Cervantes Magazine Number 23: Theater
Many parents read fairy tales with happy endings their children, and because of this, many children acquire the habit of reading at an early age. But ... what about the minority of writers who work on children's horror literature? Is that genre well received by children?
It is well known that we are always seeking to discover new emotions, experience them, appropriate new feelings ... did we do this since we were children too? Of course, it is emotions and feelings that keep us alive. That is why we felt very entertained when, our parents or someone, read a children's story to us before sleeping.
Why is there a habit of only reading stories with happy endings to children? The majority of parents think and say that it is an easy and more digestible genre for kids, in addition to delivering positive feelings. But what about children's horror literature?
In the world there are thousands of stories, each with a theme to deal with, and all of different genres. It is there where we find children's literature of terror, defined as a genre which uses or takes horror as a premise, narrating a grim story that brings feelings of fear in childhood situations.
There is no light without darkness, this idea is what fascinates, and thanks to a few writers that started this specific genre, we can find it. Do children also feel the desire to know the unknown, even if it is dark? Yes. Ever since we were children, our grandparents or parents even told us stories about Leprechauns, La Llorona (The Weeping Woman), El Silbón (The Man Who Whistles), ghouls or ghosts, and although we knew that we would not sleep that night, we were perplexed and attentive to the idea that there was something beyond our earthly plane.
“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones”.
(STEPHEN KING)
Now you will read a story of my authorship:
Since my dad told me that i was going to sleep alone in my new room, I confessed to him that i was not going to be able to do it, because i was very afraid of the dark. That's why, before I went to sleep, he read a fantasy story to me, where there were beautiful endings.
There were many nights when I woke up from some nightmare. It was then when the door creaked half open, and from there, the shadow of my dad appeared in the darkness. Sometimes, when the fear was too much, I felt him in my bed, stroking my hair.
And I always felt really protected.
Some time later, it was dad’s birthday and I drew a picture of him as a present, guarding my dreams.
─Happy birthday daddy! ─I said while giving him a little kiss on the cheek─. Thank you for taking care of my dreams every night. You know that I still can not get used to sleeping alone ... but whenever you look out, you fill me with courage. And that's why I love you…
─"But my dear daughter..." ─he began to say to me, he seemed as if he was confused─, "I’ve never woke up at night to see you sleep ..."
My dad told me that surely those were my illusions,
And to sleep in peace,
Because it was nothing to worry about …
I have not been able to sleep for 4 hours, because from the door, a man watches over me ... he is approaching me at this moment.
It seems that horror literature for children is frowned upon, as it could cause traumas or fears of darkness, make us hide our feet under the sheets or sleep with our parents. But perhaps, did terror not cause us pleasure in a certain way when we were children?
Children's horror literature is a very scarce genre. The majority of horror writers tend to make stories targeted from the young to the elderly. Leaving children's horror, as a minority genre.
That a child reads horror literature is not something to be ashamed of. On the other hand, feeling fear is completely normal and human, and as we read this genre, we channel other aspects that would help us in our daily life, such as learning to overcome our own fears.
Because after all, to be brave you must know fear.
Would you read the stories of the Brothers Grimm to your children? It could be very interesting ..
"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse”.
(HELEN KELLER)
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