Cynthia Freeland

Horror is often dismissed as mass art of lowbrow entertainment that produced only shirt-term thrills. Horror films can be bloody, gory and disturbing, so some people argue that they have bad moral effects, inciting viewers to imitate cinematic violence or desensitizing them to atrocities. Meer

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this Very Short Introduction Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. Meer