Parasitic

Author: Mai Jie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: After working hard for a while, sweat had already dripped down her body. Ayu raised her bare arm and wiped the sweat from her forehead. At that moment, she was terrified to see a layer of dark sand on her arm, as if some of it was still seeping out from her pores, challenging the limits of psychological endurance, shocking your brain! 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 that people experience when threatened by death, madness, and the like. 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 narrower genre. Another source of horror novels, I believe, is detective fiction. The basic aesthetic characteristics of detective fiction—suspense, excitement, and—are undoubtedly also aesthetic features of horror novels. In fact, some horror novels follow basic plot patterns that mimic 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 Chinese horror novel reading market 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, are determined to cultivate and sow in this unfamiliar land and have already reaped initial fruits. With this pioneer-like courage and perseverance, it moved me deeply. Mai Jie's and Liao Liao's novels mostly draw on the prototype of "urban legends." Real-life events in society are replaced by some virtual supernatural elements, while depicting absurd and bizarre horror experiences, they also reveal 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 storylines that resonate with the reading psychology of contemporary Chinese people and reach the artistic shore of heart-chilling fear is, in fact, a topic that all aspiring horror novel writers must face.