I say, this is rather horrifying; Or: Cthulhu!

I knew, of course, that H. P. Lovecraft was responsible for Cthulhu. I first encountered Cthulhu via those adorable little plush stuffed dolls they have at various gaming stores. As a side note, this may have not been the best foundation for viewing At the Mountains of Madness in the proper way. I did not realize, though, that Cthulhu appeared so prominently in many of Lovecraft's works, and I did not expect to encounter him/it? on my first foray into his canon. Imagine my surprise and delight!

I wish that I could say that The Shining had brought an equally lovely surprise, but alas, I cannot. This is another one that really did nothing for me. I think I started off a bit on the wrong foot, and I can't really blame Stephen King for that. After so many books that you read at least in part for the prose/language, I entered this one and found it jarring. No one should read Stephen King for his prose, end of story, and the sooner you get comfortable breezing through his works the better.

That said, I don't think that horror is my genre. I'm not saying that these stories aren't scary, I just didn't find them to be scary. I think a lot of that has to do with ones desire, though, to find them terrifying. You can enter and decide you won't be scared, and by and large you won't. I'm not willing to let horror into my life in that way, so these don't do much for me.

I don't think horror ever really had the right impact on me, even as a child. I was rather a morbid child. I always loved Hansel and Gretel, and I had a fascination for the weird parts of E.T. At the same time, I never could handle Miles and Otis or that Winnie-the-Pooh with the bird. For whatever reason, I enjoyed the Charlie Brown where the little girl gets leukemia, but I could not handle Snoopy Come Home. Now, in my defense, the little girl goes into remission and her hair grows back! That story has a happy ending! And do not tell me that the bird flies back and Snoopy comes home. I do not want to hear anything about those stories and I am not listening.