Many people are fond of horror stories and so am I. There are many well-written texts on this theme and I would definitely encourage you to read some of them. Horror stories are not only to describe how a person was killed or how haunted a castle was. It is much more than that. It is a way of showing how we humans behave when facing the unknown, when facing what we fear the most and the psychological aspects these situations involve.
My favorites stories are the ones by Stephen King, such as “Christine” (which I am rereading after 20 years) and Edgar Alan Poe with his “The Raven” (see it HERE with great Vincent Price) and “The black cat”. Poe and King are masters of mistery and suspense!
[ENJOY THE LINKS PROVIDED]
To me, King is more modern and sadistic than Poe as the latter is more classical and subtle. There might be disagreement on that point and you yourself may be frowning and shivering right now. As I came to know King long before I first read Poe I am much more enthusiastic about King at the moment.
I am an English teacher and I have used some of Poe’s texts in my classes. The last book I chose to work with my students was a collection of short stories called “American Horror” (not American Horror Story, but who knows its origins and background?) . It is a set of three terrifying tales that portrays Poe at his best! The stories are: “The black cat”, “The oval portrait” and the astonishing “The tell-tale heart“!
Both Poe and King belong to a literary genre long hated by many people, mostly by the ones who love cheesy love stories. But little they know those two writers contributed a lot to literature as an art. Many movies and plays have been written based on their ideas and so music and other stories.
As for the first assignment my students had to read and discuss Poe’s “The black cat” and as they lack some English grammar structure I wrote a poem to help them understand the story. The poem brings an analogy of the story and th seven deadly sins, which makes sense to me! Feel free to disagree and to criticize it, if you will, but please, let me know what you think!
The black seven
Love, money, prison, crime
Family and friends were all there
Wealth, richness, all the time
the beginning of my nightmare
–
Cause wine is pool for evil, all
A tamed cat behind the door
A jealous husband, a loved wife
Brings up the death, love no more
–
A hollowed eye was taken out
and evil is done, that’s my role
destroy the animal, now I shout
my fate I feel the gallows pole
–
fire, wind, death, destruction
for suffering has no name
a cat, a man, ablaze, emotion
now poor and rich are all the same
–
the pub and friends and fun and beer
an eye, a cat, a mark between
a host, a wife, a feeling, fear
an axe, a cellar, an assassin
–
I cry in pain, death, perverseness
I killed, Oh, sin!, I’ve lost my life
A man once rich, now rot in loneliness
you now lay dead, my dearest wife
–
Oh cat! the witch, perverse: I felt
you built a bridge for my mistake
I killed, I died, in prison I melt
I suffer, I cry, my life you take!