Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

observes that “Fear of the Dark,” “Even our world of permanentlybright-lit cities, blotting out the stars, has not quite succeeded inabolishing the animal-instinctive, body-deep association of thedarkness of the night with fear: fear of the unknown, the unexpected,uncomprehended; fear of unseen danger, death and dissolution”(Lash 206). In medieval times, for instance, the darkness was literallydarker, with no electric cities lighting the blackness of night. Peoplehad a very real fear of falling into unseen ditches, or being attacked bycriminals who could hide in dark corners (Bildauer 135). But if ourfears were related simply to these concrete reasons, would our dreadnot have dissipated with the invention of the street lamp? This deepseatedfear, however, is not often something we acquire consciously,but begins in childhood. David Kipper points out, “That certain fearsoccur more frequently than others among children; in particular fearof…darkness…reaches its peak at about the age of four” (Kipper 24).Still today the fear begins when we are young, before we can eventhink about why we are afraid, and it does not discriminate betweengender or race either. Louise T. Higgins states that “[Some] fears arebelieved to have originated during evolutionary history when humanbeings were biologically programmed to learn easily and efficiently…to fear objects and stimulations that threatened the survival of thespecies” (Higgins37-38). She concludes with this information and astudy she has conducted that “Human fears,” such as darkness, “doseem to be similar across cultures” (Higgins 47). All of this researchindicates that our fear of darkness is something in us from birth thatwe must learn to live and cope with. It is no wonder, then, that somany have tried to understand what the reason for this fear is. Boththrough scholarly discussions and a large amount of entertainmentbased literature our interest is evident. As we have come into themodern age, more and more people have attempted to define ourideas of what is to be the monstrous. Part of this continual attemptis our continual fascination with things of this nature, because of54 afternoons of alterity