Monday, December 29, 2008

um, boo?

forgot to note that I read The Man In The Picture, by Susan Hill--very readable and pretty little book (the paperback is checkbook sized), but it doesn't really do anything new. But to be fair, not everyone needs new when it comes to ghost stories. In fact, TMINTP reminds me very much of the old Night Gallery episodes, especially since it is a 19th century style frame tale (ha ha) that features a haunted painting. If you want to write one of these, here are the parts (sans frame):

1) weird object at the center of weird doings
2) weird person claims knowledge of object, but really just has an experience of its effects from the past--doesn't know the why, but fears the how
3) new events mirror past ones, protagonist or protagonist loved ones doomed

The moral being that we must respect the unknown and its unknowability. which is silly, of course. I'm no fun.

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