Why can some people get away with creating superbly disturbing stories/art/merchandise and others get treated like mental patients for doing or thinking exactly the same things?
I once made a photography instructor cry with my artwork. Sure, it was creepy but it was close to Halloween, okay? My project consisted of an *artfully* back-lit doll, swinging from a noose, suspended in a doorway, holding a knife.
Alright. So the doll had a creepy lazy eye but at least I decided against putting fake blood on the knife.
I also had some shots that made the doll look like it was in motion, climbing up the stairs. Again with the knife. (God, I'm laughing just thinking about it.)
Okay, so maybe it was a little too scary. I mean, my roommates demanded that I wrap both the doll and the knife in a shoebox and toss it in a dumpster across campus after viewing the pictures, but still.
So, I turned this project in and later received a summons to the instructor's office. The man was in tears when I arrived. He asked me if I was contemplating suicide and all I could do was stare at him. He explained that the last time a student turned in something so disturbing, the guy killed himself.
Obviously, he'd never watched the movie CHUCKY. That movie haunted my dreams as a child but I never once thought to call up the screenwriter and ask, "Hey... just wondering, are you thinking of offing yourself anytime soon? Cause you're F*CKING CRAZY!"
Honestly, do you think anyone close to Stephen King, ever tried to commit him to a mental ward when he shared his first story? If that guy took pictures of a homicidal, undead doll, no one would bat an eye.
How does one go from a normal, sane person to selling the idea of alien butt-worms that try to take over the world (DREAMCATCHER, anyone?) without their sanity being questioned?
