The kinds of places I hang out, online, dictate my reading. It’s not that I like to be scared, it’s just that I’m honest. Besides, even when hanging out in person was possible I didn’t do much of it. So I became aware of Peter Counter’s Be Scared of Everything: Horror Essays. Like me, Counter’s a blogger (among other things), but unlike me his blog is themed horror. (This blog has an element of horror but is very roughly themed religion.) Counter’s book is a fascinating collection of thoughts. Some of the essays are funny, some are sad, and a few are downright profound. It’s clear that what gave Counter his crisis was watching his father get shot. Even those of us who grew up not knowing our dads can see how that experience would traumatize a life. My own traumas were less focused than this, but we learned the same lesson—it pays to be afraid.
When I was young I never met a phobia I didn’t like. As I grew older and left home, I came to bring them under control. You can only get so far in life hiding under your blanket, secretly afraid you might suffocate. I learned that if I wanted to be a minister—something that never happened—I had to overcome my fears. Being a parent did it even more. In order to try to teach your child not to be afraid, you find yourself doing things like scooping up bugs in your bare hands to show that they won’t hurt you. Like putting a brave face on a truly scary situation. Like carrying on when everything you’ve built crumbles around you. Counter’s essays don’t shy away from the difficult things in life. He’s right: there are many.
I was a monster boomer, but I only really came back to horror after losing my long-term teaching post and longed for career. Horror helps you cope with trauma. It gets a bad rap, but mostly from people who don’t understand its therapeutic value. I don’t like being scared. Horror, however, reminds me of that cozy childhood feeling of watching monster movies and knowing when it was over the threat would be gone. Only it never was. Not really. Sleepless nights and their febrile dreams may’ve been triggered by the movies, but the realities happening behind the scenes were their real source. I couldn’t know that at the time, and most of the time I’m not conscious of it now. Still, I read books like Be Scared of Everything and I think maybe I’m on the right track.
