Recently I was reading some online horror stories (known as "creepypastas"), and also The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft, a famous early twentieth century horror writer. I noticed an interesting contrast between the two. Creepypastas are generally very direct accounts, often first-person, of an encounter with the unknown. On the other hand, the Lovecraft story I read featured plenty of indirection--the narrator would tell of a man researching a past character, and then describe the circumstances of that past character through a conglomeration of second-hand accounts and letters. This was more typical of early modern fiction than it is of modern fiction. Modern fiction is likely to be composed of vivid first-hand accounts, as in a movie, whereas it would be near impossible to make the Lovecraft story into a movie. The overall effect of the stories on the psyche were different too. The short creepypastas have first-hand frights and jump scares, which make you fear things that are immediately dangerous and personal. Unlikewise, the Lovecraft story uses indirect accounts, with characters who refuse to go into details, even destroying records of happenings out of fear. It doesn't make you feel like you are in immediate danger; instead it makes you fear things whose very existence is terrible to consider, and which have unthinkable ramifications for the entire human race.