On Writing Horror: The Art of Madness or the Madness of Art
aJoyce Carol Oates is a strange combination. She is both literary and genre writer. Yet, with this going on, she is not shunned by either one. This is a strange place to be in the literary world. Not only does she span both literary ideas, she does so unabashedly. She doesn’t mind people knowing that she writes genre fiction. So who better to write an essay on the madness of art?
Oates in her essay actually never calls herself a “horror” writer. She calls her horror fiction gothic. The thing is that Gothic is not a genre in its own right. Many different genres including literary can have a gothic theme or feel. It is really a theme more than a specific genre. So in her own way, Oates is denying that she is a genre writer. Is she then ashamed of writing a genre?
Oates doesn’t seem to be embarrassed of her genre writing. She really explains that all writing is commercial, which seems to be new vogue word for genre writing, but some isn’t as commercial as others. She seems to believe the most important part of writing isn’t the genre but the story itself.
All writing is madness. For that matter, as Henry James said, all art is madness. When you get to the bones of it, creating a work of art either: portrait, story, or song the creator relies on insanity. We (and by this I mean the artist, writers in our case) listen to the voices in their heads. A symptom of psychosis is hallucinations. A hallucination is the perception of a stimulus when none is present. Writers and musicians rely on this voice. They even talk about in critique compositions. “I can really hear your voice in this piece.” A writer does not actually use her voice when writing. She uses a voice in her head that is right for the story. The songwriter and musician do the same thing. So, a writer creates from a sense of madness.
So does that make all artists clinically insane? Oates doesn’t think so, nor do I. Mental illness, especially those with psychotic features, aren’t cognitively processing enough during times of “insanity” to writer or compose anything near lucid. What Oates means is there is madness in what an artist does. She spans two separate literary worlds than do not care too much for each other. Literary writers consider genre writers hacks, and genre writers think that literary writers are hoity-toity. She’s crazy for trying to be both. Beyond that, writers are crazy are in general. They write a story that is completely made up. The characters are not real people even if they are based on a real person. The plot is contrived even the settings are just matte paintings sometimes of familiar things, sometimes of fantastic creations. The writer sets everything up and makes it move to the music in her own head. She gives the whole shebang a voice that is not necessarily her own but one residing in her frontal lobe. Then to do the ultimate form of insanity, she tries to put it on display for “sane” people to see and deal with.
Henry James as quoted by Oates said that art is mad. Of course it is and the artists are even madder for making it.
I can say this, for maybe the first time ever that I’m happy to be a little off because I love writing. If writing is crazy, lock me up in the state hospital. I’ll even tell you how to do the commitment.
