The King in Yellow: Weird as Hell

What is weird? The King in Yellow that's what. When stories fictional motif, a motif which barely receives any explanation, can become so real to the reader that he finds himself wondering what it could be based off of and if it is manifested in real life in anyway at the moment, that's weird. But that is exactly what happens when someone reads The King in Yellow. I mean the title of the book is a question in itself, who is The King in Yellow? Well by the end I'm not so sure I want to know. This knowledge seems to break those who try to bear it. And that's also extremely weird. Murderers and monsters are scary. But knowledge? Since when can knowledge be so horrifying? The knowledge contained within the fictional stories involving Carcossa seem to be deadlier than any knife wielding serial killer. This is the root of the weirdness I think. Taking an element that seems so normal and making it deadly. It is strange, unsettling, and leaves the reader unsure of what he knows. In the case of The King in Yellow it makes him afraid of what he does not know or might know in the future. Not many stories do this well and those that do have reached true weirdness. Another example one might site would be The Masque of Red Death. We are presented with a force, plague, which embodies itself in a sentient being. This being acts malevolently and without bounds. The transcendence of sickness from its natural but unthinking force into a thinking killer is weird. Taking something and raising it to a deadlier degree, although in this case the element is already deadly, is what makes it weird.