Why Write Ghost Stories?
I LOVE ghost stories. They overwhelm my podcast queue. I've read the complete works of M. R. James , and the short ghost stories of E. F. Benson . I read Shirley Jackson , Charlotte Perkins Gilman , Sheridan LeFanu , Tananarive Due , Charles Dickens, Ambrose Bierce , Shakespeare, etc. I prefer frightening stories, subtle stories, and ominous atmospheres. I turn my nose up at the more sentimental of tales, and embrace the gothic Christmas Eve traditions. And naturally, since I love them, my next impulse is to write them. But here's the rub: I don't believe in ghosts. Theologically, ghosts indicate something beyond an afterlife (or pre-mortal existence, if you go for the REALLY cheesy). One of my Shakespeare professors pointed out the role that ghosts played for Shakespeare, at a time when England was being violently whipped between Catholicism and Protestantism, and had become spiritually burned out. Ghosts, he posited, are distinctly Catholic, because they come from a plac...