Monday, May 20, 2013

In My Restless Dreams I See That Town...



Sometimes people find it strange that I have a real love for horror.  Poetry, prose, graphic novels, film  television, tabletop games, video games—it doesn't matter, I like them all.  I think folk get surprised because they assume that someone as holy as an ordained minister shouldn't be thinking about dark things.  "After all," they misquote Nietzsche, "Stare not into the abyss, lest the abyss stare into you!"  Actually, what he said was, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.  And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."  To be honest, that's exactly the kind of thing that everyone—but particularly ordained ministers—should think about every so often.

Besides, if I told you about a book where one of the main characters went about killing men and collecting their foreskins, wouldn't you assume that I'm talking about a particularly sick horror novel?  Unless, of course, you know more about the story of King David than most people can honestly claim.  Then you'd know I was talking about the Bible.  The truth is, there are some truly horrific things in the Christian tradition. And tales of horror are basically stories about good vs. evil.  So I don't see any harm in an ordained pastor being into that kind of thing.

One of my favorite horror settings is Silent Hill.

Silent Hill started off as a video game in a sub-genre of action/adventure known as survival horror. There's definitely enough story in these games to keep me playing. Of course, there were nights where playing in the dark with the surround sound on discouraged me from sleeping. Again. Ever. But it's all in good fun, right? It's really little environmental things that caught me with the Silent Hill games. Like searching through a decrepit and abandoned public restroom and listening to the main character knock on a stall door-- and being answered, once, with a return knock.

BANG


And knock as much as you like after that, you can't get it to repeat. You just never know when something like that is going to happen. The monsters you fight are almost secondary. Almost. The monsters are seriously disturbing too. Imagine meeting one of these nurses in an abandoned hospital... *shiver*

Silent Hill has done well enough critically to warrant a feature film, now available on DVD. If you aren't into gaming but want to find out what the feel of the story and the environment are, I suggest you rent it. Then watch it with the lights out and the surround sound on.

Go on. I dare you. Find out why anytime I find myself someplace truly creepy, I can't seem to keep from  saying, "Welcome to Silent Hill."  Even when I'm alone.

I once wrote that life is like Silent Hill sometimes.  Granted, that was a particularly difficult time in my own story, but I think that the lessons I learned from playing—and being scared by—the Silent Hill games might still be right on.  So when things get overwhelming, just remember the following things:

Sometimes you're in a dark place.


Sometimes you can't go the way you used to.


Sometimes there are barriers in your way.


Sometimes there's something scary between where you are and where you need to be.


And yet, even though sometimes it may be circuitous, counter-intuitive  hidden, or just plain hellish, there's always a way forward.


Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
052013