The Ghosts of Ash and the Nuclear Spectre (Part Two)
If Hiroshima haunts through absence, the Titanic haunts through overexposure. The Titanic has been replayed, retold, reconstructed, and reanimated so many times that it barely qualifies as an event anymore. It … Continue reading
The Ghosts of Ash and the Nuclear Spectre (Part One)
Disasters have a habit of lingering long after everyone has agreed that they are finished. The rubble gets cleared. The plaques get installed. The anniversary documentaries get commissioned. The calendar … Continue reading
Namaste, or: What Keeps Coming Back (in a Slightly Worse Mood) (Part Three)
On the way down, the sound followed for a while, then thinned, then vanished. It didn’t echo. That was the strangest part. For all its droning insistence, it left … Continue reading
Namaste, or: What Keeps Coming Back (in a Slightly Worse Mood) (Part 1)
We were almost at the top when we heard it. Not music exactly, more a pressure system. A low drone with delusions of grandeur, stretching itself between notes like a … Continue reading
A Dance in the Labyrinth (II): Heroes, Games, and the Supermarket as Mythic Space
We are fond of saying that we live in a mythless age. What we usually mean is that we no longer believe in gods. But belief was never the engine. … Continue reading
A Dance in the Labyrinth (I): Pattern, Orientation, and Myth Without Belief
We like to think myth begins with belief. Gods, monsters, cosmologies. Something asserted as true and then defended against doubt. This is convenient, because it allows us to imagine ourselves … Continue reading
Haunted When the Minutes Drag.
I’m not usually one for blowing my own trumpet. If there’s one thing that is going to ever scupper my chances as being a well known author, its that I … Continue reading
The Gentle Violence of Obsolescence Vs the Thingness of Stuff (Part One)
Nostalgia is often described as a feeling, which flatters it enormously. Feelings are flighty. They arrive late, leave early, and can usually be distracted with a cup of tea. … Continue reading
The Phantom Hitcher Hiker (Again)
Further thoughts – and new material – about a compulsive urban legend. The original essay is in the book ‘Haunted When the Minute Drag’ from my Book Shop. The Phantom … Continue reading
The Treachery of Doors
Doorways are where time goes to hesitate. Not dramatically. Not with any particular flair. A small, almost polite pause, like a sentence without its verb, your inattention assumed. A doorway … Continue reading
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