He trots down the hall of our building with confidence on these walks, occasionally looking up at me to mew a brief word of encouragement as we pass other units. We almost never see anyone else during these walks, though we occasionally encounter a little dog named Cleo. It would be clear to anyone who witnessed their tentative interactions that Cleo and Hudson are in love. It is the Cutest Thing Ever, along with a dozen other things our cats do.
On an entirely separate note, I had a fantastic time playing Dead Space. I'm generally not comfortable saying any given thing or kind of thing is my "favorite" of those things, but tonight I feel like I can go out on a limb and say that horror games fit the bill. The upcoming week of Dudemas presents the annually unique opportunity to turn my condo into a black box and totally submerge myself into a 65" video world of terror, surround-sound and all. I spent my first Dudemas doing just that with Fatal Frame 2 -- almost certainly the scariest game ever made -- on the original Xbox. I'm not sure there's anything quite on par with those two titles that I can play next week. I've heard decent-if-not-glowing reviews of the most recent Silent Hill offering, so I'm considering giving that a try.
I've tried to get friends on board the scary-train but have had not really had much luck. I have a theory that my more creative and imaginitave friends are averse to horror because it affects them deeply in what they feel is an unpleasant, squishy manner. My less imaginitave friends just don't get scared, so the whole point is lost on them. For me there's just nothing more visceral than getting the crap scared out of me. It's the definition of a thrill -- the mind balancing the terror of an immediately present, unthinkably horrible outcome against the absolute secure knowledge that you are just playing a game or watching a movie and nothing can hurt you at all. While I have a tremendous appetite for that feeling, I can grudgingly accept that it's not for everyone. I happen to hate cilantro, for instance, but if someone I know is a fan of its dishwashing-soap bouquet I'm not going to hold it against them.
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3 comments:
Ah, yes, this dissociation you speak of (contemplating or experiencing fear, but at the same time knowing you are in fact safe) is a key ability that seems to be common.
I myself do not have this; to watch a scary movie is to in fact BE experiencing the horrible events in the movie (as unpleasant for me as it is for the protagonists - clearly nonrecreational) or to be not engaged at all; I can't do that balancing act you seem to enjoy so...
I don't think I've ever consciously done it, to be clear. I think being scared is either fun or it isn't.
Is it really that real to you though? Is the terror you feel when seeing something awful on a television screen the equivalent of what you feel when it happens in reality? Is it more accurate to call it "too close for comfort"?
It's actually worse, generally, because when I've experienced fear in real life it's been physical-danger-fear - and that always seems somehow manageable. There's something that can be done about it, and time spent being scared is better spent doing that thing.
Horror film type things, seem to be uncanny (look up the real etymology of that one) and...yes, I experience the same feelings as if I were seeing them for real, none of which is pleasant...
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