Talk:Horror Punk/@comment-4849011-20140913155417

The primary source of horror in this story is that Johnny actually thought that committing murder and other brutal acts was the way to create great music, that he wouldn't be a great artist unless he committed those acts, but there's another element that's also disturbing if you think about. It's more subtle, but I'm talking about the denial. The narrator had numerous chances to realize that Johnny was the killer, but he kept making excuses like, "He must've heard the same rumors I heard," even though intellectually he was putting the pieces together. I have a textbook on alcoholism and other addictions and it has a section called "Denial by Others". It notes, "One mother found baking soda, glass tubing, metal mesh, and a small torch in her daughter's bedroom, yet refused to believe that her lovely fifteen-year-old girl was using crack." There are people who will go to scary levels of self-delusion rather than believe someone close to them has done something terrible.