Muse India x

May-Jun 2020
Ghosts of the Silent Hills

My introduction to the horror genre was during my school days when I read Edgar Allan Poe's collection of horror stories. The tasteful manner in which Poe built up horror in his stories still runs a shiver down my spine. In contemporary times, Neil Gaiman comes close to recreating this genre to suit the tastes of the current generation. In the South Asian context, it is not easy to come across good pieces of horror stories in writing. Closer to home, I remember reading ghost stories written by Ruskin Bond. The reliability of oral tradition of storytelling especially when it comes to this genre runs very strongly in this part of the world. Most of the indigenous horror stories have been passed down generations by revisiting them in the oral format. Unfortunately, most of the horror narratives find a place in the visual medium - films or online series.

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