Content Warning
Content warning for Lor Gislason’s Inside Out (2022)
The story that follows may contain graphic violence and gore.
Please go to the very back of the book for more detailed content warnings.
Beware of spoilers.
While H. P. Lovecraft is most often associated with cosmic horror, and famously declared in his essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature” that weird fiction is more than the “literature of mere physical fear and the mundanely gruesome,” he has also left his slimy, gore-stained fingerprints in the annals of body horror. What is the terror of “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth” except the slow recognition of a biological inheritance that cannot be escaped? Or the hideous degradation and transformation that overcomes the Gardner family in “The Colour Out of Space”?
Yet Lovecraft never embraced body horror as we know it today. That is the product of later generations, a new and different breed. Mutation, infection, decay, surgery, puberty, transition—there are untold variations on how flesh may change, and the question is often not so much who or what the individuals were but what are they becoming—what is the experience like—and how do these stories change as our own understanding of biology and medicine continue to advance?
Lor Gislason is the editor of Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror (2023), and author of works like the body horror novella Inside Out (2022). They were kind enough to answer some of our questions on body horror, cosmic horror, and Lovecraft.
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How did you get into body horror?
Lor Gislason: I think in a way it’s always been part of my life; I can remember watching Dragon Ball and seeing Goku transform into a giant monkey when I was around 5. I don’t think I had the words for it, or knew of the genre, until my teens and my first viewing of Hellraiser (1987).
Has writing body horror changed how you relate to it?
LG: If anything it’s made me relate to it more, through research and understanding how the body works. Going through a health crisis (and subsequently using it in my writing) also helped me process the experience.
How did you get into Lovecraft and cosmic horror?
LG: I rented a lot of movies as a teen and one of them was Necronomicon (1993), which is not a particularly great movie, but spurred me to look into Lovecraft’s work and other adaptations. I’m a big fan of cosmic horror video games like Dead Space and Bloodborne.
Do you feel that being you (nonbinary, autistic) has shaped your understanding of Lovecraft and approach to body horror and cosmic horror?
LG: Definitely. There are times I feel hyper-aware of my body, and others where I feel completely disconnected from it and while this can be hard to describe it’s been a running theme throughout my writing. My novella Inside Out is not just about becoming a giant pile of flesh (although that does happen) it’s also about how we struggle to connect with other people, especially physically.
Joe Koch wrote that “body horror and cosmic horror stand at two opposite ends of a spectrum”—would you agree?
LG: If we consider how cosmic horror uses the mind as a weapon, a prison, an area of change, then it’s the other side of the coin to body horror. There’s a lot of room to play with those concepts. As Joe put it: “The monster is the body. The hero is the mind” in Lovecraft’s stories, often moving beyond flesh and blood to achieve some higher goal—but our mind is a part of our body, isn’t it? Often they’re seen as separate things. I’m sure it’s just a matter of perspective.
Some of your works like The God Carcass seem to try and bridge the aesthetic between body horror and cosmic horror—what were you going for?
LG: I often go into rabbit holes and one of them that led to The God Carcass was whale falls and how an entire ecosystem, and even organisms that exclusively live off whale carcasses exist, just this massive amount of creation and life exploding from something dead. So what if a entity from another plane fell into the ocean? How would that work? I tried to make it a bit fantastical and dreamlike, it’s a bit different from my usual writing but I’m quite happy with it and to be a part of the Ooze anthology.
Tell us about Cosmic Dyke Patrol.
CDP is my current project, which I pitched as a sort of cosmic ghostbusters novella. It follows a lesbian couple named Harriett and Marcy who investigate entities and accidentally invite a particularly aggressive bear-like creature into our world. It’s a bit silly, very queer and hopefully encapsulates the “fun horror” I love so much.
Do you think there is a future for more stories that try to combine Lovecraft or the Mythos with body horror?
LG: Absolutely. There are a lot of Elder Gods (created by HPL or by others) that use body horror to its full extent. The idea of a being that’s so beyond our comprehension, physically or otherwise, is such a fascinating idea. You could do literally anything with that!
You’ve noted a love for 80s horror movies—does that include Lovecraftian films like Re-Animator (1985)?
LG: Yes! Although I might be a bit more attached to From Beyond (1986), if I’m honest. I’m sure many people know how much I love the colour pink! Underwater (2020) was also great, honestly a bit overlooked when it came out.
How did Bound in Flesh come to be?
LG: This is my favourite story to retell, it’s very “peak internet,” haha. I tweeted something like, oh wouldn’t it be cool if an anthology like this existed? And Max Booth III of Ghoulish Books sent me a DM, saying basically “okay but what if that did exist, would you want to work on it?” It was a joy to work on, and I still feel extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity.
Do you feel that transgender characters are often depicted poorly or negatively in horror fiction?
LG: This is interesting because while some would consider many trans characters in horror as bad representation, or portrayed negatively, many others take pride and strength from those depictions, reclaiming it as part of our history. Like Angela from Sleepaway Camp (1983) is iconic and was meant to be this horrifying reveal, but I know many people who love and relate to her. Likewise, queer-coded villains have been a trope for ages, and embracing these messy, imperfect characters can be really empowering.
In the introduction to Bound in Flesh, you describe these as stories of “transformation, acceptance, growth, and gore”—would you characterize these stories as transpositive tales of horror?
LG: Even though many of the stories have what you’d consider “unhappy endings,” I think they are positive. It’s the writers speaking their truths, as corny as that sounds. Pushing through to the other side, no matter what that brings, it’s very hopeful in my mind. I originally planned this super long introduction, with a lot of reflection on gender and body horror but it felt unnatural in the end, like the book said all it needed to without me rambling on top of it.
Do you feel there is a lot of diversity in the folks writing and reading horror fiction these days?
LG: In some ways, yes, and others, it’s still very much a boys club. I think for a lot of people they just don’t know where to start looking for books by trans authors, or neurodiverse authors, and other marginalised groups. So by having anthologies like Bound In Flesh the hope is we can get the word out there that this does exist and that there is a place for everyone in horror.
What do you see as the future of body horror and cosmic horror?
LG: I think right now there’s a great trend of small, narrative experiences in video games using cosmic/body horror, something that feels very specific to that medium and I hope to see it continue. Developing games is a lot more accessible now too, so the amount and variety of storytellers is expanding. I’d love to work on a game someday.
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Thank you Lor for answering all of these questions, and for a chance to pick your brains about body horror and cosmic horror! Looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.
For more on Lor Gislason, check out their Linktree.
Bound in Flesh (2023) is available from Ghoulish Books.
Bobby Derie is the author of Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E. Howard & Others (2019) and Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos (2014).
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