One of the funny - not in the "ha ha" sense, really - side effects of having been SO sick for the last two weeks is that not eating for basically two weeks really makes the weight just fall off. And my appetite hasn't returned either, so I'm either going to melt down and be all svelte-like OR I'll die. Or, more likely than either of those, my appetite will return JUST fine and I can stop being so dramatic about it.
ALSO I am totally out of shape. I just took the kids to the grocery store and then played outside with them - nothing strenuous - and now I am sitting here puffing away like I just ran a marathon. PATHETIC.
I've been thinking about ghost stories lately because
a) I have been sad
and
b) I read a lot of ghost stories while I was sick
and one of the things about ghost stories is how DISAPPOINTING they so often are. A few people have done them very well, but no one very recent, I don't think. And don't suggest I write them because I am too totally craven and all I'd get to was "Beck was alone in her office when suddenly she heard heavy footsteps in her basement" and then I'd be crying on the phone to my husband. But if you wrote that, I'd scoff.
But. I have been thinking about ghost stories, as I said, and thinking about why they DID work and don't work anymore (or are their modern ghost story writers I don't know about?), and what MAKES them work. What strikes you as spooky, as haunting? What would make a ghost story work for you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
31 comments:
The ghost stories that work best for me are those where the ghost is benevolent, like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I'm not too fond of stories that haunt me.
As I grow older, there seem to be plenty of situations in real life that haunt me, so I generally don't add to the mix with my leisure reading. I find myself looking to Rosamunde Pilcher, Jan Karon and the like to float my literary boat.
=)
I don't read ghost stories and in general shy away from having my wits scared right out of me. I did see many a horror movie though with friends in my youth and hated every minute of every single one of them.
What I can say is that I am most scared (by movies, books, whatever) by what is "not" said or seen. It is always the threat of what might happen that scares me way more than seeing something all bloody and gross.
I guess I am more afraid of the suspense than the scare.
As for out of shape I ran down to the basement three times this morning in a row and holy out of breath! I need to find time for workouts immediately!
I know exactly what you mean. We have been sick for 2 weeks and I just cleaned out 2 garbage bags of stuff thinking I would then take them to the thrift shop only to realize when finished that I was too exhausted to move. On the other hand since it has been an upper respiratory thing I have been eating a ton trying to make my throat and stomach feel better. Ick. I also spent a lot of time reading ghost stories but I choose them from the young adult/children's section so they were not nearly so disappointing, and even rather fun. I would like this particular year to just hurry up and get over with because so far it is not any better than last and last was miserable.
i just love, love, love a good ghost story. but,i can't think of any recent or modern ones i like. the haunting of hill house by jackson is a BIG favorite, and i think what i like about it is that there were no real explanations. the mystery of it all was still there at the end of the book. there was no neat package, no big reveal...just fear.
Don't be so hard on yourself, you've been sick and that has a lot to do with being exhausted when you play with the kids.
oh--and that is also the reason that the movie (the haunting 1963 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057129/)continues to scare me--nothing is revealed. like jenifer said, what is NOT seen is usually more frightening than what is.
and i'm out of shape, too. bleh.
I like to read real ghost stories (an oxymoron?--some would think) but they don't scare me, they make me cry. There is just something so sad and pathetic about their choosing to linger.
I don't read ghost stories, so I can't help. But I have to say that unplanned weight loss is the very best thing about being sick. Actually, it's the only good thing.
Will you (or have you) listed the best ghost stories you've read?
What is spooky for me is the un-obvious. I'm no help, I know.
Steph
The Others (movie) was the spookiest thing (movie or book) I've encountered in a while! I think it was the atmosphere and the suprise ending.
Also, there was explainable isolation. That's the part of Her Fearful Symmetry that I didn't buy - I get economy of characters, but still! Also, her ghosts were annoying.
I'm not a huge fan because I can't get scary or awful things out of my head, so then I'm tormented.
Edgar Allen Poe of course I've read, and he's wonderful but it's old stuff. I read a short story once by Ambrose Bierce about the hanging of a Civil War soldier at Owl Creek Bridge that was an amazing piece of writing and quietly terrifying. Again - old stuff.
I think Maukus Zusak's I Am The Messenger is a ghost-like story and quite good.
The best ghort story I've seen, not sure if it was originally a book, is The Sixth Sense. Scared the everlivingcrap out of me at the end. I was utterly stunned.
~shivers~
I am such the chicken. I used to devour all the horror books I could by all the big name writers. And now I scare myself to silly to read them anymore.
But the ghost story that sticks in my mind the most is the one my youngest tells me every so often: about the ghost in his room. Spooks me every time. And, right now? Yeah, I'm alone, 'k? And I've just scared myself.
WHAT IF SHE'S READING THIS OVER MY SHOULDER?!!
I can't handle spooky stories. When I was a teenager I ate them up but now...eek! The last book I read that scared me was Salem's Lot which isn't about ghosts but vampires - and not sexy ones either.
