Isn’t this opposed to Lovecraft’s claim that nothing he could describe would be as scary as the unknown / the reader’s fears?
As well, there are a lot of shock pictures out there that were worse than what I could imagine before having seen them, and looking at them is worse than remembering them. If “worse” refers to subjective experience, then it seems obvious that closing your eyes can help.
As well, there are a lot of shock pictures out there that were worse than what I could imagine before having seen them, and looking at them is worse than remembering them.
Care to name an example? I’ve been so desensitized, I think the worst any picture could do for me is to be somewhat depressing. Lovecraft, however, is still horrifying.
You actually find Lovecraft horrifying? I read a bit (color out of space, a short about ancient lizard people being wiped out by a vengeful god, and a bunch of descriptions) and found it peculiar and sad, but not horrifying. Too much Poe as a baby, I guess.
Lovecraft directly taps into my own madness and fears. He is psychologically quite similar to me and manages to actually express how bad xenophobia and the utter indifference of the cosmos feel. Worst of all, his more madness-focused stories like The Dreams in the Witch-House directly remind me of my own periods of insanity and paranoia. So it’s really horrifying through its realism, at least for a certain kind of person.
(And he is the only one I know who does that, though I’m (intentionally) not very familiar with some related authors like Ligotti.)
Plus, violations of the natural order are much worse than anything in traditional horror. A color that doesn’t fit in the light spectrum is more terrifying and disgusting to me than serial killers, torture or 2girls1cup. Not sure I can explain that one.
This reminds me of an experiment I’ve wanted to do for some time, but don’t have the necessary equipment for. I’d love to see it tested by someone who do.
Take multiple light sources each shining in only one frequency, that can be dimmed, in specific triplets. Quickly eyeballing it I’d suggest [420nm, 550nm, 600nm] and [460nm, 500nm, 570nm].
using a normal white light source as a reference, first adjust the relative intensity of each triplet so the combined light appears white, then scale the combined light (probably by simply altering the distance) to the same intensity.
Both lights should now appear identical. if they don’t make further minor adjustments.
Look at them side by side, until you can see the colour out of space. :)
rot13 hint url: UGGC://RA.JVXVCRQVN.BET/JVXV/SVYR:PBAR-ERFCBAFR.FIT
Same here, though I do enjoy (some of) Lovecraft’s writing. I just don’t find it as frightening as he apparently did. When I was little, Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher and Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains literally gave me nightmares for weeks, so I must have developed some powerful mental antibodies.
I do not have a very visual imagination, and so find it easy to forget the details of disturbing pictures, even if I saw them moments ago (forget meaning not be able to recreate in my mind, rather than not be able to recognize). Of the time when I was frequenting 4chan, I think my least favorite picture was ybghf gvg.
This reminds me of Lojban, in which the constructs meaning “good” and “bad” encourage you to specify a metric. It is still possible to say that something is “worse” without providing any detail, but I suspect most Lojban speakers would remember to provide detail if there was a chance of confusion.
Isn’t this opposed to Lovecraft’s claim that nothing he could describe would be as scary as the unknown / the reader’s fears?
As well, there are a lot of shock pictures out there that were worse than what I could imagine before having seen them, and looking at them is worse than remembering them. If “worse” refers to subjective experience, then it seems obvious that closing your eyes can help.
Care to name an example? I’ve been so desensitized, I think the worst any picture could do for me is to be somewhat depressing. Lovecraft, however, is still horrifying.
You actually find Lovecraft horrifying? I read a bit (color out of space, a short about ancient lizard people being wiped out by a vengeful god, and a bunch of descriptions) and found it peculiar and sad, but not horrifying. Too much Poe as a baby, I guess.
Lovecraft directly taps into my own madness and fears. He is psychologically quite similar to me and manages to actually express how bad xenophobia and the utter indifference of the cosmos feel. Worst of all, his more madness-focused stories like The Dreams in the Witch-House directly remind me of my own periods of insanity and paranoia. So it’s really horrifying through its realism, at least for a certain kind of person.
(And he is the only one I know who does that, though I’m (intentionally) not very familiar with some related authors like Ligotti.)
Plus, violations of the natural order are much worse than anything in traditional horror. A color that doesn’t fit in the light spectrum is more terrifying and disgusting to me than serial killers, torture or 2girls1cup. Not sure I can explain that one.
Pfft. Even magenta doesn’t fit in the light spectrum. Are you terrified yet? :)
Good point. No wonder it has such a negative association.
This reminds me of an experiment I’ve wanted to do for some time, but don’t have the necessary equipment for. I’d love to see it tested by someone who do.
Take multiple light sources each shining in only one frequency, that can be dimmed, in specific triplets. Quickly eyeballing it I’d suggest [420nm, 550nm, 600nm] and [460nm, 500nm, 570nm]. using a normal white light source as a reference, first adjust the relative intensity of each triplet so the combined light appears white, then scale the combined light (probably by simply altering the distance) to the same intensity. Both lights should now appear identical. if they don’t make further minor adjustments. Look at them side by side, until you can see the colour out of space. :)
rot13 hint url: UGGC://RA.JVXVCRQVN.BET/JVXV/SVYR:PBAR-ERFCBAFR.FIT
Why do you want to do this?
Because seeing tetracromaticaly would be awesome, even if it’s only possible in contrived settings.
Do you expect that setup to feel much different than say, putting florescent and incandescent bulbs next to each other?
I think you need some special equipment to actually see tetrachromatically: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Possibility_of_human_tetrachromats
My neurology intuition has proven useful in the past, and I trust it a lot more than that wikipedia article.
Same here, though I do enjoy (some of) Lovecraft’s writing. I just don’t find it as frightening as he apparently did. When I was little, Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher and Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains literally gave me nightmares for weeks, so I must have developed some powerful mental antibodies.
Please don’t taunt the basilisk.
Or just appropriately encode the text/label the link/add appropriate warnings?
I do not have a very visual imagination, and so find it easy to forget the details of disturbing pictures, even if I saw them moments ago (forget meaning not be able to recreate in my mind, rather than not be able to recognize). Of the time when I was frequenting 4chan, I think my least favorite picture was ybghf gvg.
Search Google Images for “teratoma”.
As always when we hear the word “worse”, we need to ask ourselves, “worse on what metric?”
This reminds me of Lojban, in which the constructs meaning “good” and “bad” encourage you to specify a metric. It is still possible to say that something is “worse” without providing any detail, but I suspect most Lojban speakers would remember to provide detail if there was a chance of confusion.