fragment

''naturally we cannot expect all weird tales to conform absolutely to any theoretical model. creative minds are uneven and the best of fabrics have their dull spots... moreover, much of the choicest weird work is unconscious; appearing in memorable fragments scattered through material whose massed effect may be of a very different cast... therefore we must judge a weird tale... by the emotional level which it attains at its least mundane point... if the proper sensations are excited, such a "high spot" must be admited on its own merits as weird literature,''

h.p.lovecraft, super natural horror in literature.



''there is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. he wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. in the dark the fear of an unexpected touch can mount to panic.

''even clothes give insufficient security. it is easy to tear them and pierce through to the naked, smooth defenceless flesh of the victim. all the distances men create around themselves are dictated by this fear. they shut themselves in houses which no-one may enter, and only there feel some measure of security. the fear of burglers is not only the fear of being robbed, but also the fear of a sudden and unexpected clutch out of the darkness. ...

''the whole knot of shifting and intensely sensitive reactions to an alien touch--proves that we are dealing here with a human propensity as deep seated as it is alert and insidious; something which never leaves a man when he has once established the boundaries of his personality. even in sleep, when he is far more unguarded, he can all too easily be disturbed by touch.

elias canetti, crowds and power; english by carol stewart.