Why We Crave Horror, By Stephen King

Paranoia has always been an enemy to me in the darkness. This irrational fear has accounted for many sleepless nights, and horror only fuels the fire. Yet, I am still captivated by something that produces such unpleasant results. The culprit just might be one thing-- the characteristics, events, and situations that humans all share that are the ingredients to what makes things such as emotions and ambitions exist; otherwise known as the human condition. Based on these two notions, it is safe to say that in the article “Why We Crave Horror,” Stephen King is correct in claiming that humans crave horror to display some sort of bravery, to reassure feelings of normality, and simply for the fun of it.
Humans have this bizarre characteristic that

After reading or watching horror, the emotion produced from this action is similar to that of someone who just finished watching a documentary on absurdly lazy adults, thinking “at least I’m not like them,” and by doing so, we re-establish our normality in our behaviors or positions. “Strawberry Springs,” another piece of work from King, does an exceptional job in fulfilling this reason for craving horror. The short story depicts the mystery of serial murders of college students on their campus, all in the perspective of Springheel Jack. Springheel Jack was a normal student like the most of us, and we all relate to him in many other ways. What re-establishes our normality is that, hopefully, we don’t go around killing our classmates like he did. Furthermore, he was not even aware of the shadow that followed him, as he had forgotten of his whereabouts the night before, pleading that he was “with another woman,”(King, “Strawberry Spring” 5) as his wife suspected he was, rather than have killed someone, even if both situations would end in a divorce. By reading “Strawberry Springs” one may feel a sense of relief that they’re not dead, that they don’t live on a campus with a serial killer on the loose, or especially, that they are not unknowingly killing their classmates-- and all of this leads up to the fact that “no matter

After all, horror almost always has someone dying involved, and yet we seek what we fear for the fun of it. For example, despite the vivid descriptions of the murders of the campus women in “Strawberry Spring,” such as “they found part of her in the back seat and part of her in the trunk,” (King, Strawberry Spring 4) we end up craving for more for satisfaction and for a thrill. Moreover, even though “sanity becomes a matter of degree,” (King, “Why We Crave” 2) we can all agree that those of us on the lighter degrees still find amusement in horror. Horror allows our “emotional muscles” to “let loose to scream and roll around in the grass,” (King, “Why We Crave” 2)-- and I think that's a good thing. Otherwise, like the few on the harsher degrees, we would be using our physical muscles to tear each other apart, and that would just ruin the fun for the most of us, wouldn't