In keeping with our October Halloween theme, what books or films have literally made your hair stand on end, or made you jump, scream or have nightmares for weeks?
I’m around eighteen. I’m reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s late at night and I’m alone; the house is silent. All lights are off, except for the lamp beside me. I’m completely absorbed in the scene where the two women are in the bedroom; the house has come alive, and is breathing and making horrific sounds; I’m totally in that room with them, scared out of my wits. The doorknob to the room is turning.
Suddenly, our front door doorknob, several feet away, begins to turn.
I stare at it in disbelief, hair standing on end. It mysteriously continues to slowly turn back and forth. I get up and creep fearfully to the door, my heart practically jumping out of my chest. I feel a complete unreality. I’m get to the door and (stupid!) open it, and find myself two inches from a face between the opened screen door and me. Before I realize it’s my brother returning from an evening out, I jump and shriek loud enough to wake the neighborhood.
I haven’t read any horror since.
So, what’s your story?
I was participating in the conversation surrounding Pete Peterson’s Lovecraft tribute, “The Stephen Hills Horror” when Andrew Peterson threw out a question:
So what is it about ghost stories, anyway?
I decided to take a stab at it, and gave a quick bullet-point answer.
- Ghost stories are part of the genre of imaginative literature, though its darker side, so naturally, those who love imaginative literature will love ghost stories. Lovecraft defended the genre using a lot of the same type of defenses Tolkien used in defending imaginative lit. Lovecraft called imaginative lit “art in its most essential sense.” (Amy Sturgis has a forthcoming essay on this point by Lovecraft in the 2009 volume from Apex Books, Cthulhu’s Grandfather).
- Ghost stories are a place to grapple with fear. When Maurice Sendak was asked to defend his scary monsters in Where the Wild Things Are, he noted that the most frightening thing is for children to have fears and nightmares and find no parallel in the real world. Ghost stories provide a mirror for our fears.
- Ghosts are about history. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving makes a point about how there’s no encouragement for ghosts anymore, because people leave their hometown so quickly, there’s no one familiar for ghosts to haunt after their first nap in the grave. Ghosts remind us of a certain historical rootedness that most of us don’t feel in our transient, fast-paced, forward-looking culture.
Other thoughts? Why do we love scary stories? (And if you don’t, why don’t you?)
For the month of October, among many other conversations, The Hog’s Head will be reading and discussing one H.P. Lovecraft story a week. This year’s stories are shorter than last year’s, and I’m looking forward to discussing them. We’ll be starting Monday, October 6. Three of the four stories have free audio available, and all four are available by free online text. Below the schedule is a list of assorted H.P. Lovecraft links. We’ll also be bringing other horror stories into the conversation this month, and of course, talking about scary elements of the Potterverse.
Here’s the schedule:
Week One (10/6 – 10/12): The Outsider
Week Two (10/13 – 10/19): The Music of Eric Zann
- Text
- Audio available from The Classic Tales Podcast (You should subscribe to The Classic Tales Podcast from iTunes and download this soon. B.J. appears to be only leaving up the previous 6 episodes, and then they go up for sale at Audible.com.)
Week Three (10/20 – 10/26): The Moon-Bog
Week Four (10/27 – 10/31): The Haunter of the Dark
H.P. Lovecraft Links
Update: It has come to my attention that there is an important literary week that is observed which overlaps with our Sorcerer’s Stone Week and our October Scary Story festivities: Banned Books Week. Given that we’re a Harry Potter site, we simply have to spend some time on that. As such, I’m slightly changing the dates for Sorcerer’s Stone Week. It will now begin on Sunday, September 21 and run until September 27. The last day of SS Week will overlap with the first day of Banned Books Week. We will also begin our Scary Story Month during Banned Books Week. Details to come! ~ TJP
Several important items:
- The winner of the September Hog’s Head Giveaway is Eric! Eric, send an E-Owl with a shipping address, and I’ll get your free copy of the 10th Anniversary edition of Sorcerer’s Stone out to you right away.
- If you want to be made aware of upcoming giveaways, make sure you’re subscribed to The Hog’s Head!
- The winner of the second giveaway, at The Hog’s Head Facebook page, is announced on the “Wall” there. Be sure to “become a fan” there to be alerted to future giveaways on Facebook.
- Sorcerer’s Stone Week starts on Sunday, September 21! I’ll post details of what’s forthcoming for SS Week sometime over the weekend.
- The Hog’s Head will have commentary on the subject of Banned Books during the week of September 27 – October 4.
- Stay tuned also for details about October at The Hog’s Head. It’s gonna be a blast. Contests, giveaways, scary stories, spiked pumpkin juice, and lots of literary analysis of supernatural horror in literature!
Jessica on 
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