James SH
Monica Drake
PNCA
Spring 2020
Good afternoon and thank you for coming to my thesis talk.
What lurks in the dark corners of affluent suburban America? Having
grown up in such an environment, I can tell you there are many strange
things abound; Neighbors calling the cops for improperly trimmed hedges,
dictatorial homeowners associations, and semi-incestuous coming of age
ceremonies all come to mind.
But there are still more sinister things in these idyllic neighborhoods. The
violence of capital and landlordism are left to simmer here, those complicit
happily unaware or uncaring of consequences thanks to economic
segregation created by increased cost of living and control of municipal
funding.
I am presenting a horror novel which seeks to take a look behind the
saccharine mask of the suburbs and expose the secrets of its systems of
violence to those who dwell in these kinds of areas. In this novel, the
protagonist—a young person fresh out of college—stumbles his way into
life within an insular suburban town. As his curiosity drives them to
investigate small town secrets further, he discovers a mysterious land
development group that’s more than it seems.
The work is a continuation of my long running fascination with stories. My
career has jumped from confessional poetry to narrative poetry to personal
humanity and creation in Frankenstein to examinations of capitalism and
worker exploitation in Ridley Scott’s Alien to Jordan Peele’s masterful
allegory on “post racial” American liberalism in Get Out, horror stands
proud as a tool for delivering otherwise touchy ideas to a mainstream
audience.
Moreover, my work is informed by the legacy of cosmic horror—this is to
say, the genre of horror which focuses on the cosmic insignificance of humanity against the horror of a vast, uncaring universe. While I borrow it’s
imagery, language, and style, I reject its ultimate premise and instead put
forth that the truly terrifying, uncaring forces are not those of nihilism, but
are instead very much products of humanity.
Now, I’d like to read you a section from the working draft.