The Lovely Dark

Alignment, Part One: Spiders (You can play this for a better reading experience) So if you, the citizens, maintain a healthy sense of dread, respect, you will secure a bulwark to protect the land and constitution, the like of which no other nation has, not the barbarous Scythians, nor in the heart of Pelops' land. For justice is the child of fear among all mortal men.          ~Antigone First, you have a dream.  A dream of empty air, s till and opaque.  A pressure that makes your ears ring, a n electricity that hums in your teeth.  A dream of being closed up, the air and the world and you, into a little box, which is tied with a little silk ribbon, and placed in a little cubby in a big room of haze and warm light. All the walls in this room are lined with little cubbies like the warrens of rabbits, and all the cubbies are filled with colorful things- sealed envelopes and glass bottles and little boxes tied with silk ribbons just like yours.  ...

Nobody Knows What A Monster Is — Because it's not about monsters. It's about monstrosity . Monstrosity is a mutual relationship between the audience and a presented object, and the monster is whatever is on the other side of that relationship. It could be a household pet, or a book of matches. It doesn't matter, only the presentation of it to the audience and the relationship they develop with it matters. A thing is not a monster unless the emotional narrative structure of monstrosity is constructed for it. Here are three storytelling tips. 1. The audience should be scared of the monster. This is the most fundamental element. Lots of things are frightening- being hunted by a clever pack of hungry wolves, being in proximity to someone with a grotesque and contagious disease, being lost in the dark. All of these experiences are also interwoven with different emotions- excitement, pity, guilt, disgust, confusion, so the relationship between the audience and the monster will be...