Hit the Road to Parts Unknown

Image for The Legend of Sleeping Hollow (1958)

"On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!--but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!"

It's been a while since we enjoyed a ghost story. ;-)

This time we're celebrating the birth date of Washington Irving, born on April 3, 1783. Perhaps his best known story is the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", which has spawned numerous adaptations since it was first published in 1820.

Although I really liked Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, my favorite adaptation is still the Disney version that originally was part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949. It has an unforgettable art direction, with superb animation. Excellent visual storytelling.

Image from Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Remember, you can't reason with a headless man. ;-)

Muffled Under Dark Blankets of Night

Detail of Ghost on Santa Monica Pier (2011) by Helen K. Garber

"Encaustic Noir" is an exhibition of works by Helen K. Garber, on display at dnj Gallery. Although it keeps with her traditional theme of neo-noir cityscape, this body of work adds a unique twist; the images are all layered in beeswax, enveloped into an encaustic depth along with various mixed media, such as book pages and twine.

With her haunting noir imagery as the compositional focus, the layers of wax add a sense of distance, both in space and in time. Like the accumulated tarnish of years gone by, dulling memory to hazy impressions, so too does the wax blur the photographic image, turning places and people into shades. However, there is an odd sense of perseverance to these works, an enduring echo of life. Generally, photography captures an image, freezing the moment eternally unchanging in time, but these works are not frozen, instead are caught in an eternal process of fading away, receding endlessly into obscurement.

The mixed media additions, the twine, book pages, and wooden panel, add to this sense of obsolescence. They speak of a distant place, disjointed from the here and now, lost like a restless specter from a world that was or might have been.

Detail of Bike Path Fog II (2011) by Helen K. Garber

"Encaustic Noir" is on exhibit at dnj Gallery until February 25, 2012. Helen K. Garber will discuss her work on February 11 at 4:30 pm at the gallery.

Strong to the Finich

Popeye and Olive Oyl in A Date to Skate (1938)

My love for classic cartoons is well established on this blog. But one of my favorites is Popeye the Sailor, originally created by E. C. Segar in 1929 for his comic strip, Thimble Theatre.

Yeah, the plots are nonsensical, mere vehicles for absurd fisticuffs and overt brutishness, but I can't help enjoying the simple-minded mayhem. The creativity with which Popeye and Bluto assault each other, ever escalating to new heights of fantastic brutality, captivates me. I often enjoy seeing just how much of a pummelling that Popeye will receive before he pops open a can of spinach.

Crazy stuff!!! Yet, as a child, I spent countless Sunday mid-mornings watching these cartoons on Tom Hatten's Popeye Show, featured on KTLA. Obviously, this was well before the "Shelter the children from violent images" trend that came into prominence during the 1980s.

Popeye and Bluto in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (1936)

In any case, let's spend a few moments to enjoy some purposeless animated mayhem. ;-)

Dialogue between Wind and Waves

Point Vicente Lighthouse


Jutting into the Pacific Ocean, the Palos Verdes peninsula reaches its southwestern limit at Point Vicente, where the old lighthouse looms along the bluffs.

On a clear day, the view is gorgeous, the Pacific stretching out without end beyond the horizon, punctuated only slightly by the isle of Santa Catalina across the channel. But on a gray day like this, the dark sea merges into the leaden sky, and you feel as though you are standing at the World's End, only mist and darkness extending forever into a formless void. The waves murmur over one hundred feet below, an anxious chorus that echo across this forlorn scene.

It is on a day like this that you expect to witness the "Lady of the Light" strolling along the cliffs. Yes, true to type, the Point Vicente lighthouse is rumored to be haunted. But it's only a trick of the light. ;-)

Point Vicente was named in 1790 by Captain George Vancouver

Tearing myself away from morbid fantasies, I turned to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center to see the teaching facilities for marine biology.

Malign Sentience of the Souless Stone

Tomb effigies of the Knights Templar, Temple Church, London

Have you every looked upon a funerary sculpture and imagined the horror that you would feel if it suddenly began to move? There is something vaguely disquieting about such statues and carvings. It's as if they are receptacles for the disembodied spirit of the restless dead. The body of flesh and blood may have decayed into nothingness, but that enduring stone figure presents a cold home for defiant, damned spirit.

And that's the premise of E. Nesbit's classic ghost story, Man-Size in Marble, written in 1893. A newlywed couple finds a delightful cottage, but it has a dreadful connection to the effigies of two knights, known for their maliciousness, entombed at the nearby church. And one night of the year, as local superstition would have it, the inanimate stone becomes animate.

This isn't the best of ghost stories. It's a predictable plot and has annoying characters. But the concept is delightfully chilling. Yeah, it's kind of a cheap thrill, but I always enjoy the dark visions that Man-Size in Marble conjures up in my imagination.

