This is a neat post about how cornfields are a huge part of the American Gothic genre. Here is the reason why:
(via: r/tumblr)
Cornfields Are American Gothic
Media Chomp
Internet & Geek Culture
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He who walks behind the rows
Miles after miles of nothing but corn is inherently frightening because, among other reasons, you can walk a few steps into the field and find yourself completely lost. Hybrid corn plants are about eight feet tall and tough as bamboo, with razor-edged leaves. There’s a reason they make mazes out of them. Once you’re in the corn you can’t see more than a foot in front of your face and all you can hear is rustling leaves. Absolutely anything could be hiding in the next row and you’d never know it. Growing up in Iowa in the Seventies I heard stories about little kids and fugitives from justice who disappeared in corn fields.
Corn isn’t supposed to grow alone. It’s one of the three sisters. You plant beans at its base, to climb up its stalks and feed it at the same time, and you plant squash to cover the ground below and hold in the moisture and control the weeds. You plant an avocado tree and a lemon tree nearby, and you’ll never be hungry.
But corn planted in isolation, in giant dense fields…it’s lonely and hungry. You should be afraid of that.