Living Through Horror: How Generational Trauma Shapes Our Monsters
A few weeks ago, Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker announced that his show’s sixth season would be delayed in direct response to the impact of COVID-19. The thinking goes that the world doesn’t need any additional bleakness at the moment, which is a fair point. A more cynical observer might paraphrase Ron Swanson and ask why anyone would bother dramatizing the apocalypse when they could just go outside and stand in it. That makes sense on an intuitive level, but fails to take into account the fundamental nature of humanity. We call ourselves Homo sapiens, but we’re defined less by our wisdom than by our tendency — even instinct —…