Deep into that darkness peering…
by chuckofish
I blink and it’s Saturday again! I feel as if I’m stuck in the Twilight Zone — or maybe an episode of Supernatural.
We’re about to start the third week of October and I don’t even have a pumpkin yet, although I did get the DH to buy a couple of little gourds for the dining room table. Perhaps if I focus on Halloween I’ll recover my sense of time and start to feel human again.
To encourage a return to normality, why not read some spooky stories or poems? For a variety of free, seasonal appropriate literature, click here. The excellent selection includes standards from Poe, Kipling, Hawthorne, and Twain, as well as more macabre stories from the likes of Ambrose Bierce and H.P. Lovecraft. I’ve never been a Lovecraft fan and fail to see the appeal, but Bierce was the real deal — a deeply troubled soul.
Born in 1842, Ambrose Bierce grew up in Warsaw, Indiana, the 10th of 13 children all with names beginning with A: Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia. No wonder he was weird.
Bierce served in the Union army during the Civil War and saw plenty of action, until he got shot in the head at Kennesaw Mountain in 1864. (The battle was part of Sherman’s Georgia campaign). Upon returning home to recover, he was devastated to discover that his fickle fiancée loved someone else. War trauma, the blow to the head, romantic failure, and a naturally morose and cynical temperament gave birth to the post-war writer, whose acerbic and extremely macabre stories remain popular — at least at this time of year. The fact that 71 year old Bierce disappeared without trace while on route to join Pancho Villa in Mexico only added to his mystique. In a farewell letter to his niece, Bierce wrote, “Goodbye. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a gringo in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia. “** Now I (almost) want to see the 1989 film The Old Gringo starring Gregory Peck as Ambrose Bierce (the plot doesn’t look great and it also stars Jane Fonda, of whom I am not a fan).
But I digress. Let’s get back to Mr. Bierce and spooky stories. When I was a child someone gave me a book of short stories, one of which was Bierce’s “The Damned Thing”. Yes, some child-hating editor included it in A CHILDREN’S BOOK!! Shocked and intrigued by the appearance of the word ‘damned’, I asked my mother to read me the story. She tried to argue me out of it, but in the end she gave in. Listen to David McCallum’s version and imagine the nightmares of this little DP!
Nowadays I avoid scary stories and movies. I do not need the extra stimulation and do not get a charge out of feeling afraid. But in case you are in the mood to read something Halloween-ish, I would recommend one of the classics (see link above) and if you’re feeling particularly brave, anything by Ambrose Bierce. Somehow, Bierce seems to fit the current zeitgeist.
*Title from Poe’s, “The Raven”
dual personalities 