Rebecca is my favorite ghost story, because there is no ghost, everyone is just paranoid...and murderous! Plus you can buy it in paperback and it has a picture of a red satin sheet and the title is in raised gold, so it looks like you are reading a supermarket romance, when you are really reading a classic. Reminds me of the time that I bought the Scarlett Pimpernel at Walmart for a dollar. It said, "...Reign of Terr". I was young and it took about six years to figure out it was a typo, I just thought I was lacking in vocabulary skills. REIGN OF TERROR! Oh, now I get it!
Aaack - Patois just scared me.
Obviously, for me? Anything works. But I prefer true (or supposedly true) ones. Love them. I'm addicted. But I won't read them if my husband is away.
I can't remember the title of the memoir I read recently, but it was written by someone who grew up in a haunted house. Totally cool. I'll let you know if I remember the title.
Also, the scariest thing I ever read (fiction) was the short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. Much better than the movie that Hitchcock made from it, in my opinion...
My favorite ghost stories/scary stories always include insanity. I guess that's what scares me most.
Also, I like them best when they are unresolved.
I read one when I was in junior high called 'Amie, Come Home' I don't really remember it, but I do remember I loved it. Wonder if I still would?
I don't think I've read one! How could that be? I work in a library for heaven's sake. Suggest just one, will you, Beck? What should I read?
My favorite Ghost stories are by Edith Wharton. I read them every other year so they will not get too familiar- they are more about irony than real ghosts but I love them.
James Lee Burke writes detective stories about a recovering alcoholic in Louisiana and his stories are riddled with ghosts- if you can handle some pretty graphic violence, he is an excellent writer and weaves tales that put shivers down your back.
I don't read much modern stuff unless it comes highly recommended and someone is willing to lend me the book- :) - so I don't have any recent ghost stories to share.
Good question- I enjoyed reading the comments.
While this is not really a ghost story, Jack London's writing was always haunting to me - something about the pacing, the word choices??
Oh and the scene at the end of the Sea Wolf where the main character commits suicide by drowning himself - I could probably tell you great stretches of that story, and I haven't read it in fifteen years....
and now I've gone all goose-pimply.
Ooh! And that short story 'All Summer In A Day' - we read that in eighth grade, and I STILL can't get some of it out of my head - creepy, that.
First of all, I so get you on the out of shape thing. I wheeze while carrying the laundry about.
Second, thinking of you having anything resembling writer's block reminded me of this:
" 'I hope that if I pour water over my head, it will help me to think of a story,' said Toad.
Toad poured many glasses of water over his head."
:)
As far as ghostly/creepy stories, I don't have much input...I did once have a horribly embarrassing Stephen King habit.
I used to love ghost stories as a child, but not so much anymore.
Hmm, I think you're right. No one really does ghost stories very well anymore. But then, I don't read them very often, so I'm hardly the authority.
I think just about all ghost stories are scary. Probably because I have my own personal ghost stories so I tend to believe everything.
I guess the lack of control that a person has over the ghost is what is scary to me. You can't "fight" it off. What do you do? Say, "Stop or I'll say stop again!" Hmm...
Sometimes I lay awake in bed and think about a particularily scary part of a movie I saw. A woman was lying in bed and suddenly her bedspread and sheets begun to get pulled off of her. THAT FREAKS ME OUT! I am always saying in my head, "don't let my sheets get pulled off me!"
This is why I don't read or watch scary ghost stories anymore. ;)
I can't even imagine being sick for that long while trying to manage children! I so hope you feel better soon.
I was YouTubing My Neighbours The Yamadas yesterday (because we worship at the shrine of Miyazaki around these parts) and came across a ROCKIN' good ghost story. It was a short video in Japanese and was perfectly scary. Perhaps you are dreaming in the wrong language?
I've never been able to read any real ghost stories, except for some Poe. I'm too much of a scaredy-cat. But I did watch Alfred Hitchcock back in the day. He didn't necessarily tell ghost stories, but my, did he have the art of suspense mastered. I don't know how this would translate to a book, but the use of only bird calls and silence in the movie "The Birds" was just haunting.
Have you read Robertson Davies' ghost story collection High Spirits? They are funny rather than scary, but I love them. There's a great audio version somewhere read aloud by Christopher Plummer.
I think there are two things that make a spooky ghost story work: a sense of otherness and the presence of unquenchable longing. Both are in A Christmas Carol. If I remember correctly, Agatha Christie and LM Montgomery both managed a few short stories too.
You should go and read @SKEdman's blog. Last Novemberish she did a section on "haunting". Very good.
www.recoveringsociopath.blogspot.com
I can't read ghost stories, I am such a wimp. Sorry.
I loved (and feared) them when I was in my teens and younger, but haven't read much since. Now, I'm reading some of these older books to my kids--I save them for the dark, rainy cottage nights in the summer.
They seem to work just fine!
Post a Comment