ABSTRACT
There is a theoretical question about horror which, although not unique to horror,
nevertheless is not one that readily arises with respect to other popular genres, such as
mystery, romance, comedy, the thriller, adventure stories, and the western. The question is:
why would anyone be interested in the genre to begin with? Why does the genre persist? I have
written a lot about the internal elements of the genre; but many readers may feel that in doing
that their attention has been deflected away from the central issue concerning horror-viz.,
how can we explain its very existence, for why would anyone want to be horrified, or even
art-horrified?
