Disgust. Revulsion. Fluids that ought to remain inside. Shock value! Concepts that I’ve become familiar with this week in depth through my various readings. I’ve spent the week tormenting myself with stories involving that most real horror of all: insects. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Lovecraft’s The Whisperer in Darkness so graciously provided my window into buzzing, crawling, biting terror. Interestingly enough, my theories on exactly why we are horrified by the idea of insects (particularly giant insects) align pretty well with some of the ideas in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Cynthia Freeland.
First, I will briefly attempt to explain insect horror with a single phrase: bugs are icky! But what I find interesting is to really think about why we think that. Insects are a part of our natural world, but so are puppies and kittens. What about insects makes us uncomfortable? I’m sure that there are all kinds of scientific and psychological reasons behind it, but I have a pretty good idea without that. Bugs look incredibly alien. They have all manner of appendages that most creatures don’t have. They don’t blink. Their movements are usually fast and unexpected. Some of them are incredibly dangerous. By extension, I believe that it is natural to think that any insects that we encounter are venomous, since most people aren’t knowledgeable about different types of insects (myself included). Not only that, bugs are often used to symbolize other horror concepts: death, disease, and famine come to mind. In summary, insects evoke a feeling of dread in a majority of people based on appearance. Therefore, bugs in fiction are often a tool used to creep out the reader/viewer and make them flinch.
We are introduced to a concept in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction that is similar to this idea: the use of blood in art. On page one it says: “Blood is our human essence- Dracula sucks it up as he creates the undead. Blood can be holy or noble, the sacrificial blood of martyrs or soldiers…Obviously blood has a host of expressive and symbolic associations.” Freeland goes on to give several examples of blood in art being “startling” or “infamous.” I think that insects are used in storytelling in much the same way. The parallel is striking to me. In the same way that insects can be used as cheap body horror in bad movies like 2005’s Mansquito, blood can be used for nothing more than surface level shock value like how so many college kids use it for their edgy “performance art.” However, both can be used as insightful commentary: Kafka uses the concept of “metamorphosis” to describe not only Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a grotesque giant bug, but also his sister’s transformation into a mature young woman through her hardship and ultimate cruelty. Blood is often used as a metaphor for suffering and injustice by people trying to shake their audience enough for them to realize the artist’s point. The intersection of these two concepts has made excellent brain food this week.