ObscuraJournal 1/30/26

For the last few years, I've felt I missed out on some essential component in my imagination arsenal. Maybe it's because I've been immersed in horror fiction for a long time—my whole life actually—that I've unconsciously looked down on other genres without giving them the respect they properly deserve. Science-fiction and fantasy for instance. I like both, but I'm extremely picky about what I like about each genre. I don't like hard science-fiction; I could give a shit about all the technical details about the fucking spaceship, and honestly, I'm more interested in the alien lifeforms anyway. Same with epic fantasy ... too many characters to keep track of, too many places on a map I have to keep referring to ... naw, I'm good.

Yet, I do like the science-fiction works of Ray Bradbury. And J.G. Ballard, but really he was more interested in how humans interacted with technology that the fantastic stuff advanced technology could do. And I like the fantasy of Tanith Lee, and Tolkien, as I'm slowly discovering. But I also like the fantasy of Clive Barker ... Imajica instantly comes to mind. And some would call that book in particular "dark fantasy" but it's still fantasy even if it's horrifying.

I'm all about the horror, but I honestly think I need to immerse myself in more fantasy as a way to expand what I want to write about when it comes to horror. Horror plus fantasy, "dark fantasy" if you must, is having a moment, and I'm not going to dig my heels in and look away. It's time to embrace it and see what I can learn from the genre.

peace&love