Weird Murmur

  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 7: " The Lost Ghost" (1903 ) by Mary E. Wilkins “. . . it don’t do anybody in this world any good to see things that haven’t any business to be seen in it.” Sitting with their sewing and crochet, the two women of the framing story are wonderful characters. The ghost in this story likes to pull the cat’s tail, which the cat clearly does not like. Otherwise, it is a sweet and most helpful little ghost. The ghost is an eerie one, and its back-story is chilling. This is a sad ghost story, though with lots of charm and a happy ending. Themes: Ghost Can’t Find Their Way, Ghost-Child, Tragic Death.       Day 8:  “Drive" (2024) by Brian Evenson As an unwilling would-be ritual sacrifice, you must be careful when attempting your escape. Killing y...

    Brian Evenson, "It Does Not Do What You Think It Does" in  Good Night, Sleep Tight  (Coffee House Press: 2024).   We have largely shed the Cartesian myth that our own motivations and psychological drives are transparent to our minds. Contrary to the myth, we don’t have indubitable access to our inner mental states, and we often behave in ways that we don’t understand or frequently misunderstand. We think we have one set of reasons for doing something, but it turns out, there are causes and hidden psychological drives that better explain our behavior. Therapy often reveals surprising motivations behind our actions–you don’t do what you think you do! Brian Evenson’s “It Does Not Do What You Think It Does” focuses attention on this phenomenon. What is the “it” in the title that we misunderstand? Tellingly, the man in Evenson’s story hears the answer repeated to himself over and over before interpreting the rest of the phrase; he hears: “YOU.” It is we who do no...

  Art by Dan Rempel Brian Evenson, "The Rider" in Weird Horror, Issue 5,  Fall 2022, Undertow Publications. Read the story here on Weird Horror Magazine's website I am an admirer of Robert Aickman's style of strange stories. His voice is one-of-a-kind, and his unique sense of the weird can unsettle in delightful ways. I rarely read a story by another author that gives me that kind of experience. Evenson's "The Rider" captures my mind like an Aickman story does. If you are ever on the road needing petrol or you are having some car trouble, there are two places you don't want to end up: stay away from The Hospice and steer clear of the town of ... I can't remember what it's called... the name is just on the tip of my tongue...