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From: Kieran Mullen <kieran@phyast.nhn.ou.edu> Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v019.n026 Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 13:08:42 >From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu> >Subject: Re: (urth) Dualism & horror >Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 08:46:18 -0400 (EDT) >I haven't read much horror, however. Are there many horror novels that >have both a supernatural Good and Evil but the Evil wins? (Not counting >stories where the apparent "Evil" turns out to be morally superior to the >apparent "Good".) The classic example is the "Black Easter" series by James Blish. It's brilliant. One candidate is "Godstalk" by P.C. Hogdell. In it the "heroes" are superhuman warriors (sort of like angels) who have been fighting Evil for millenia, and have been constantly losing. God's not really talking to them anymore, and they've been fighting a retreating action, losing world after world. Things are getting pretty desperate. It's a bit of a cheat though since the series has not really ended. But I like the world she has invented. (I'm a big fan of theological science fiction). Hmmm... In the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, the villain wins. There are countless horror stories/movies/tv shows where the villain secretly survives (shown in the last few seconds of the story). The new Outer Limits has many episodes in which the villains win (it's rather depressing and IMHO often poorly written). There are a number of sf books in which the Bomb goes off and everything ends. Kieran Mullen Kieran Mullen email: kieran@mail.nhn.ou.edu Dept. of Physics and Astronomy phone: (405) 325-3961 The University of Oklahoma FAX: (405) 325-7557 Norman, OK 73019, USA http://www.nhn.ou.edu/~kieran/ *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/