Originally Posted by yellowish haze (Post 13147)

marx_1, Ligeia, so far your reaction to this subject is just like mine. "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and Gilman's "The Yellow Paper" are great examples, btw.

However, apparently there is a belief among some groups of critics and readers of horror literature that the element which distinguishes horror from other genres such as drama, psychological drama, suspense and thriller is the element of the supernatural.

This means that such books as "The Trial" by Kafka or "Psycho" by Bloch and countless other novels, short stories you may have considered as part of the genre are not horror. I wonder what is your reaction to such theory.

Originally Posted by wilum hopfrog pugmire, es (Post 15426)

"Supernatural horror" is dark phantasy that depicts scenes outside of reality. I often write tales of what I call "the impossible narrative," first-person narrative tales told by a person who dies at the end of the story. This is pure phantasy, for such a tale could never be "told".

Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals (Post 15438)

To my mind, the finest examples of "the impossible narrative" absolutely must include James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice and Billy Wilder's film Sunset Boulevard.