A quick note on the nature of "horror"

I've listened to a lot of horror writers discuss their intent to scare the reader and I'm always left shrugging my shoulders a bit. I've never really been frightened by a horror novel, and I've never written anything with the intention of frightening someone. I suppose it's possible I have, through sheer accident, done so, but I couldn't tell you how I did it. I certainly didn't mean to do so.

The truth is I have no interest in writing something that scares people. My concern is with expressing ideas, and though I find these ideas fascinating and worth exploring, I don't know if I'd go so far as to call them frightening. I suppose it all depends on the reader's comfort with the way he or she believes the world works, and whether my explanations for such match those notions. I just assume my readers share my interest in the philosophical, and thus the idea that things aren't as they seem, and that the universe is a malignant one, isn't something they aren't prepared to ponder.

Maybe I'm not a horror writer? I don't know. I certainly feel like one, but on the other side of the coin, what does it even matter? It's just a name, after all. I write what I write and I'm not worried about where it gets shelved. Non-frightening horror is a strange beast as it's not edgy enough for some horror fans, yet too edgy for the general public. Still, it's what I do, so I'll just keep doing it and see what happens.