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remingtonchase's review
dark
informative
reflective
3.75
A very fascinating book about what horror is and why it appeals to people despite it's inherently repulsive nature. Well-explained and makes a lot of interesting points. It is very accessible but it also gets repetitive at times and I wish that it was more comprehensive. Overall a very good book. And I hope you like the word ratiocinative.
brom's review
This book could be a third of its length. The author makes interesting points, but rephrases and reiterates them so many times they become meaningless.
cmcrockford's review
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Witty and compelling even if I think Carroll's POV in retrospect is limited sometimes by his scope (his crack about the fear of female sexuality in Cronenberg now seems ridiculous in the greater context of the filmmaker's "body" of work) and rather stringent rules for what is/isn't horror, however helpful they may be. Relevant reading especially during the current horror boom (read my work under C.M. Crockford btw).
mcklusky's review
3.0
A bit of a rough read but with some real gems in it. It sets out on a fool's errand to categorically define a genre and as a thesis I think it fails. But as a discourse it had some valuable insight. It finds itself in need of a ruthless editor -there's a lot of fat to be cut. The author often states a concept clearly only to then proceed to muddy the waters with unnecessary jargon and over-exposition of accessible concepts. This feels like a PhD dissertation that was never revisited prior to publication. Clearly a lot work went into it but it would have benefited by leaving some on the cutting room floor.
ericjaysonnenscheinwriter2392's review
5.0
The Philosophy of Horror is a virtuoso treatise of philosophy on the horror genre. It is intensely and rigorously argued and witty at times,as well. It is also full of pertinent insights on this popular entertainment and the psychological mechanism that makes so many people receptive to it. It is also quite a good book to read if you enjoy the philosophical spirit and thought process. Carroll brings much erudition to bear on his topic, including Hume, Freud, Jung, and an encyclopedic knowledge of horror in all of its forms. If you like brain teasers and plan to travel this would be a great book to take with you and dip into for pages at a time before you become immersed. It will challenge you and then absorb you.
mindfroth's review
2.0
This has some interesting insights, and compiles some interesting questions from the field, but overall it is a bad book, with a thesis not worthy of explication, and many premises too which the author labors to defend in needless, tedious, hairsplitting fashion. The amount of repetition and self-referential metacommentary is exasperating. The amount of space he squanders talking about how he doesn't have space to go into further detail is mind blowing.
At least the author acknowledges what the reader is likely to be thinking all along:
"It is my impression that the curiosity/fascination resolution that I have offered to the paradox of horror—despite its reliance on somewhat technical notions like categorical violations, and co-existentialism—is pretty obvious. It is certainly not as jazzy as many reductivist psychoanalytic theories. In fact, it may strike many as not being theoretical at all, but as nothing but a long-winded exercise in common sense."
Beware the wonkishness that is analytic philosophy.
At least the author acknowledges what the reader is likely to be thinking all along:
"It is my impression that the curiosity/fascination resolution that I have offered to the paradox of horror—despite its reliance on somewhat technical notions like categorical violations, and co-existentialism—is pretty obvious. It is certainly not as jazzy as many reductivist psychoanalytic theories. In fact, it may strike many as not being theoretical at all, but as nothing but a long-winded exercise in common sense."
Beware the wonkishness that is analytic philosophy.
caitlin1990's review
1.0
(I read to page 78 and gave up) The human responses to fear and disgust that are layed out as foundation for his theories do not line up with what I know about my own feelings and responses. Therefor, reading further would waste more of my time because it's built on false assumptions. Also, it's incredibly boring, clinical and repetitive.
marimbav's review against another edition
3.0
3,5/5
La verdad es que el libro es súper interesante, la teoría que propone el autor, y todas las otras que discute, son curiosas y me parece acertada a varios niveles. Por desgracia me falta una mirada más amplia al terror y no solo al derivado de la creación de Monstruos. También hay que recalcar que es un ensayo de hace unos años, y ha llovido mucho en el género desde entonces, pero este tipo de acercamientos más "intelectuales" me parecen bastante chulos de leer.
La verdad es que el libro es súper interesante, la teoría que propone el autor, y todas las otras que discute, son curiosas y me parece acertada a varios niveles. Por desgracia me falta una mirada más amplia al terror y no solo al derivado de la creación de Monstruos. También hay que recalcar que es un ensayo de hace unos años, y ha llovido mucho en el género desde entonces, pero este tipo de acercamientos más "intelectuales" me parecen bastante chulos de leer.
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