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It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets other, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity. That such events have their own Rube Goldberg absurdity goes almost without saying. At some point, it all starts to become rather funny. That may be the point at which sanity begins either to save itself or to buckle and break down; that point at which one's sense of humor begins to reassert itself.

Stephen King#89

HorrorHumorResilienceTraumaDespairSanity

About this quote

What does it mean?
Endless horror can break sanity or make things absurd. It explores the limits of human endurance and humor.
In plain terms
Too much horror can make things funny or crazy.
What can you take from it?
Humor helps cope with extreme horror.

Where it applies

  • trauma
  • crisis
  • dark times

Putting it to work

  • resilience
  • therapy
  • writing

Questions to consider

  • When does horror become funny?
  • How do you maintain sanity?

Another view

It normalizes breaking under pressure.

More from Stephen King

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  2. What you buy is what you own, and sooner or later what you own will come back to you.

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  3. Some things it don't pay to be curious about.

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