Customer Reviews

A History of Terror

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I did not think such a simple thing as fear had so many reverberations and meanings until I read Paul Newman's book and thought about it. I did not realise how many small fears may hide one large fear. What this book did was help me penetrate the various disguises of nightmare and panic, the different hobgoblins and ghosts one shares and runs from down the centuries. I was truly enlightened by this study which has so many varied aspects.

I was fascinated by this book because it shows how out fears change down the centuries. We start out by being afraid of many things - spiders, wolves and ghosts - and then gradually our curiosity about them grows. In this book we learn about how ghost stories were used as a form of social control, to make people confer money to monasteries, how panic and end of the world cults were used to whip people into a furore of flagellation and bodily abuse, about Pan and the ancient roots of terror, about vampires, werewolves and alien beings. We learn how fear and fascination are inmixed and about how the twentieth century showed a burgeoning of strange obsessions and desires. I did enjoy this book - found it scholarly and racy at the same time - and I am going to give it the highest mark.

This was interesting, in that it explained that fear had a kind of beginning. I did not realise about Pan and I had not thought before that fear was a primary element in controlling people nor that ghosts themselves can be used as a way of curtailing violent tendencies in individuals. Things like the vampire myth were placed in an historical context, so that you learned why certain fears sprang up when, and what was the root sensation behind vampires and hobgoblins. There was a lot of witty writing in the book which I thoroughly enjoyed, too.

Although definitely a promising topic, this "history of terror" falls a long way short of its potential. While the author has draw on a vast number of diverse sources, the resulting work fails in maintaining any central theme and at times left me wondering about the relevance of the title to the work.

Although definitely a promising topic, this "history of terror" falls a long way short of its potential. While the author has draw on a vast number of diverse sources, the resulting work fails in maintaining any central theme and at times left me wondering about the relevance of the title to the work.