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Against Everyone with Conner Habib

AEWCH 233: NATHAN BALLINGRUD & SARA GRAN on THE DELIGHT & CRUELTY OF HORROR

Against Everyone with Conner Habib

Against Everyone With Conner Habib

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.8699 Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2023

⏱️ 122 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this second episode on a series on horror, I talk with masters of the genre Sara Gran (Come Closer, The Book of the Most Precious Substance) and Nathan Ballingrud (North American Lake Monsters, The Strange) about creating forceful and frightening art, the fear of not knowing the truth (and the fear of investigating), why horror films scare us in a different way than horror novels/stories, and more.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I am an adversary to my fans.

0:03.0

I hate the word fans.

0:04.0

To my readers.

0:05.0

I'm their adversary.

0:06.0

I'm not there to make them feel good.

0:08.0

I'm not there to win their approbation.

0:09.0

I don't give a damn whether they love me.

0:11.0

What I want is for the work to go at them and savage them.

0:14.0

I want my work to come at them and attack them.

0:16.0

I want my work to leave them with some feeling that they have been through an experience.

0:21.2

That's what I want.

0:22.6

When someone buys your book, that's what they get for the money.

0:26.2

They don't get a PCU.

0:27.9

That was the late, great, multi-genre author Harlan Ellison.

0:33.8

And this is against everyone with Connor Abeeb.

0:38.1

So Harlan Ellison there is talking about why the relationship between the artist and the audience

0:45.1

isn't necessarily one of care.

0:47.8

In fact, he wants to scare the audience, to savage them, to brutalize them, to almost punish,

0:55.0

to terrify, and to shock. And in some ways, I couldn't agree more.

0:59.0

Horror, which is the topic of the series of episodes we're in right now, for a long time,

1:06.0

has challenged the idea that the best experience for us as readers or viewers is to learn a lesson

1:14.5

or to feel comforted or to feel hope. Horror offers a different sort of experience because it is a

...

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