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That Balance Between Joy and Horror Is Our Sweet Spot
According to a Jordan Peele interview with CBS Mornings
It’s safe to say that Jordan Peele is living out his purpose. He said as much on CBS Mornings last month. Gayle King asked him, “Do you want people to be scared? I don’t like being scared.”
To which Peele replied,
“I’m always scared.”
But what I want to talk about first, is this fear we have in the world and how Jordan Peele is simultaneously creating joy from it.
Terror and terrifying evoke the same feelings
While reading a horror short story years ago, I remember the author writing that God is a terror. The creator is terrifying.
The English word “terrifying” comes from the Latin root terrere, meaning “to terrify, to inspire fear or dread, to frighten greatly.” But from the same root we also get the word “terrific,” meaning “very good, intense, excellent”.- [src]
I read a book in 2009 called, When Heaven Comes Down by Che’ Ahn and I recall the author saying that when he prayed really hard and for a long time for God to show himself, he suddenly felt “swallowed up”. There was this nothingness or void that engulfed him making him feel tiny.
He was terrified.
Yet awestruck.
He stopped praying and remembered next to time to be cautious of what he asks for.
Is this what Jordan Peele is talking about?
Movies that give us fright, but then we wonder at the spectacle like in his latest movie ‘Nope’ — a beautiful, terrifying spectacle that we want to gaze at but know full well it can kill us?
Or like Medusa.
A beautiful woman turned hideous with a head full of snakes with a snake’s body. Granted, many artists and movies depict her differently: Either wearing shades, gorgeous but with snakes, or hideous altogether.
The men die because they can’t help but stare.
She is terrific. Terrifying.
