Source: Naomi 1xbet best casino website , 785-523-2159, njwood@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Darrah Tinkler, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu
Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012
Scary stuff: Why tales of ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night are more than horror 1xbet best casino website
MANHATTAN -- Whether it's sitting around a campfire, at the movie theater or reading something by Stephen King or Edgar Allan Poe, scary 1xbet best casino website have long been popular, especially around Halloween.
According to Kansas State University literature expert Naomi 1xbet best casino website , an associate professor of English, fear of death is often an underlying theme in hair-raising tales, movies and books.
"Zombies, vampires and ghosts embody people's fears about extinction, our awareness that everyone must die," Wood said. "Telling 1xbet best casino website about how monsters and spirits are turned back, turned away from the living, are ways of reasserting our life. The 1xbet best casino website go on even as the tellers die, and 1xbet best casino website that tell of triumphing over the monsters are even more powerful."
1xbet best casino website that name our fears, especially about death, can be powerful, Wood said, but they also can be seen as lessons as well, such as Frankenstein's Monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."
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Today, urban folklore is a good source for Halloween 1xbet best casino website , Wood said.
"Thriller movies often channel urban folklore in their depictions of killers," she 1xbet best casino website . "One example of an urban myth and motion picture overlap is the movie 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and the urban legend about the escaped convict with the hook. Both feature an escaped psychopathic killer who comes after young couples."
Ghost 1xbet best casino website often channel unease about death and unfinished business, Wood said. In many of these tales the ghosts are usually tied to earth because of old crimes and conflicts.
"They show not only how humans are afraid of ending and dying, but also of things failing to end," she 1xbet best casino website . "This is apparent in hauntings — how a spirit is forever forced to roam the world, never to rest or find a way of peace."
One way we lighten the macabre tone of Halloween today is with costumes, Wood 1xbet best casino website .
"Dressing as zombies, vampires and werewolves, people are able to take the spookiness out of the legends by putting themselves in the characters' shoes. It seems to be a way to forget the 1xbet best casino website and legends, to see a lighter side of death than as just an imminent ending," she said.
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