Metafiction and Horror, with Eleanor Hingley

We’re back and we’re discussing metafiction and horror, shoehorning the title of the episode into the first paragraph for SEO purposes. Main Topic: Metafiction and Horror Metafiction turns up in every genre from literary fiction to superheroes, breaking fourth walls, embedding fictional narratives within fictional narratives, and generally dismantling storytelling conventions. Our focus here, however, is on the connection between metafiction and horror, whether this is self-aware slasher films or horror novelists who write horror novels about horror novelists. Done right, it can make things even creepier, making you doubt your own reality. Yes, you. We look at various definitions of metafiction, how it’s been used in media, and how all this applies to horror gaming. As ever, we wrap things up with a few ideas about how we might bring all this into our games. And then we look directly into the camera and wink. Our Guest Host We are delighted to welcome Eleanor Hingley back to the Good Friends, following our recent discussion of small town horror. Eleanor is a lifelong horror fan, obsessed with Gothic and horror art since childhood. She has written for a bunch of tabletop roleplaying games, including Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game, Hollows, Aegean, Broken Weave, The Laundry, Heart, and many other game lines. She also writes interactive fiction for Choice of Games, and has had IF published in sub-Q magazine. Eleanor has released her own independent TTRPG zines, which you can find on her itch.io page: Ex Libris, Talking Thunder and Seed of an Idea. You can follow Eleanor on Bluesky. Links Things we mention in this episode include: * The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers * Call of Cthulhu and Detective Fiction * Haunted Landscapes * Ripples From Carcosa by Heather Miller * Postmodern literature * Small town horror