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Daniel Saunders's avatar

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!

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Kim Smuga-Otto's avatar

What a great overview and way of grouping ghost stories!

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