Horror isn’t the only genre - it’s just the loudest one. Or maybe it’s more of an umbrella term.

In horror, love stops being abstract and becomes a material fact. The beloved isn’t an idea anymore, they’re meat. And in making that shift, horror admits something most other stories won’t -love isn’t really about understanding someone. It’s about ingesting them.

Tbh, love hits harder in these genres than it ever does in conventional romance. You said earlier that someone who actually steals your heart would be seen as a villain, not a lover. The villain is the only one brave enough to mean the poetry. A villain has more to offer when it comes to love precisely cuz he isn’t bound by societal shackles. There’s that common line- a hero would sacrifice you to save the world, while a villain would sacrifice the world to save you.

Horror isn’t a perversion of love. It’s more like love without the metaphor. It says that if you truly want to be “inside” someone, you have to be willing to tear through skin, bone, and sanity to get there.

Some other genres that run on the same radical premise -
Sci-fi does it by treating the old romantic wish to “become one” as an engineering problem - characters literally merge nervous systems, upload consciousness into each other’s bodies or become symbiotic organisms. The metaphor stops being a feeling and turns into a technical achievement (or a catastrophe).

Religious mysticism goes even further. The language of union with the divine would sound monstrous if you applied it to a human lover - being consumed, pierced, emptied, eaten, dissolved etc. Some of those texts are more violent than most horror. Think of St. Teresa of Avila describing an angel piercing her heart with a fiery spear, or the Eucharist being the actual flesh and blood of God.

Yeah, I can see it being considered horror if we're treating the genre as an umbrella term for anything that refuses to keep its metaphors safe.

And I’m a little offended you called Hannibal a horror (kidding, don't take it seriously.) It’s a love story. The crime is just the setting!!
“If I saw you every day forever, Will, I would remember this time.”
“I am not fortune’s fool, I am yours.”
“I’ve never known myself better than when I was with you.”
“I don’t know whether either of us can survive separation.”
“You came here to get the old scent - why don’t you just smell yourself?”
“My time - before you and after you.”
Plus Bedelia’s entire monologue about how deeply Hannibal yearns for Will. That’s straight up romantic material. Strip out the murders and Hannibal is basically one of those dark romance books people lose their minds over on BookTok. (Okay, fine - it is a psychological horror thriller. But the point still stands.)
You just don’t get dialogues like that in regular romance.

Yeah, you’re right!! To some extent, memory really is the strangest form of cannibalism, and it works in both directions.
We rewrite things without realizing it. Every time we tell a story from our past, we lose a little more of what actually happened and replace it with who we are now. It just happens.

But we also do it on purpose - especially when we lose someone. We hold onto their memories, little habits, words, even their pain. We keep eating those memories cuz if we stop, it feels like we’re losing them all over again. That’s why grief is so physically exhausting. You’re actively digesting someone’s absence just to keep going.

We can’t remember without changing what we’re remembering, and we can’t live without remembering. So we keep eating the hard parts too, cuz that’s how we survive.

There’s a rare condition called hyperthymesia where people remember almost everything - every painful detail, every ordinary moment. It’s exhausting for them. They can't move past things the way most of us do. Which makes me think forgetting isn't a flaw. It's kind of a mercy.

I still remember crying over something a long time ago. But if I really think about it now, it doesn’t even feel like a big deal. It was huge to my past self. I don’t remember what was going through my head - prolly a dozen things at once. All I know is that it mattered to me then.

This gave me a whole new way to think about it. Thank you for the Q - it opened something up.

Thank you sm for such a sweet compliment and reading those notes!! Half the time I’m worrying whether people are just skipping the knowledge jargon and diving straight into the filth.

But yeah, I do read a wide range of blogs and watch documentaries on various themes.
If I really want to go deep, I'll even fall down a Google Scholar or ResearchGate rabbit hole. I can definitely be considered a nerd -just not your typical one with awkward glasses and introverted vibes, since I actually have a pretty great extroverted life (and perfect vision)! Just embracing my nerd self.
Since you used a 🐰, let me tell you a fun fact: rabbits not only can, but must eat a specific type of their own poop to stay healthy. (Maybe you already knew that, or did I just ruin bunnies for you? 😂)

I really love that you are here. Keep dropping random knowledge bombs on me from time to time so I can turn what I know into a little more than just a drop! 💖

You are ABSOLUTELY not crazy. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WITH EYES IN THAT ENTIRE DEPARTMENT 😭.
I'm honestly impressed that you deep-dived into their Google Scholar profiles - cuz SAME. I did that too whenever I found a prof really interesting (not in a crush way, just genuinely when they simplify concepts so well). But you took it to another level with the fb archaeology and the framed photo discovery. That's dedication.
Carpooling, cooking in his apartment, still single while the other is married? BTech together, thesis partners, PhD together, publishing together? Their Google Scholar profiles are literally married at this point 😭.
And the daughter being close with Prof Y, the outings, the 3 of them looking like a family while Prof X's wife is nowhere in sight for 4 yrs? That's not a coincidence.

You did your homework, girl. Was your entire department just blind?? Cuz how is no one else losing their mind over this? They're literally a whole married couple in every way that matters and everyone's just.. walking past them?? Make it make sense.

Thank you sm for sharing this with me cuz I am now EMOTIONALLY INVESTED in their love story 😭. And honestly?? Since you explained it with such detail and excitement, you should write the fic. You have the eye for it. You noticed everything. I'll just be your cheerleader and first reader 🥰

Okay, fair point about Tumblr - Myspace comparison is brutal but I can't even argue with that.

For Chaos Critter -yeah, it tends to be non-conforming. But isn't that pretty normal for people here? Most of us aren't really following what the world wants us to be. Kind of our own kind -misfits, in the best way.

For chaos -I guess even the textbook definition is pretty romantic too. 'A state of utter disorder and confusion.' The butterfly effect -one tiny, accidental moment changes your entire trajectory. A missed train, a spilled coffee, or a hesitant 'hello' that blossoms into a lifetime.

Glad you're here, but I won't mind asking you things there too. Place doesn't matter, person does.

Chaos Critter?..wait, me though? I thought I gave off more of a nerdy vibe with all my long winded texts and random questions.

Honestly, I already had my Tumblr for people to reach me outside the comments, but I realized not everyone who's on Insta or X feels comfortable hopping over there -just like how I'm reluctant about spending time on X myself. So I figured, since most people seem more comfortable here, why not open up this space too?

I really am a friendly person, I promise! I actually considered making a Revo account at one point, but I've seen it go down and fluctuate so many times that I thought it'd be better to keep things here (i hope its stable here).

And for you specifically, I'm always so glad to learn from you. Every time we talk or I read your work, I walk away with something new, something that sticks. So whenever you decide to drop your pieces of knowledge on me, I'll be nothing but grateful and ready to receive them. 🤍