The "Ick" Factor

I read and (try to) write scary stories. I'm very specific about what I like to read, and what I'm trying to do with my own work. I want a good, scary, even creepy, ghost story with a reasonable amount of chills and if possible, a nice ending. And there are ghost stories out there besides mine that have nice endings, so I know it's not just me.

Horror stories, on the other hand, sometimes include something I refer to as the "ick" factor. What is that, you might ask? Let me explain it this way. Have you ever read a story or a novel, be it supernatural, horror, murder mystery, thriller, or other suspenseful fiction, that hit you in a way that made you wish that your brain could take a shower? That would be the ick factor.

There are writers who have made entire careers out of it. Read enough Edgar Allen Poe and you'll be wishing for an industrial-strength brain laundromat. I know, because I've done it: that is, read an entire collection of Poe without interruption. Nothing like reading hours of him nonstop to get that cringe-y feeling around the edges of the mind. Or maybe even dead center.

Maybe a more correct way of saying it is to call these stories as "disturbing." I'm sure everyone reading this post has hit one, two, or lots more of those sorts of tales during your reading adventures. For a real novel-length experience, Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home comes to mind. I know people who absolutely love the book, and on the surface, why not? It's set in New England in the fall and full of festivals, pumpkins, scarecrows, and straw. Very atmospheric. Until it all goes really wrong for the protagonist and I mean WRONG. I guess I shouldn't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet and would like to, but let's just say the book put me right off of small town living for years. Maybe even still. There are times Jim and I are on a road trip and when we drive through certain towns, I think of Harvest Home.

Hannibal Lector, on the other hand, made me want to scrub my brain with Pine Sol. I know people who love him as a character, too. I watched the movie Manhunter (the original with William Peterson and Brian Cox) and that was enough for me. I tried reading Red Dragon and gave it up pretty early into it. I didn't like having Dr. Lector hanging around in my brain, lurking around the corners of my thoughts and popping up unexpectedly in nasty ways.

And there is the crux of it, for me. I have a hard enough time reading stories like that. The idea of writing a story like that is entirely beyond my boundaries. Writing for me -and I'm sure it's true for all writers- means living with my characters, frequently on a twenty-four-seven basis. Would I want someone like Lector on my mind twenty-four-seven? There is no way I could do that. No way I would want to do that. So I can't write stories with an ick factor. I just can't.

Stephen King skirts the edge of it very well. He once said that if he couldn't scare his readers, he would be fine hitting them with "the gross-out." And yes, he certainly does that from time to time. (Short story "The Mangler" comes to mind.) Yet even with that kind of gore, to me he still manages to avoid that level of disturbing that makes me cringe and slink away. I don't know how he does it, but he does.

I can't imagine, and I'm really not interested in trying, writing an entire novel around a thoroughly reprehensible, repulsive character or situation. I hand it to those authors who can because it brings a quality to their writing that I can never have. On the other hand, I sometimes wonder what is going through their heads at any given moment. I trust I would not pick any of those writers for trying a Vulcan mind-meld. No thank you.

Maybe you are the kind of reader who doesn't mind, or even likes, that certain quality in your fiction. Your taste is a wider palette than mine will ever be and that's probably a good thing. I just know I can't do it myself, because disturbing stays with you forever, whether as a reader or a writer. 

And that's not just in straight paranormal or even horror.

Deliverance, anyone?