Friday

[clevermanka]

Managed to delete the entry I was writing about this haunted apartment in Montreal story but basically it came down to: Why does nobody in ~true~ ghost stories attempt communication? I've never read a story where someone asks the ghost Why are you sad/angry? or Can I help in a way that won't hurt me? I feel for the residents because yeah all that sucks but it's gotta suck for the ghost too, right? Nobody ever says "I'll keep you company as long as we are kind to each other."

Yesterday's dump on cm.net.

Comments

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[minoanmiss]

I have made a note for when next I contemplate ghost stories


I do have one wheel the ghost says what he wants but it’s a possession story do the ghost is a problem. (A wip)

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[clevermanka]

I have read fiction where people attempt communication, but never a story that has (supposedly) happened to real people. I've stopped reading true haunting reddit threads and the like bc they make me sad instead of creeped out.

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[minoanmiss]

OH! I see what you mean now. I've never watched a Ghost-hunting show, but that does seem like a really obvious thing to do, to ASK.

[salamandras]

That's a really good point, and a really interesting read. Not a fan of how they pulled the same stunt on Kurt that they had done to them, though, even if it was motivated by a lack of money. I enjoy ghost stories, but am perpetually disappointed by TV shows that present reportedly true hauntings. Maybe nobody's brave enough? Or more likely, knowing humans, they're so wrapped up in how it makes them feel that they can't fathom or spare the mental space to care for something outside themselves when they are scared.

I'd love to think I'd be able to be kind and thoughtful in that moment before running in terror, but...

[clevermanka]

they're so wrapped up in how it makes them feel that they can't fathom or spare the mental space to care for something outside themselves when they are scared
Yepppppppppppp. Kinda reflects our current trying times, doesn't it?

[redheadfae]

I'd like to think now that I'd wonder about the ghost, but the time one laid down beside me in my bed alone one night while my spouse was on a graveyard shift was all about the Nopes. I dressed and and paced the floor with all the lights on until he got home. I did not care what whoever it was wanted, I did not consent to them laying down beside me.

[clevermanka]

yikes!

[redheadfae]

It's one of the creepiest unexplained things I've ever experienced. I was awake in the dark, I felt the bed shift, and the "weight?" of a person move next to me. I reached over to snuggle, thinking it was my spouse, and found nothing. Never jumped out of bed so fast ever. The house we rented was an old railroad workers' bungalow that had been moved to town.

[wrote_and_writ]

I think we treat ghosts the same way we treat animals and insects. Like sorry I have come into your territory (more or less) but this is my land/house now, so we’re gonna get the exterminators. If we’re feeling kind we might try humane “traps,” but most of us reach for the poison and the glue traps.

[clevermanka]

LOL I have a zero tolerance policy for anything alive in my house that I didn't specifically invite. Just now realized this doesn't necessarily hold true for things that aren't alive.

sorry I have come into your territory (more or less) but this is my land/house now, so we’re gonna get the exterminators
Not to get deep (seriously, I don't have the energy for this conversation although I think it would be interesting if I did), but this is such a white/colonialist mentality, especially when we consider things that might have been in the house before us. I wonder if most ~true~ ghost stories are by white people.

[wrote_and_writ]

I am more tolerant of spiders than I am of ghosts lol. But yeah, I think it could be an interesting conversation (or my mind goes to grad school study). On the fictional side, I am reading a book of contemporary Chinese sci fi and fantasy, and there is one that I would specifically class a ghost story and the way the ghost is treated is definitely very different from white European based stories. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho is also pretty much a ghost story, and in both, understanding how the supernatural entity works in crucial to the resolution of the story. Oh, Cho also has a ghost story in Spirits Abroad. I’ll have to see if I can find it since I didn’t bring my copy with me. But yeah, since I’ve been reading specifically non-European fantasy and sci-fi lately, I do notice a different trend. Also, in the second most recent season of Unsolved Mysteries there is an episode about tsunami ghosts in Japan, but I didn’t watch it because it looked super spooky and also, it’s most likely told from the white/outsider POV. They did have a French murder episode produced by the people who lived through it, almost wholly in French, so maybe they were more respectful with the Japanese story but I am not holding my breath, nor am I gonna watch it. 😂

[clevermanka]

in both, understanding how the supernatural entity works in crucial to the resolution of the story
Oh, nice! Love that.

Thank you for the recommendations. If I'm ever up to reading original fiction again...

[wrote_and_writ]

Ooof, yeah. That's why I've been buying short story anthologies. I've got an attention span for about a story at a time.

[nnozomi]

I've never read a story where someone asks the ghost Why are you sad/angry? or Can I help in a way that won't hurt me?
Interesting! The first thing this brings to mind is, what do they call it, Inquiry from The Untamed--you know, the music thing asking ghosts who they are and what they want?--but you're right, it doesn't come up much. Better human-ghost communication needed...

[clevermanka]

Yes, exactly!