Reading List #33: The Fear Edition (Patreon)

Happy October, folks. Here are eight spooky reads you may be interested in. The theme of this reading list is fear. Fear of reality, fear of fiction, and the nature of fear itself. 

Also as a bonus, leave a comment telling me your biggest fear. Mine is a brain aneurysm. You can check out how your fears measure up to other Americans with this study by Chapman University. 

1) Why Do We Like Watching Scary Films? (Mark D. Griffiths Ph.D.)

I personally love scary movies for the same reason I enjoy nightmares-- because they make real life seem a bit more tame and bearable. But is there ever such a thing as liking horror movies a little too much? Apparently, there are tons of different theories about different kinds of horror viewers. 

“The four viewing motivations are found to be related to viewers’ cognitive and affective responses to horror films, as well as viewers’ tendency to identify with either the killers or victims in these films." More specifically, she reported that (i) gore watchers typically had low empathy, high sensation seeking, and [among males only] a strong identification with the killer, (ii) thrill watchers typically had both high empathy and sensation seeking, identified themselves more with the victims, and liked the suspense of the film, (iii) independent watchers typically had a high empathy for the victim along with a high positive effect for overcoming fear, and (iv) problem watchers typically had high empathy for the victim but were characterized by negative affect (particularly a sense of helplessness).

Read Length: Short

Related: Why We Love to Be Scared (Erin Blakemoore)

2) The Threat of a Post-Roe America Is Already Changing How Women Get Abortions (Nina Liss Schultz) 

It was just announced that the conservative-majority Supreme Court will be deciding on a law proposed by Lousiana that requires any doctor performing an abortion to have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital. This law is basically the same as a Texas law struck down in 2016. As noted by NPR, "Louisiana has conceded that its law is virtually identical to the Texas law. The difference between then and now is that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the decisive fifth vote in the 2016 Texas case, has retired and been replaced by Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh, who has indicated his willingness to undermine or discard the 2016 decision. These are the initial steps towards the complete reversal of Roe vs Wade. An article published by Mother Jones breaks down how women are already impacted by tightening abortion restrictions and compounds my fears about the future of women's rights. 

"A flourishing world of underground abortion has also emerged, allowing women to bypass the clinic altogether. Some women are teaching each other at-home procedures. Many more are turning to the internet, where a handful of suppliers have jumped into the market to send abortion pills straight to women’s homes. The pills, misoprostol and mifepristone, are a highly effective and safe combination that clinics have prescribed for early abortions for almost two decades."

Read Length: Short

3) Fear and Anxiety Drive Conservatives' Political Attitudes (Bobby Azarian Ph.D.)

If anybody should be called #TriggeredSnowflakes, it's conservative Americans. 

U"sing MRI, scientists from University College London have found that students who identify themselves as conservatives have a larger amygdala than self-described liberals. This brain structure is involved in emotion processing, and it's especially reactive to fearful stimuli. It is possible that an oversized amygdala could create a heightened sensitivity that may cause one to habitually overreact to anything that appears to be a potential threat, whether it actually is one or not."

Read Length: Short

4) A Feminist Perspective on the History of Women as Witches (Maggie Rosen) 

It seems completely crazy that hundreds of years ago, women (mostly) were rounded up and accused of being witches, foul sluts who had mingled with the devil and committed themselves to cause chaos and destruction. As Maggie Rosen discusses in this paper, clearly this was all rooted in misogyny and the fear of feminism before feminism even had a name. 

Read Length: Long

5) What People Actually Say Before They Die (Michael Erard) 

A lot, if not most people, fear death rather than accepting it as an inevitability. But what I find interesting is that on average, we are living longer lives than ever before, and usually dying of health issues, not of sudden injuries or illnesses that don't allow us private moments with loved ones. Because of that, there is a whole new world of communication at death's door. What fears and understanding swim to the surface when people are about to die? What can we learn from an analysis of last words? This article was fantastic. 

"To the surprise of his family members, the lifelong atheist also began hallucinating angels and complaining about the crowded room—even though no one was there. Felix’s 53-year-old daughter, Lisa Smartt, kept track of his utterances, writing them down as she sat at his bedside in those final days."

Read Length: Medium

6) The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies (Mike Mariani) 

If you know me, you know that zombie horror is probably my favorite genre in fiction, second only to historical fiction. The collapse of civilization after zombie outbreaks is my prime interest, but I have also been intrigued by the concept of mass infection and the loss of self-control. This article breaks down the history of zombie lore, pinpointing it's beginning as Haitian slave's fear of being enslaved forever. 

"But the zombie myth is far older and more rooted in history than the blinkered arc of American pop culture suggests. It first appeared in Haiti in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the country was known as Saint-Domingue and ruled by France, which hauled in African slaves to work on sugar plantations. Slavery in Saint-Domingue under the French was extremely brutal: Half of the slaves brought in from Africa were worked to death within a few years, which only led to the capture and import of more. In the hundreds of years since, the zombie myth has been widely appropriated by American pop culture in a way that whitewashes its origins—and turns the undead into a platform for escapist fantasy."

"The original brains-eating fiend was a slave not to the flesh of others but to his own. The zombie archetype, as it appeared in Haiti and mirrored the inhumanity that existed there from 1625 to around 1800, was a projection of the African slaves’ relentless misery and subjugation. Haitian slaves believed that dying would release them back to lan guinée, literally Guinea, or Africa in general, a kind of afterlife where they could be free. Though suicide was common among slaves, those who took their own lives wouldn’t be allowed to return to lan guinée. Instead, they’d be condemned to skulk the Hispaniola plantations for eternity, an undead slave at once denied their own bodies and yet trapped inside them—a soulless zombie."

Read Length: Short

7) Korean Rap and the Politics of the Body: Developments in South Korean Feminism (Zammataro)

While anti-feminist "men's rights" groups are big in western culture and only growing in support, this fear of female empowerment and progress also exists in Asia. 

"As young women in South Korea used feminism to forge a new movement, the cultural landscape of the country began to change in reaction. The feminist novel Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, by Nam-Joo Cho, published in 2016, started to gain attention online in 2017. By 2018, president Moon Jae-In received the book from a progressive member of Congress, thereby catapulting the book to the best-seller list, with plans for a movie version this year. But at the same time, K-pop star Irene, from the group Red Velvet, was severely criticized by male fans after she declared to have read the book. Critics burned her pictures, spouting diatribes about how feminists don’t belong in K-pop. "

Read Length: Medium 

Related: South Korea's young men are fighting against feminism 

8) Why Do People Believe in Ghosts? (Tiffanie Wen)

I used to believe in ghosts. But somewhere along the line, I realized that I was probably hallucinating or breathing toxic mold. I'm still kind of on the fence because people have some frightening and realistic anecdotes, but for the most part, I'm leaning towards "our minds like to play tricks on us". 

According to French, hallucinations are more common among the general population than most people realize, and are sometimes wrongly interpreted as ghosts. He points to sleep paralysis—a phenomenon that occurs when someone wakes up while still in the dream-inducing REM stage of sleep, in which your body is paralyzed— as one example. Studies have shown that around 30 to 40 percent of people have experienced sleep paralysis at least once in their lives, with about five percent of participants reporting visual and audio hallucinations, including the presence of monstrous figures, and difficulty breathing.

Read Length: Short