The Hyperbolic Horror In the modern world, it is becoming common for non-fiction occurrences to become popular among American culture. Some stories become so popular that they take the shape of a novel and become a worldwide best seller. An example of one of these bestselling books is The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson. In Anson’s book, he describes the supernatural events that occurred in the Lutz family’s house in 1975. Although the story of the Lutz family’s paranormal encounters within the house have remained unconfirmed and contradictory, Anson’s book became a worldwide bestseller. However, not only did the book become a bestseller, it also became a major part of horror culture as the book was developed into a film and commodified as…show more content… However, Anson also uses exclamatory sentences outside of the characters’ speaking. For example, to describe the oozing toilet in the book Anson stated that “It was totally black inside!” (43). This quote was not said by a character within the book and gives a description of the toilet some importance. Instead of the porcelain potty being described with the ending of the sentence resulting in a period, it is brought to the reader with an exclamation point to emphasize the detail of the discolored toilet. The author uses these exclamation marks to emphasize the detail and suspenseful moments to the reader. Children screaming, a dog barking, and descriptions of objects and events ending with exclamation marks usually have a greater emotional impact on the audience than a simple period.
When an author seeks to tell a story, if they invent the story it is the job of their imagination to assign emotional high notes or determine how a character perceives an experience. But when writing a “true” story, the emotion of the participants is critical. The reader of Amityville does not get the Lutzs on the pages whatsoever. What they do get is a secondhand telling through the sensibilities of someone who seems better inclined to write very poor action fiction which requires the propping up of exclamation marks and a bevy of gerunds to accelerate the pace of an other unbelievable tale.
