Horror writers are the true steriotyped and "underrepresented"

   Honestly, I thought that things had changed since E.A. Poe starved to death because any remotely respectable publisher refused to dabble in horror. Love&Craft didn't do much better either. 

I thought that horror fic was on the rise, that the public had learned to appreciate the genre after S. King and highly popular content in other media formats, such as The Exorcist (Yes, I'm aware there's a book, but it's not as well regarded as the movie). It seems I was wrong.

 Digression: I don't love the content through which Horror got popular, but generally, mainstream stuff is disregarded by die-hard fans, isn't it? Also, cozy horror is a disgrace.

The other day, I was browsing a bit in the publishing orbit and realized that the agents and literary houses that work with horror are few, in-between, and almost always have it at the very bottom of the list, with a number of restrictions. "No gore," this, "No self-harm," that, "No sadness, no hate." It's like that episode from The Simpsons when they take violence out of Itchy and Scratchy. 

Literature if these characters had it their way.

Today, this peaked when I was reading the submission newsletter (from scribo), and in the list there was this website called "Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores," claiming they accept Eldritch but not horror nor monsters in general. I think that Lovecraft, you know, the dude who invented Eldritch, a notorious horror writer, would beg to differ. Not to mention, Eldritch are literally monsters. They don't even allow "hunting and/or eating of animals," which is not that hard, but it's still just ridiculous. What's the antagonist supposed to do? Bore MC to death? 

I would like to mention that their top short story (Witching Hour) is really, really boring and rather childish. The writer was on the verge of getting rejected, too, because he mentions MC eats a "morsel of food," which I think my fellow English speakers will agree that morsel means "meat" 99 out of a 100 times. 

In my somewhat short tour (couple of days) I noted that there's a lot of "looking for underepresented voices" meaning blacks, indians, and gays, which in my opinion is both racist and a malpractice, because if you make out those kinds of details out of the author's prose, then something's wrong with it. Jean Genet, Querelle de Bret, anyone?

Horror writers are the true underrepresented group; we're put into an archetype. People assume that because it's horror, then it's gotta be some shallow BS of the "Slumber Party Massacre" type, that because there's gore, then surely it's some cheap impressionist thing. Good horror poets? A myth, according to the lists. They think that horror can't have deep, relatable, and memorable characters. Has anyone checked out Titus Andronicus? I bet you that's very memorable. 

Worse part still, I'm beginning to think that people who search for horror already assume that this is what they gonna find. More Hill Houses. More Shinings. More pseudo-Lovecraftian tentacly monsters. It's come to the point where I've seen "green warrior monsters," what's next? Monster Barbie dolls? Oh, wait. That already exists.

I say we, horror writers, subvert these stereotypes. Fantasy doesn't have to be a Tolkien template, good vs evil crap. Magic doesn't need to be Harry Potter. Love can be cannibal, hope can be dark, and it's from the ashes that the phoenix arises. 

When We Rise, the public will have no choice but to see that everything worth mentioning is tinted in horror, that the lives we remember are the most tragic, and that Horror Fiction is the only way for authors to keep up with the horror that is life.
In the words of the Poet: "What delight, what pleasure offers thy life, to outweigh the transports of Death? Wears not everything that inspires us the color of the Night?" 

Orange is dead. All hail the return of Black!