The one test of the really weird (story) is simply this--whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim. H.P. Lovecraft
About This Quote

H.P. Lovecraft wrote the above quote during a time when science and religion were at odds with one another. He was explaining that a good story should make the reader feel something. The above quote has been taken from his essay, " Supernatural Horror in Literature." In the essay, he explores how the concept of the unknown is important to a good story. He writes that “The whole aim of weird literature is to frighten the living daylights out of the reader, and this is effected by making him catch a glimpse, however fleetingly or accidentally obtained, of something outside and almost infinitely removed from our world which he can understand nothing about, and which literally staggers him with amazement and terror.”

Source: Supernatural Horror In Literature

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