Dark & Twisty

The Danse Macbre is an enjoyable book.  By now it is a bit outdated and could use a second edition to look at trends that emerged in the world of horror since 1981.  The book is an omnibus.  It covers film, books, comic books, television, and even radio. 

One of the things that I learned from this book is what a following horror had on the radio.  I didnt realize that happened.  I had heard of the famous War of the Worlds broadcast by Orson Wells, but there were Twilight Zone like shows even on the radio.

King is a modern American product.  He does not treat the genre of horror with too much academic mumbo-jumbo.  I'm not saying that horror does not deserve that kind of scurtiny, but there are somethings that academics sometimes miss about why literature and writing works.  I speak as an academic not only of literature (thanks to Seton Hill University's program on writing pop fiction) but as a social scientist who has researched some academic fields as humor.  Something gets lost when we analyze things too much with too narrow of a microscope.  King has been quoted earlier in his career as saying that he is the literary equivilent of a Big Mac and Fries.  He is at least a Whooper by now, but brought that mentality to  this rather academic look at horror.

This book was written for the common man, not necessarily for the person studying horror or writing.  This is why the book works so well.  He also gave the wonderful lists at the end of his favorite books and movies in the genre at the time of writing.  This is a wonderful guide to learning what is good and works in horror.  I've since reading this watched some of the films.  (I've had limited time for reading currently).

All in all, The Danse Macbre was fun to read but gave something to learn as well.  It may be the fastest nonfiction book I've ever read.