There is something dark at work in the world today — a blasphemous and unnatural shape, uncoiling from the seabed and rising to the surface. Except that rising isn’t really the right word, is it? Rising indicates grace and slowness and a measured sort of approach. Hurtling is more apt. Churning. Spewing. Soon it will breach, and that rough beast will slouch once more toward Bethlehem, not to be born, but to devour.
We all see it. Those of us who aren’t glued to TikTok or Instagram or the endless array of YouTube streams from blathering fanboys, each of whom has a backdrop of action figures because whoever has the most toys wins — those of us not lapping up that crap are aware that it is happening. We’re in World War III now, except they can’t call it that yet, and America has yet to experience whatever will serve as a Pearl Harbor moment this time around. Intolerance and anger and hatred are all on the rise again, spreading like a virus. AI is spreading, too, at a time when the economy is held together with frayed duct tape and a half-dry bottle of Elmer’s Glue. Anti Semitism and Genocide are back on the menu and more popular than ever, and the only thing reasonable people can do is conclude that both the Netanyahu administration and Hamas are both loathsome and horrible, but reasonable people no longer have a voice because they are drowned out by those cheerleading the repugnant Hamas atrocities of October 7th or the equally soul-crushing atrocities perpetrated on the Palestinian people in the aftermath that has followed. And speaking of reasonable people concluding that two sides of a coin are equally horrible, here in America, we’re being asked to choose between two old men, neither of whom has any business being Walmart greeters, let alone leading a country. Of course, those of us who point that out are drowned out by the cheerleaders from both sides.
We are in the grim slide now, friends, and nobody’s hands are on the steering wheel.
In my 2016 memoir about horror fiction, END OF THE ROAD, I wrote:
…the mood that was happening in this country—a mood that had taken hold shortly after the start of the Iraq war, and had deepened through the rest of the rotten Bush-Cheney Gang’s tenure, and the Obama tenure that had followed. That mood had nothing to do with being registered a Republican or a Democrat, and everything to do with the growing, sweeping awareness that the entrenched members of both parties—the Pelosis and McConnells and Grahams and Reids—were serving themselves, rather than the people. And like Richard Dreyfuss said in the eerily prescient 2009 quote at the start of this chapter, a growing number of Americans were willing to kick the pilots off the airplane and pick someone from business class to fly it instead. Never underestimate the lure and empowerment that the ability to say “Fuck you” has on the average American—even if they know it might be detrimental to them.
Well, here we are now in 2024 and the guy from business class is on the PA system, gleefully announcing his intent to fly the plane nose first into the ground, and his supporters are cheering that with rapturous glee. And instead of mounting any sort of legitimate defense, the other party has wheeled out the living embodiment of Grandpa Sawyer from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. So, our choices this year seem to be die in a fiery plane crash or get eaten by a geriatric cannibal.
I firmly believe that America is about to experience its own version of Ireland’s ‘The Troubles’.
And I believe it is too late to stop it.
Good time to be a horror writer, though. If you look at the history of horror fiction, the Booms came during times of trouble. It was very popular during World War II and in its immediate aftermath. It was very popular again during Vietnam, Watergate, and their immediate aftermath. The next surge in popularity came in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. And the latest has come over these last few years. Why is that? Because when the world is full of very real horrors, there is a strange comfort to be found in make believe horrors. When terrorists and governments are both slaughtering civilians, and when you’re in danger of being gunned down in a mass shooting just because you had the audacity to go to the supermarket or the mall or the movies or stand on a street corner, and when the people in charge of the nukes are all half-crazed geriatric animals with more liver spots than sense, and when you can no longer trust the news or the church or your leaders or your own eyes and ears, and when you live in a post-truth world where any inconvenient truth that doesn’t fit your personal narrative must have been created by AI … when there are very real monsters all around — there is a comfort in escaping to the familiarity of fictional monsters like vampires and ghosts and serial killers and giant carnivorous worms.
People need us more than ever, my fellow horror writers. Get to work.
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter of hope and inspiration for fans, friends, and family.
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THE DRIVE-IN: MULTIPLEX, an anthology edited by myself and Christopher Golden featuring stories set in the world of Joe R. Lansdale’s The Drive-In, has been nominated for a 2023 Bram Stoker Award. Our thanks to everyone involved, particularly our contributors, and Thunderstorm Books and Pandi Press. The hardcover ships very soon. (We experienced an unfortunate 11th hour production snafu, post-bindery, but it’s been sorted now). The paperback can be purchased here.
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Added more books to the online store this week. If you want to purchase signed paperbacks by myself or Mary, you can do that here. And you can also pre-order signed books by Sarah Langan, Cynthia Pelayo, Todd Keisling, Stephen Kozeniewski, Somer Canon, Wesley Southard, and Wile E. Young, too.
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Part two of my appearance on This Is Horror is now live. You can listen to it (and Part 1 if you didn’t yet) here.
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Currently Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Max)
Currently Reading: The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson and The Dig by Cynan Jones
Currently Listening: Brian Keene Radio
My dear friend Paul Tremblay handed me a copy of The Dig while we were at Christopher Golden’s House of Last Resort weekend. He described it to me as “a Welsh Cormac McCarthy” and that’s a very apt description, but it’s so much more than that. There is a lyricism to its stripped down, bare bones prose that is enchanting and sinister. It’s as dark as dark gets, and his work with the rural setting and rural characters rings very true to this rural guy. Highly recommended! Available in paperback, hardcover and for Kindle here.
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A reminder that I don’t do social media much anymore (other than for promotion). This newsletter and my Patreon my primary outlets for any real communication of substance. I Blog each morning on Patreon — just a few brief paragraphs that serve as a mini-version of this newsletter. You don’t need to be a paid Patreon subscriber to read them. They are accessible to everyone who subscribes to my Patreon, paid or not.
And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for spending some time with me this morning. I hope that you are doing as okay as anyone can in these doom-filled early days of 2024. I’ll see you every morning this coming week on Patreon, and see you back here again next Sunday.
— Brian Keene
Very well put. Unfortunately, these are my sentiments exactly. But I’m doing my part by churning out more make believe.
Well said,truly scary times not just for Americans.
The Trumpers are a cult and does anyone remotely believe that Biden is competent.
Living in the u.k, one small i.c.b.m away from Edinburgh it is truly frightening to see what is going on in Europe.
If their not far left,far right or truly useless it doesn't seem like anyone with a whiff of common sense can get elected nowadays.....very much like the beginning of WW2.