Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country

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It is a jolt then as Parnell pulls us away from Machen’s Grey Hill or Sebald’s Suffolk with the reveals of his unfolding personal memories, a reminder of the horror of loss; a collective sharing of grief, but a narrative that can only be deeply personal. Tales of Gertrude emphasize that she never married, that after her father disapproved of her only suitor, and that she promised him she’d stay single and live in his home. The author takes us through a landscape of hill, hollow, forest and wasteland evoking dark memories of our dim and distant past and the restless spirits of our lost childhood. Any building whose construction is a little bit off, as often as not, has spirits swirling about it. In her study of the ghost stories of the Hudson Valley in New York, Judith Richardson describes how one ghost in particular has changed shape through the decades to suit different needs of different eras.

You wouldn't expect to read about brothels, human psychology, Victorian architecture, even a suburban Toys R' Us, and come out the other side with an entirely different understanding and appreciation for ghosts. If you want to understand a place, ignore the boastful monuments and landmarks, and go straight to the haunted houses. Tune out the patriotic speeches and sanctioned narratives, and listen instead for the bumps in the night. The past we’re most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark. Parnell’s specifics and the images he creates show a distinct link between various landscapes and how they inspired some very haunting tales which maintain their power to impress readers to this day.Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made --and why those changes are made --Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved. Instead of, or perhaps in addition to, the supernatural, old buildings are haunted by their memories: memories of those who once inhabited them, and the memories we bring to them. Under the invisible weight of these memories, the habits of those who once haunted these places, we feel the shudder of the ghost. In a world where nearly every moment of our lives is photographed, recorded, and documented, the gaps in the past still beckon us.

All around it are gleaming glass and steel towers of the modern age, bustling with life still living. Man kann das Buch eigentlich nur vollständig genießen, wenn man zumindest die allermeisten der Autoren kennt, die hier erwähnt werden.Dickey's book is not so much about spooks and goblins, but about tales of them that we tell, and why.

From the era of slavery to 19th century spiritualism to women's suffrage up to today, ghost stories have played an integral part of our nation's history. The children, as well as the adults on the street, all recognize her: Gertrude Tredwell, who’s lived in the house for over ninety years, born there only a few years after her father purchased it in 1935.You won’t need an electronic device to capture the voices of the dead; a patient ear and an open mind will do. His sphere of reference is clearly shaped by his 1970s childhood and the array of wonderful television and film the decade offered, and he maps memories of encountering these for the first time to moments mirrored within his adult life, sometimes situating these in the very landscape they capture, making this delectable reading for anyone interested in the current folk horror revival. This is the first book I've hated so much I've stopped reading, I'm not wasting any more of my precious time suffering over this smarmy nonsense.