1. Sci Fi / Fantasy Lit October 28, 2013
Hello and welcome and Happy Tuesday.
Please get out a blank sheet of paper for notes.
Today’s agenda:
Horror quickwrite
“What makes things creepy?”
Creepypasta and “Candle Cove”
Tropes
Formative Assessment

2. I. Horror Quickwrite
Today we will be beginning the Horror unit. Before we begin, I want you to think about the concept of horror through a quickwrite.
Write your definition of horror.
What are some things that horrify you?

3. II. Elements of Horror
YouTuber Michael Stevens (AKA Vsauce) does a pretty great job explaining why creepy things are creepy in his video “Why Are Things Creepy?”
As we view this video, follow along with your notes. Pay close attention to his explanation of the following terms and how they help explain “the creeps”:
Vagueness / ambiguity
The uncanny valley
Cognitive dissonance

4. II. Elements of horror
How does Vsauce define these elements of horror?
Vagueness / ambiguity
The uncanny valley
Cognitive dissonance
Now, just so we are clear, these elements are only reasons we readers/viewers think things are scary. In order to achieve horror, writers/filmmakers use certain literary devices, which we will discuss today.

5. Terms to Remember
Cognitive Dissonance- is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.
Ambiguity-Uncertainty or inexactness
Vagueness- not clear or distinct to the sight or any other sense; perceptible or recognizable only in an indefinite way
The Uncanny: The opposite of what is familiar. It is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be both familiar yet alien at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.
Motif: a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition.

6. II. Elements of horror
As we view the horror short “Lights Out”, try to determine what element(s) of horror the filmmaker is using.

7. III. Tropes
A trope is a common or overused theme or device in fiction.
See also: cliché.
Authors use tropes to advance the plot of a story as well as play with reader expectations.
Here are some examples…

9. III. Tropes
Watch this famous scene from Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982).
What tropes can you identify in this scene?
Choose one trope. What is horrific about it?

10. “Candle Cove” This is a work of Creepypasta by author Kris Straub.
Creepypasta is a genre of horror short fiction shared in s, on blogs, or in online forums. Often brief, user-generated ghost or alien stories intended to scare readers. They include gruesome tales of murder, suicide, and otherworldly occurrences.
In the mainstream media, creepypastas relating to the fictitious Slender Man character came to public attention after the 2014 "Slender Man stabbing", in which a twelve-year-old girl from Waukesha, WI was stabbed by two of her friends; the perpetrators claimed they "wanted to prove the [Slender Man] skeptics" wrong. After the murder attempt, some creepypasta website administrators made statements reminding readers of the "line between fiction and reality“
While this is a work of fiction, it has taken on a life of its own as an urban legend.
Before reading:

11. “Candle Cove”
Before reading: What do you notice about how the story is structured?
While reading: Annotate the story for examples of tropes the author uses.

12. Tropes in “Candle Cove”
After reading “Candle Cove” write an ACE paragraph in which you:
Answer: Identify a trope Kris Straub uses.
Cite an example of that trope from the text.
Explain how that trope creates horror in the story.