Popular Culture Review Vol. 25, No. 1, Winter 2014 | Page 67

______Finding Our Humanity in Paranormal Literature 63 holds today, it is no wonder that paranormal literature and its characters and themes captivate readers’ attentions. We are obsessed with ourselves, and we like to read about topics that we can apply to ourselves. This literature fulfills the fantasies we hold about adventure, love, and community. In addition, the shift in postmodern Western ideology to explore and express one’s identity, and the ways in which identity and reality are fluid, appeals to readers who experience the same in the lives of the paranormal characters. Not only do we seek literature that reflects the struggles and triumphs we encounter, but we yearn to find our identities in the lives of the characters. Paranormal literature provides just that through escapism. In essence, reading paranormal literature means we are reading not about others who are different, but about ourselves: our strengths, our weaknesses, and most of all, our hopes that we act humane and that good triumphs over evil. Pacifi