Description

What I Was Afraid Of by Eric Hanson

Hardcover – Tartarus Press – Mar 2022 – 237 pages

What I Was Afraid Of is a book of fears, suspicions, uncertainties, bewilderment, confusion, guilt and unease. The stories are an exploration of things that never happened, and couldn’t happen because we are safe in­doors, under the covers, with the doors locked.

We fear the things we don’t understand, so we crawl inside them and look out through a stranger’s eyes. We imagine ourselves involved in sinister and peculiar things. We put ourselves in a criminal’s shoes to see how they feel and where they take us. Where do these thoughts come from? Are we complicit?

The fact is, people take fear as a stimulant. It’s the pinch that tells us we’re awake. Unrea­soning fears are the most enter­taining. The horrible visions we recoil from are often ourselves seen in a dark mirror or someone we know seen in bad light.