Effigy of Sir Richard Lee in St. Mary's Church, Acton Burnell, Shropshire (Photo by Tom Oates, 2009)

I read this story as a child. Nesbit was a writer of children's fiction. So, I had developed an interest in her stories. Wow! Her Tales of Terror gave me many a sleepless night. But it helped build the foundation for my lifelong explorations into ghostly fiction, both as a reader and as a writer. So, this tale has sentimental value for me. ;-)

I Would Have Gotten Away With It. . .

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! episode 15 "Spooky Space Kook" (1969)


On Saturday, September 13, 1969, Scooby Doo Where Are You! debuted on CBS. As a child, I spent countless hours watching this and subsequent Scooby Doo shows, even into the horrible Scrappy Doo era. Although the simplistic plotting and horrible jokes are not to my adult tastes, I still have a warm spot in my heart for the gang of Mystery, Inc.

Wikipedia has a solid synopsis of virtually every Scooby Doo episode:

Each episode featured Scooby and the four teenaged members of the Mystery, Inc. gang: Fred, Shaggy, Daphne, and Velma, arriving to a location in the "Mystery Machine" and encountering a ghost, monster, or other supernatural creature, whom they learned was terrorizing the local populace. After looking for clues and suspects and being chased by the monster, the kids come to realize the ghost is anything but, and - often with the help of a Rube Goldberg-like trap designed by Fred - they capture the villain and unmask him. Revealed as a flesh and blood crook trying to cover up crimes by using the ghost story and costume, the criminal is arrested and taken to jail, often saying something to the effect of "...and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"

The formula is a classic. ;-)

"Jeepers, It's the Creeper!" Episode 21, 1970


Those meddling kids!!!

"Hassle in the Castle" Episode 3, 1969

Peddlers of Death

Detail from Peddlers of Death by David Stoupakis

I've been meaning to write a glowing review about the current exhibit of David Stoupakis' and Tom Bagshaw's work at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. Since it's closing on August 27, I figured it was now or never. So although there is only one week left for this show, I think it is excellent enough to merit my writing time and your viewing time.

I've got a fascination with morbid topics, such as death, ghosts, horror stories, and most sorts of Gothic styling. Both of the artists on exhibit deliver on the dark imagery, albeit in different manners. David Stoupakis presents a haunting set of serious imagery in his show "Walking Within These Shadows" in which ghostly young women or girls drift wraithlike within a gloom-filled, Stygian environment. These images hint at an underlying narrative of death and sorrow.



The Choice by David Stoupakis


The milky eyes and pale flesh of his figures imbue even the robust images with an enervating sensation of undeath. They are animated by a mysterious, umbral energy.

Midnight, the Stars and You

Overlook Hotel, July 4th Ball, 1921 (The Shining)

We've discussed haunted houses, but let's turn our attention to hotels. Although residency is usually brief, hotels seem to be ghost magnets. This reputation carries through into the ghostly fiction. In my estimation the best Haunted Hotel story is the cinematic adaptation of The Shining by Stephen King, directed by Stanley Kubrick.

The numerous ghosts, the long corridors, the dark history, these all combine to create a crowded and varied feel to the haunting that couldn't be matched by a normal domicile. It is as if the Overlook Hotel processes damnation in volume, skimming off the numerous guests who pass through its malign doors.



Red rum?! What could that mean?


Twin child ghosts, elevators full of blood, a snowy hedge maze, and haunting music, this movie has all the bases covered. ;-)

Unfortunate Hazards of the Road

The Phantom Coach (Derived from an illustration by Paul Lowe)

Since the theme for the week is bad happenings on the road, we can discuss a related horror trope. Travel is not an easy undertaking in the world of classic ghost stories. When you find yourself in a strange environment, all sorts of weird things might come across your path. And such is the case with our story tonight, Amelia B. Edwards' Phantom Coach, written in 1864.

Our protagonist finds himself lost on the British moors during a snowy night. He is desperate to return to his young wife and, after a sequence of foreshadowing incidents, he encounters a coach. Things are not as they seem. ;-)



Amelia B. Edwards


Here's my favorite part:

There could be no doubt, however, of the fact, for the lamps grew larger and brighter every moment, and I even fancied I could already see the dark outline of the carriage between them. It was coming up very fast, and quite noiselessly, the snow being nearly a foot deep under the wheels.

And now the body of the vehicle became distinctly visible behind the lamps. It looked strangely lofty. A sudden suspicion flashed upon me. Was it possible that I had passed the cross-roads in the dark without observing the sign-post, and could this be the very coach which I had come to meet?

Noooo!!!!!

