance. Perhaps even a revolution.
