A Review by Paula Stiles
King, Stephen. Danse Macabre. New York: Berkley
Books, 1981. 437 pages.
If I had to choose one non-fiction book about horror (which
is silly, but go with me on this), Stephen King's Danse
Macabre would be my pick. Yeah, it's dated (almost 32 years old
now). No, I don't agree with everything he says, especially the part about
horror always being reactionary. Yes, he wrote it during his coked-up
days. Yeah, it's mostly limited to American and some English works (He really
loves Gothic horror).
But, for all its faults and limitations, Danse Macabre
is a very good, comprehensive overview of a very broad and messy genre -
horror. Even more important for me as a writer, it's an overview from the
viewpoint of a writer of horror. King gets more into the nitty-gritty of the
writing business in On Writing, which is sort of a sequel to Danse
Macabre crossed with a painfully honest autobiography, but, for
understanding the themes of writing horror, you really need to begin with Danse
Macabre. Danse Macabre is all about horror. If these two books were
the only two King ever wrote, he'd still be very well remembered in the genre,
indeed.
I want to point out that Danse Macabre, like Joseph
Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, works best if you don't
succumb to the author's persuasiveness and treat it like a bible that is the
end-all and be-all of discussions about horror. That way, you waste much less
time arguing with King about stuff you don't agree with him on and appreciate
the points he does make. For example, I don't agree with him at all that horror
is always reactionary and always ends with normality restored - though
I'm willing to forgive many of his dated attitudes just for his paean to Mary
Shelley, and her influence on the genre, alone. I think that reactionary type
is Hays Code-era horror that only applies these days to certain subgenres
(like, say, the slasher movie). I think it's entirely possible to write an
effective horror story that is subversive, progressive, and that ends with
everything a huge mess. Nor does the monster always have to die at the
end of the story.
However, what King does that is so useful to the horror
writer, budding or otherwise, he lays out early in the book in two chapters,
“Tales of the Hook” and “Tales of the Tarot.” The first chapter talks about
basic storylines and themes in horror, and what they mean, “inside” versus
“outside” horror, the Appollonian (logical) versus the Dionysian (chaotic,
id-like) conflict inside us, and so on. The second discusses character types – specifically,
monster types. King's idea is that of a Tarot deck that includes archetypes of
things we fear: the Ghost, the Thing without a Name, the Vampire, the Werewolf,
and the Bad Place. In talking about classic Gothic stories, King shows how most
horror falls into these archetypes. But I think my favorite of his many
summings up about horror is this one about the dreaded “bad end”: “Death is
when the monsters get you.”
I think one of the best things about Danse Macabre is
that King doesn't claim or pretend to know everything about horror. For all
that it's full of literary analysis, this is a very personal book, Appollonian
meeting Dionysian and having a big party. I guess that's why On Writing
works so well as an impromptu sequel, even though it has a very different
structure and approach. Danse Macabre is an important book about horror,
its history and its structures, that every horror writer should read.
But don't worry - it's still good, dark fun for all that.
Bio: Possessing a quixotic fondness for difficult careers, Paula Stiles
has driven ambulances, taught fish farming for the Peace Corps in West Africa
and earned a Scottish PhD in medieval history, studying Templars and
non-Christians in Spain. She is the author of horror novel, "The Mighty
Quinn,[http://www.amazon.com/The-Mighty-Quinn-ebook/dp/B009IB98C8/]"
co-written supernatural mystery novels, "Fraterfamilias
[http://www.amazon.com/Fraterfamilias-ebook/dp/B004FV501Y/]" and the
upcoming “Confraternitas,” and non-fiction medieval history book, "Templar
Convivencia: Templars and Their Associates in 12th and 13th Century Iberia
[http://www.amazon.com/Templar-Convivencia-Templars-Associates-ebook/dp/B008CXB038/]."
She is Editor in Chief of the Lovecraft/Mythos 'zine/micropress Innsmouth Free
Press [www.innsmouthfreepress.com]. You can find her at: http://thesnowleopard.net.
