Night talk

Author: Liao Liao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: They returned to their starting point, and the car was still parked in the grass over a meter high, shaking constantly. Faces twisted with despair were occasionally stuck on the windows, silently screaming. But those faces were actually their own! Challenge your psychological limits, give your brain a jolt! Ghosts really exist in this world, no scientific verification needed. Because, they are hidden in people's hearts! From a psychological perspective, horror refers to a highly anxious mental state experienced by people when facing threats such as death or madness. In a broader literary sense, any literary work that depicts such a psychological state can be called horror literature. However, as another wave of popular literature following martial arts and romance, horror novels clearly refer to a narrow genre. Another source of horror novels, I believe, is detective fiction. The basic aesthetic characteristics of detective fiction—suspense, excitement, and interest—are undoubtedly also aesthetic traits of horror novels. In fact, some horror novels follow basic plot patterns that borrow from the classic "raising questions" and "answering questions" model of detective fiction.
In today's Chinese popular culture market, the prospects for horror novels are not optimistic, or to say, the contemporary horror novel reading market in China is still in a nurturing stage. A simple fact is that it is difficult to name influential domestic horror novel writers and works. The three young writers—Li Yi, Mai Jie, and Liao Liao—have the ambition to cultivate and sow in this unfamiliar land and have already reaped initial fruits. This pioneering courage and perseverance alone move me deeply. Mai Jie and Liao Liao's novels often draw heavily on the prototype of "urban legends." Real-life events in society are replaced by some virtual supernatural elements, depicting absurd and bizarre horror experiences while revealing the evil nature of people with pathological traits. For example, Mai Jie's Day and Night, Hair of Insects, and Liao Liao's Ghost Village. In some of their works, imagination and urban legends play a significant role. Of course, how to set up mysterious and suspenseful plotlines that resonate with the reading psychology of contemporary Chinese people and reach the artistic shore of terrifying the soul is, in fact, a topic that all aspiring horror novel writers must face.