What makes a scary story? It’s not “bad things” as such. A story about John Wayne Gacy might evoke many things… revulsion, horror, anger, but probably not fear. Really scary stories don’t come from impossible things, either. Dracula can be pretty scary, but the fear dissipates with the dawn because we know, deep down, that vampires don’t exist. No, the scariest stories are about things that haven’t happened, but could. Hannibal Lecter isn’t a real person, but he could be. Fear is about tension, dread is about anticipation. You see the possibilities, you know what could happen, and the fear comes from realizing that there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop the bogeyman from coming.
Our choice for this month’s Book Spotlight is one of the scariest books ever written so Halloween, the time to celebrate fear, seems perfect for it. It’s a classic written 65 years ago that put a face on our deepest, most terrifying, and most possible fears, and we see those fears through its lens even today. If you’ve read it before then please treat yourself again, but if you’ve yet to discover this horrifying gem, we truly envy you. It will absorb you, terrify you, and change the way you look at the world around you. Even with the dawn the goosebumps won’t go away, because with your new eyes you’ll see mounting evidence that the bogeyman is indeed real and getting closer. And the fear will truly set in when you realize there may be absolutely nothing you can do to stop him.
1984
By George Orwell
(click the book cover to be taken to the Powells.com page for this book)
Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell’s narrative is more timely that ever. 1984 presents a “negative utopia,” that is at once a startling and haunting vision of the world — so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of entire generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions — a legacy that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
A protestor reads Orwell’s 1984 in the “Taksim Square Book Club”, part of a silent peaceful protest against the Turkish Government.
About the Author
George Orwell was the pen name of an Englishman named Eric Blair. He was born in Bengal in 1903, educated at Eton, and after service with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, returned to Europe to earn his living writing novels and essays. He was essentially a political writer who wrote of his own times, a man of intense feelings and fierce hates. He hated totalitarianism, and served in the Loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War. He was critical of communism but considered himself a Socialist. He hated intellectuals, although he was a literary critic. He hated cant and lying and cruelty in life and in literature. He died at forty-seven of a neglected lung ailment, leaving behind a substantial body of work, a growing reputation for greatness, and the conviction that modern man was inadequate to cope with the demands of his history.
