Stories Told

 

Earlier this week a few coworkers of mine began exchanging ghost stories.  One coworker recounted how her aunt’s cottage was haunted by a previous owner.  People see an elderly man through the windows of the house when it is supposed to be vacant. There are disembodied footsteps on the stairs. Taps are turned on and off at random. Another coworker shared that her sister’s house had previously belonged to the sister’s parents in law.  The house is surrounded by miles of prairie and is an old, yet still beautiful, yellow brick farmhouse. It is known within the family to be a creepy place during a full moon.  When the young couple purchased the house from their elders the sister’s mother in law (who had lived in that farmhouse the whole of her married life) said in a soft, girlish voice, and wry smile, “Oh, it’s a full moon tonight. The gremlins will be out.” Pets raise their hackles and bare pointed teeth to vacant hallways. Hard soled shoes walk across the wooden floors.  The sounds of people talking are hear behind the door leading to the attic. I scoffed at these stories but leaned in closer and kept listening. It wasn’t yet noon and yet I felt chills on the back of my neck. 

It should be mentioned that I don’t believe in ghosts.  I believe in the power of perception and of the human imagination. I believe in the power of a good story and of the magic (or if I should provide a word which carries less of a supernatural connotation, perhaps "captivation"?) between a story teller and their audience.  Having now shared my beliefs, I know that had I been listening to these stories in a darkened wood near a campfire I am sure my empirical resolve would not shield me from the thrilling power of these tales. 

The moments I spent listening to my coworkers and their creepy tales inspired me to think of the seemingly universal appreciation of an eerie narrative. I thought of those huddled in a longhouse ages ago, who shivered as a bard spoke with a thunderous voice and great gestures of the monstrous Grendel  who wandered the misty moors. I thought of Victorians sitting in overstuffed flower-patterned chairs holding crystal glasses of port round a crackling fireplace on a wintry eve and exchanged stories in hushed, resolved tones of floating grey ladies, mysteriously locked rooms, and draughty castles. For a good story (no matter what we believe) we can let ourselves be carried along for a time in the waves of the tale, for our hair to raise, and to watch for moving shadows in the corner of our eye.  Seemingly, it something we have shared in common through the ages.

'Oh, Whistle, and I`ll Come to You, My Lad'

I have a love for English ghost stories, particularly those stemming from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Many of today's attempts at horror include gore and sensational storylines. I prefer the quite murmurs of fear Susan Hill inspires in readers in her book The Woman In Black. I am, as I have previously confessed, also a lover of books. When I walk into a second hand or used book store, I feel as though I am embarking on an adventure. What marvels shall I encounter? That said, I was in a used bookstore in London, Ontario a few years ago and picked up a copy of M.R. James' Collected Ghost Stories. It is a modern edition, though I love it just the same. I had never heard of this author before, but because this book had been published by the same publishers as another collection of works I enjoy, I purchased the book. The story 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' was the first story I read, and I made the mistake of reading the story late at night.

M.R. James (1862-1936) was a medievalist and provost of King's College Cambridge. Allegedly, he identified himself very much with the Victorian age, and did not like ways in which the 'modern' world was progressing. James never married; the academic world was his home and sanctuary. Most of his stories reflect these details about his life. His stories are cast in dusty academic settings, where the antiquarian and university professor are the heroes (or victims). The past is a mysterious entity, which, if pushed and prodded too vigorously by the curious, can retaliate and reveal its lessons with terrifying severity.

James wrote his ghost stories to entertain a select group of friends and fellow scholars at Cambridge at Christmastime. This is why I felt it appropriate to share the stories of M.R. James with you in early December, so that you may also take part in the Victorian tradition of sharing ghost stories at Christmas.

The BBC has some very good television productions of several of his stories as part of their 'Ghost Stories for Christmas' series. A View from a Hill (2005) is a good place to start, as is 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' (1968).

The University of Adelaide, a most useful website, has posted the collected works of M.R. James online here.

For a more complete observation of the life and works of M.R. James, as well as details of film, radio and theater productions of his stories, the site 'A Thin Ghost' is a good place to start.

Images, 1, 2, 3, 4,

the woman in black

i've copied and pasted a page from susan hill's website about her process of writing a traditional ghost story. there are also pasted images from the ottawa little's theatre production of the woman in black (2009) and from the film version of the novel (1999). i've read the book, i've seen the film, and i've seen the play in ottawa. since childhood i've been a fanatic of ghostly tales and the woman in black is a favorite of mine. i found myself unable to read the book at night-time when the moon cast shadows outside my bedroom window. after seeing the film i found it necessary to call my brother distract myself with reruns of 'friends'. i had to rave to someone about the brilliance of the play production; it inspired the use of pre-television imagination, when the power of story-telling could entrance a crowd... i still dream of writing my own complete ghost story, all the while keeping the following steps written out by susan hill as guidance.

The Woman in Black

This, the first ghost story I wrote began as a challenge to myself. I had always loved reading ghost stories but was surprised by how few fill length ones there are – The Turn of the Screw is the most famous but mainly both the Victorian ones, when the genre was in its heyday, and any later, are short stories. I decided I would see if I could bring off a full-length ghost story and I began by making a list of essential ‘ingredients.’ These included: 1 A haunted place. A lonely house or church 2. Atmosphere 3. Weather – fog or mist, dusk, twilight, drizzle… 4. A ghost – not as silly as it sounds. The ghost story is not necessarily a horror story and it must have a ghost, which is defined as the spirit of someone now dead which looks as they looked in life and which is seen by people still living. 5. The ghost must have a purpose – that seemed essential. There has to be a motive for the hauntings. It is not very interesting if a dark-robed monk walks through walls or a veiled lady drifts up and down a staircase frightening people but doing nothing much else and without any reason or purpose. I wrote the book in 6 weeks during one summer holiday, every morning while my 5 year old daughter was looked after by a 20 year old medical student, who gave her a wonderful time. It was typed up for me by the student’s sister, then doing a secretarial course but as she couldn`t read my writing, I dictated it onto a tape and she started taking it down. But after a short time, she could only do it if someone else was in the house – she found it just too frightening to work on alone. A good sign if ever there was one ! The book started out modestly but then it had a stroke of luck. Actor/author Stephen Mallatratt picked it up at the airport bookshop en route for a Greek holiday. He was looking for something to adapt as a play to go on in the small studio theatre at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough at Christmas and lying on the Greek beach, he had a brilliant idea about to make my ghost story work onstage. The rest is history. The play has been running in London’s West End since 1989, after starting out in Scarborough and it has played in almost every country in the world. A major feature film of it is now in development by Hammer films, and shooting should start in 2010. But The Woman in Black began as a book, my first ghost story, and will always be a book, as well as everything else. That’s the beauty of it.

from:
http://www.susan-hill.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=52