Читать книгу Hideous Faces, Beautiful Skulls - Mark McLaughlin - Страница 5

INTRODUCTION: Darkness, the Great Equalizer

Most of our lives are spent in the light. Sunshine and artificial illumination surround us as we eat our meals, do our work, chat with friends, surf the Internet, and watch TV. When we go to bed, we at last surrender to the darkness. We spend that time asleep, wandering the well-lit corridors of our dreams.

We may do our best to avoid the darkness, but it is still there, waiting to embrace us.

Why should we go to such great lengths to drive back the darkness? Darkness is our friend. Darkness is the great equalizer.

In today’s appearance-conscious society, we all wonder, “Am I attractive enough? Is my appearance somehow holding me back? Should I lose some weight? Should I get some plastic surgery?”

In the dark, none of that matters. Beauty is no longer an advantage. Ugliness is no longer a shameful problem.

My Greek grandmother, a very earthy and vivacious woman, used to tell a naughty joke about a young fellow’s first visit to a brothel. She told the tale in a coy fashion, euphemizing the saucy details. The fellow in the joke thinks he has procured the services of the brothel’s loveliest employee—but since the transaction took place with the lights out, he doesn’t realize until the end that in fact, he’d dallied with the plainest lady of the house.

When he takes his complaint to the proprietress, she replies: “You got your money’s worth. All women are the same in the dark!”

See how kind, how empowering darkness can be? In the dark, a wallflower can blossom into a luscious rose. In a tale of dark wonder, a monster can prove to be more seductive that any beauty queen.

The darkness holds many surprises. In this collection of thirty stories of horror and the bizarre, we shall explore some of those surprises.

Even though I’ve been extolling the virtues of darkness, I do encourage you to read this book with the lights on. Light does have its practical applications, you know.

You have to see the words.