The Ghost Story Advent Challenge Week 3

 

For the month of December I am reading a ghost story everyday as a kind of Ghost Story Advent Challenge. I’ll post about the stories that I read at the end of each week. I’m discovery some wonderfully weird tales.

Day 14: "Those I Have Never Known" (2024) by Katherine Cart

 If you feel a little tickle in your throat and then something hairy brushing your back molars, it might be a ghost coming up headfirst. Just reach in there and pull the bugger out! Sometimes ghosts live inside of us and only reveal themselves after we give up all the things we use to cover ourselves. Then repeat, to cover them all up again.

 Themes: Ancestral Influence, Commercialism, Haves and Have-Nots, Shame.

 

Day 15: "Lady Ferry" (1879) by Sarah Orne Jewett

A child is sent to a colonial estate, where she befriends an impossibly old woman who lives in the tower.  The relationship between Lady Ferry and the child is a sweet one, and the story, as a recounting of a childhood experience, feels heartfelt and genuine. Lady Ferry's state of being is nicely ambiguous, and lends to the story's mysterious and strange mood.

Themes: Loneliness, Haunted House, Remembering Childhood, The Melancholy of a Long Life.

 Day 16: "The Crown Derby Plate"(1933) by Marjorie Bowen

As far as dishes go, the derby crown set is not as strange as the owl service (see Alan Garner), but Martha Pym is missing one of the plates of the derby set. She has a lead on locating it and out to the Hartley House she goes. The fact that the house is allegedly haunted doesn’t bother her because she really wants to see a ghost anyway (until she actually does)!

Themes: Haunted House, Ghost Guards Its Property.

Day 17: "Fern’s Room" (2024) by Elizabeth Hand

When a vacation goes wrong you have to make the best of it. When Marisa wins a vacation to a stately mansion in England, she doesn’t count on it turning out the way it does, but she takes it all in stride (almost inspirationally so). The story's setup is great: closing due to bankruptcy, imagine being the last and only guest at a hotel like The Overlook from The Shining. 

There aren’t any scary legends or haunting stories about the old place. In this subversion of a ghost story trope, the locals just think of it an old home owned by a rich guy struggling to turn a profit on it as a hotel. The story also keeps the ghost at a nice distance as Marisa learns about Fern’s life. 

Themes: Tragic Death, Strong Attachment to Place, Mansion with Off-Limits Tower, Child-like Ghost.

 Day 18: "The Corpse Light" (1899) by J. E. Preston Muddock

The story has some eerie moments as our good doctor makes a night ride past a haunted mill. Strange elements include a glowing corpse and a ghost that slaps you with something wet and clammy to get your attention. (This ghost isn’t even above slapping the horse that the doctor rides).

 Themes: Ghost Needs Help from the Living, Skeptic of the Supernatural, Haunted Wind Mill, Murder, Glowing Corpse, Love Triangle.

Day 19: "Phantas" (1910) by Oliver Onions

Oliver Onions can get creatively weird and often dives into heady conceptual terrain. Among other things, this story offers interesting reflections on divine explanation versus casual determinism. At one point, the scientifically minded protagonist muses that “hand-of-God” explanations of phenomena are fine, but, surely, there must be a method that guides God’s hand, and it is that method he is interested in discovering. Later, there is some discussion of translating explanations between two paradigms, for example, a steam-engine driven ship might be described as storing wind energy and directing it astern to propel the ship. 

Ostensibly though, the story is about the death of two stranded men on a slowly sinking ship, the ambiguity of the tale leaves different interpretations open: maybe they are already dead, maybe one is just dreaming, maybe [add whatever other weird interpretation here]. And yes, on top of it all, there is some odd time travel happening, and even a suggestion that another ship’s captain comes across this derelict that is haunted by the ghost of one of his past lives. This all sits nicely at home with other strange ones from Onions like “The Rope in the Rafters” and “’John Gladwin Says . . .’.”

Themes: Haunted Ship, Experience of Dying, Explanation, Enlightenment/Romanticism, The Idea of Something/The Thing Itself.