Whispers in the Dark
Why People Who Do Not Believe in Ghosts Are Afraid of Them
Fresh from World Fantasy Con in Niagara Falls, I want to share with you the lecture I gave on ghosts in literature. Since this topic deserves more than a single post (and Halloween is coming too), I will do something different. Here is the video of the slides I used for my lecture which provide a background for contemporary fictional ghosts. I talk about the belief in an afterlife, the explosive rise of spiritualism in the Victorian age, and how it is connected with secularism. And in the following posts, I will expand on each of the three categories of ghosts in fiction: haunted houses; psychic detectives; and invasion of the undead (no zombies, I promise!) So here is a brief history of ghosts, mediums and hauntings in a video:
Fascinating stuff! Have you read Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Professor Challenger” novel about spiritualism? I think it’s called The Land of Mist. It’s not very good, but interesting for historical reasons.
I’ve never been drawn to horror as a genre, although I’ve read some of the nineteenth century horror classics, and I’ve never worked out if it’s because I’m a fairly rationalist religious believer and don’t believe in much that’s supernatural other than God and immortal souls or if I’m just squeamish and don’t like being frightened.
OTOH, I am a bit of an obsessive about a subgenre of eerie TV science fiction on the boundaries between science fiction and horror (mostly twentieth century) e.g. Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, Sapphire and Steel, Quatermass. When I watched The Twilight Zone for the first time a couple of years ago, I was surprised that most of my favourite episodes were horror rather than SF, so maybe I should give the genre more of a go. I look forward to the following posts for tips for potential books to read!
What a great overview and way of grouping ghost stories!