Introduction
The horror genre, which appears in film or literature form, is a form of art that aims to create a shock or startle to its readers or viewers. The main aim of the horror genre is to provoke a sense of dread experience to the audiences via scary images, situations, or even themes. The most imperative features of the horror genre are the atmosphere and the mood with which the movie story is being expressed. These genres give creatives such as Brian Evenson a chance to try out new reviving folklore and effects in storytelling works such as Body, an example of a demonic horror story. Horror films with demons as supernatural beings often aim to manifest how the unknown of the human experience appears. They bring out the evil in supernatural, religious and mythical ways, enabling the reader to enjoy the feeling of adrenaline rush while getting exposed to a new scary atmosphere. The following paper analyzes the Body by identifying some of the nonsensical things the story creates, its literary fundaments, including themes and conflicts in the story, and how the texts concur with the horror genre in general.
Nonsensical Things in the Story
The author’s voice-hearing phenomenon comes out as nonsensical as it is one is not expected to hear the voices of people they are not seeing. In the Body, the author hears the voices of Skarmus and Brother Johanssen. They are two invisible people that the story brings out as people that the author only hallucinated about. For instance, Brother Johanssen whispers, “How are you, brother?” when the author is tied up in his seat (Straub 164). The author answers, “I have a new body,” showing a conversation between a natural person and an imagined one (Straub 164). Typically, one would not expect to have conversations with invisible people unless they suffer from conditions such as schizophrenia. Based on Cook’s research, it was identified that those people with schizophrenia or psychotic depression are the ones who report some linguistic complexity, and most of them claimed to hear voices when they were alone (64). This research also found out that the voices heard by such patients did not belong to other people but were a combination of their thoughts and voices resembling their memories. Despite the Body mentioning that the patient is in a correctional facility, St. Sebastian’s Correctional Facility, it does not state if the patient has schizophrenia, making his actions nonsensical. Generally, the way the author talks to Skarmus and Brother Johansen is nonsensical since this is not typical for people who are not suffering from conditions like schizophrenia.
Befriending dangerous individuals appears not to make sense in the story. The author befriends Brother Johanssen and Skarmus, the two demons, who vow to incorporate him into their cult of killing people, “the only commerce that I can stomach is with the dead.” During their friendship, the author is made to undergo suffering where he claims to be tied around his chest, ankles and throat and left to sleep in the dark. His mouth is encased to prevent him from screaming or mumbling, and he is forced to sit while jaw screws tighten his body “jaw screws are tightened down” (Straub 164). Typically, friends are supposed to be people who provide support in bad times and help one celebrate in good times. One is exempted from loneliness and isolation as the friendship offers companionship by having a friend. Along with normal friendships, one is always advised to find companions who can guarantee their purpose and safety, but this is not the case with the author. The author befriends demons who hurt him, which fails to make sense. Generally, it does not make sense the author befriended demons who end up mistreating and hurting him, yet companions are supposed to guarantee one’s safety.
Literary Fundamentals
Themes
The Body elaborates on the theme of suffering by explaining the mental and physical trauma that the author went through while at the correctional facility. Firstly, imaginary people like demons, Brother Johanssen and Skarmus, indicate the mental suffering that the author faced while at the facility. A mental trauma or suffering often results when one lives through a frightening event that problematizes the coping of ordinary events. In this case, the author faces mental trauma for having lived a sinful life, “I have given up evil and become a purely fellow now” (Straub 166). His previous evil life, which was encompassed by committing murder, makes him undergo mental suffering, such as seeing the bodies of the dead and demons, such as Skarmus. Secondly, physical suffering is portrayed when the author is confiscated in a dark room by the two demons, where he is strapped on a chair and prevented from uttering any word. Usually, a person is locked in a dark room when they have been abducted or about to undergo distressing life experiences such as death row. In such situations, the victim is made to undergo pain due to the tight strapping of the ropes used to tie them on the seat. In this case, the author claims his Body hurts, “My body remains aching and sore, unsure of its feet” (Straub 166). Generally, the theme of suffering is portrayed through mental and physical trauma. The author experiences demons due to his early murderous life and body pain for being tightly tied to a seat.
Demons in the Body help bring out distinctively the theme of devotion which expresses the yearning of these supernatural beings to stick to their motivations. The theme of devotion can best be understood when the motive behind one’s actions is analyzed. In this book, the demons are motivated by the need to change the author from a murderous life to a new being, “Are you uncovering the new body within you” (Straub 165). Their devotion to transforming this old author into new is expressed by how they mistreat him as they believe making him undergo a rough life such as strapping his throat and chest would cause the change to occur effectively. Generally, the demons show the theme of devotion as they go to all lengths of tying the author and injuring him to make him a new being, free from killing people.
Tone
The author’s tone appears to be mournful, while that of the demons, such as Brother Johannsen, is malicious. Examining the author’s words such as ‘aching’ and ‘soaring’ when he describes his Body shows that the author is morning and distressed by what he has to go through for him to change into a new person (Brown 34). Conversely, the demon’s tone appears malicious such as that of Brother Johansen, especially when he says, “You believe me so credible.” He orders his other demon, Skarmus, to tie the author (Straub 164). The demon’s tone can be attributed to the evil nature that demons often exhibit to achieve evil doings such as suffering to the people, as shown by Brother Johansen’s interaction with the author (Straub 164). Generally, the Body uses varying tones, such as malicious and mournful to reflect the characters’ feelings in the author’s case and actions in that of Brother Johansen.
The Horror Genre
For a piece of work to achieve horror status, it must mount mystery, fear and surprise. Mystery entails something that is inexplicable or one that is difficult to understand. In the Body, it is mysterious where the two demons, Brother Johansen and Skarmus, originate, as the story fails to mention it distinctively. The horror genre must create fear for its audience to have the desired adrenaline rush effect along with the mystery. The Body creates fear by applying a negative tone through Brother Johansen’s words, “You believe me so credible,” which makes the reader afraid of the demon’s actions (Straub 164). Lastly, the horror genre needs to surprise its audience by creating actions they never anticipated. Everyone expects the demons to act well on the author since they are friends in the story. However, it turns out that the demons inflict pain on the author by strapping his chest, mouth and throat, preventing him from talking. Therefore, the Body fits in the horror genre as it integrates mystery, fear and surprise through both the demons’ actions and the author’s experience.
Conclusion
Inconclusively, the horror genre aims to create shock and startle in its audience, as shown by the Body. Despite achieving the horror effects, the Body appears to have some nonsensical things, such as hearing voices from people the author fails to see and befriending people who hurt the author. Nevertheless, it incorporates themes such as suffering and devotion as literary works. It uses particular tones, such as malicious and mournful, to reflect the feeling of the demons and the author, respectively. Lastly, the Body fits in the horror genre as it incorporates components such as fear and surprise in its work.
Works Cited
Brown, Simon. Screening Stephen King: adaptation and the horror genre in film and television. The University of Texas Press, 2018.
Cook, Vivian. “Naming in the language of the street.” Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 15 (2018): 47-65.
Straub, Peter. Poe’s Children: The New Horror: an Anthology. Anchor, 2008.