From the Whistler

Ghosts

Marcellus: Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy,

And will not let belief take hold of him,

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:

Therefore I have entreated him, along

With us, to watch the minutes of this night;

That, if again this apparition come,

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.

Horatio: Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.

Ghosts may or may not haunt the real world, but our lit­erature is filled with them. Hamlet, Wuthering Heights, A Christ­mas Carol, The Turn of the Screw and Beloved, to name just a few classics, all feature ghostly encounters. Indeed, as belief in ghosts appears to span all cultures and eras, it is not surprising that revenants enter our literature as early as Homer, Con­fucius and the Bhagavad-gita. In the West, interest in the supernatural was at its height in the wake of World War I, when seances and mediums put the living “in touch” with those departed through war or influenza. But the spirits of the dead are still a potent force in today’s popular culture—in books (The Little Stranger), television (Ghost Hunters) and film (Ghost, The Sixth Sense). And they seem to have lost none of their ter­ror. The Horatios among us scoff at EMF and EVP readings, but the Age of Science has so far failed to dispel our belief in the spirit world. As Shirley Jackson observes in The Haunting of Hill House: “No, the menace of the supernatural is that it attacks where modern minds are weakest, where we have abandoned our protective armor of superstition and have no substitute defense.” Or as Hamlet might say: there is more in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in our philosophy.

In  his preface to The Golden Bough, James G. Frazer writes of “...fear of the human dead, which, on the whole, I believe to have been probably the most powerful force in the making of primitive religion.” While ghosts may be the embodiment of this fear, there is also something comforting about them. At a certain level, we want spirits to exist, to know that in some way the dead are still with us, and that something awaits us in the Beyond. That truth was brought home to me recently, when my father, Richard Van Valin, passed away at the very young age of 74. A kind, untormented man who lived a wonderful life, I have no expectations that Dad will visit me in the form of a spectre—especially as he had, with his scientific and rational mind, considered ghosts a laughable superstition while alive. Still, it would be nice to see the old man again, if only to tell him how very much he is missed.

Perhaps in the end ghosts are simply a metaphor for our own haunted minds—of our inability to let go of the past, and the long shadow it casts over the present. In any case, welcome to a haunted issue of Whistling Shade. Be warned—things get a little spooky within these pages. Don’t blame us if we keep you awake at night!

- Joel Van Valin