vampires, werewolves, & brainweasels oh my!

[shy_magpie]

Don't mind me just figured out my taste in genre fiction has more to do with my anxiety & rank hang ups than going watching Beauty & The Beast at an impressionable age.


Just figured out a component to why I love occult fiction or whatever we're calling it this week: werewolf stories feel like home for the part of my brain that is constantly weighing rank bullshit and if people in power are going to take how you breathe as a sign you're a threat, its like finally being able to acknowledge the elephant in the room (plus they're usually good for sensory detail especially scents); vampire stuff means I can let the more paranoid side of me off leash for a bit, "ok brain I've spent all month reigning in the 'what if they turn on you, what if there is poisonous subtext under the politness' here's a place where that kind of thinking is ok, have fun" (plus great aesthetics, never met a vampire that didn't have style, even if it wasn't my preferred they at least committed to a look).

On the one hand self knowledge is good, on the other hand if I uncover one more thing that has more of a basis in a diagnosis than taste or random 'hey this came on at an impressionable point in my life'; I will in fact yell at the moon about whether there is anything that is actually me or if I am just 6 disorders in a trench coat.

Comments

[suncani]

I think personal preference/ childhood randomness are influencing your preferences too. The things you've mentioned are found in other types of fiction as well - i.e "what if they turn on you, what if there is poisonous subtext" basically describes either spy or regency fiction too so taste definitely has had an influence.

But yeah can empathise with the frustration of what's me, what's a symptom.

[shy_magpie]

Sincerely, thank you! The idea that "just because this is fitting a mental niche, doesn't mean there aren't other things that could" gives me a sense of still having some choice/self in the matter.