The Surrounding Gloom

The Empty House

This week we'll look at that old standard of horror, the haunted house.

Algernon Blackwood wrote "The Empty House" in 1906. By this date, spending time within a "domicile of dread" was featured in countless ghost stories. For instance, J. Sheridan LeFanu's "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street" was published in 1853 and was considered such an exemplar of the type that Bram Stoker used it as direct inspiration for his story, "The Judge's House", in 1891. Even last week's subject, M.R. James, tried his hand at this well-worn trope in "Lost Hearts", written in 1895, albeit with his signature antiquarian twists.

So, what makes "The Empty House" worthy of our consideration? First, it is an excellent read. Second, it is the iconic "It'll be a Thrill" haunted house story, in which the characters who experience the haunting are neither unknowingly residing in the accursed place nor are they conducting a "scientific" study. They are there purely for the thrilling experience. As such, it is the antecedent to many of our contemporary "ghost stories" in which we watch, via night vision cameras, some silly people freak out in a "haunted" location for our entertainment.

Third, in most haunted house stories prior to "The Empty House", the haunting is about a location in which a ghost resides. Consider other monster types and their lairs. In fairy tales, a bridge may have a troll lurking beneath it or a cave may house a dragon. Neither the bridge nor the cave are inherently terrible; it is the monster associated with them that makes the location baneful. And so it is with the haunted house. But "The Empty House" alters the paradigm. Yes, there are ghosts present in the house, but their malevolent and unnatural presence has tainted the essence of the location. Whether or not the ghosts are present, the House itself is a monster.



Algernon Blackwood


Consider this passage:

Stealthily, walking on tip-toe and shading the candle lest it should betray their presence through the shutterless windows, they went first into the big dining-room. There was not a stick of furniture to be seen. Bare walls, ugly mantel-pieces and empty grates stared at them. Everything, they felt, resented their intrusion, watching them, as it were, with veiled eyes; whispers followed them; shadows flitted noiselessly to right and left; something seemed ever at their back, watching, waiting an opportunity to do them injury. There was the inevitable sense that operations which went on when the room was empty had been temporarily suspended till they were well out of the way again. The whole dark interior of the old building seemed to become a malignant Presence that rose up, warning them to desist and mind their own business; every moment the strain on the nerves increased.

Quis Est Iste Qui Venit

Illustration by James Bryde (1904)

This is our first Spooky Sunday post. Tonight we'll be featuring one of my favorite ghost stories by one of my favorite ghost story writers, "Oh, Whistle And I'll Come, My Lad" by M. R. James. Written in 1904, this is a story of an amateur antiquarian discovering an "accursed" item that brings the horrific attention of a supernatural entity. This basic plot line has gone on to become a staple of the Horror genre, but I feel that James does it first and best.

It's not about gore or thrills that make this story stand out. In fact, these elements that so dominate modern Horror are hardly present at all. Rather, it is the thick atmosphere of dread. Very little gets described or explained, but James suggests and hints at a world of terror, just beyond the reader's ability to fully comprehend. This story leaves an impression of the malevolent dead, waiting to prey upon the hapless and helpless living when the unwritten rules that separate the waking world from the Underworld are accidentally transgressed.



Montague Rhodes James


Here is my favorite part of story:

He blew tentatively and stopped suddenly, startled and yet pleased at the note he had elicited. It had a quality of infinite distance in it, and, soft as it was, he somehow felt it must be audible for miles round. It was a sound, too, that seemed to have the power (which many scents possess) of forming pictures in the brain. He saw quite clearly for a moment a vision of a wide, dark expanse at night, with a fresh wind blowing and in the midst a lonely figure - how employed, he could not tell. Perhaps he would have seen more had not the picture been broken by the sudden surge of a gust of wind against his casement, so sudden that it made him look up, just in time to see the white glint of a sea-bird's wing somewhere outside the dark panes.

I highly recommend reading the whole story yourself.

Fox Fairies and Ghosts

Although I enjoy just about any type of story, my favorite genre is the Ghost story. Unlike most forms of horror fiction, the prevalent mood isn't terror or revulsion, but a deep sorrow. Yeah, there is often some menace involved and certainly the presence of the "Weird" but it is that lingering sense of loss that makes the ghost so haunting.

My favorite stories generally come from the "Golden Age of Ghosts" in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, but I'm also very fond of the classic Chinese Ghost Story. This definitive work of this genre is the compilation by Pu Songling (who was born on this date in 1640), Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

This collection has had a strong influence upon the development of Chinese folklore into canonical stories, similar to the effect that the Brothers Grimm had upon European fairy tales. Fox fairies, demonic spirits, and ghostly lovers receive their lasting imprint from Pu Songling and persist in such a form into narratives of the contemporary era.

Let's get to some specific examples.