Special for April Fool’s: What Makes Something Scary?

There are a lot of answers to that question, of course: like big teeth and claws; but Julia Kristeva, in her book Powers of Horror, has a novel suggestion.

It goes like this: We all know what a subject isa person is a subject.

And we know what an object isan object is a thing, like a chair; or maybe a dumb brute.

You have no problem sitting on a chair. Its just an object!

You have no problem shaking someones hand. A hand is just part of a subject!

If I shake your hand, maybe my fingernails...