Dissonance

[kestrell]

It is almost impossible for me to read about the music of "The Wicker Man" while listening to New Orleans jazz. I had noticed the same dissonance while trying to read a British ghost story which was heavy on atmosphere.

Comments

[negothick]

So read Poppy Z. Brite instead, if you want great New Orleans horror. Or Anne Rice, for less great New Orleans horror.

[kestrell]

But I already read all but one of PZ's books (the only one left is the post-Katrina book).

And I think I have read about all the Anne Rice I am going to.

I am now working on noir fiction set in New Orleans, but I was cross-referencing in my Gothic directory of etexts and came across a collection of academic articles on music in horror. If you ever teach a class in this area, I have a large. amount of academic articles on the subject...

[negothick]

Oh--forgive me for reading too quickly: I didn't realize at first that you were reading non-fiction about music in horror.
Did one of the articles mention the divide between traditional music fans (like the writer of Wicker Man or Charles de Lint and the other "dark fantasy" types) and hard rock fans (like PZ or Stephen King)?

[kestrell]

Nothing that cool: all the academics maintain a very serious tone and none of them self-identify as horror fans. "Blair Witch Project" is about the only relatively recent film discussed, as most of the rest are films from the 1960s-1970s. I actually couldn't make it through most of the articles in this collection because the tone is so arid, which is why I am only now reading this book which I scanned a couple of years ago.