A little bit on the long tradition of historical interest in the ghostly
October 27, 2016 9:54 AM Subscribe
"Many historians, I fear, still think of ghosts as the province of a small number of specialist ‘historians of the ghostly’, such as Peter Marshall, Sasha Handley and Shane McCorristine. They are prepared to acknowledge that belief in ghosts, like other supernatural beliefs, can be illuminating of the culture of a particular time and place." Yet "Every half decent historian has had this experience: for a moment, the past seems more real than the present, and the absence of the dead an absurdity." Why Historians Need Ghosts, an article by Dr. Francis Young.
Dr. Young is a historian of early modern England, whose main research interests are Catholicism in East Anglia (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk), supernatural beliefs in early modern England and the translation of early modern Latin texts. If these topics interest you, you may enjoy the rest of his blog.
Young cites The History and Fate of Sacrilege, discover'd by examples of scripture, of heathens, and of Christians; from the beginning of the world continually to this day (1853 copy on Archive.org; text-only copy from the University of Michigan - originally written in 1633 but not published until 1698) by Sir Henry Spelman as an important piece of historic writing on spirits:
Dr. Young is a historian of early modern England, whose main research interests are Catholicism in East Anglia (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk), supernatural beliefs in early modern England and the translation of early modern Latin texts. If these topics interest you, you may enjoy the rest of his blog.
Young cites The History and Fate of Sacrilege, discover'd by examples of scripture, of heathens, and of Christians; from the beginning of the world continually to this day (1853 copy on Archive.org; text-only copy from the University of Michigan - originally written in 1633 but not published until 1698) by Sir Henry Spelman as an important piece of historic writing on spirits:
Although Spelman does not mention ghostly apparitions, his work focuses on the supernatural vengeance meted out by the providence of the Almighty to the sacrilegious secular owners of monastic property. Many of the stories in Spelman’s book inspired a belief in bad luck associated with a particular house, that later manifested itself in the form of a spectre. Perhaps the most famous example of such a ghost is the ‘Black Friar’ of Lord Byron’s Newstead Abbey. Spelman’s History and Fate of Sacrilege was about the unquiet past coming back to bite the present which, on one interpretation, is what ghosts ultimately amount to. More specifically, Spelman imagined the violated pre-Reformation past wreaking vengeance on the complacent Protestant present.Young also cites Montague Rhodes (M. R.) James, a historian who studied church history, but is now more widely known for his ghost stories, which he used to explore fears of which he could not otherwise speak.
Interesting essay—thanks for posting! I love this kind of writing, and I think it really gets at something to do with why ghosts abide in people's minds (if not houses). If we think of the gothic imagination as a fear of or anxiety about the past, then we can start to understand some of the reasons why the past starts to become "haunting," why certain kinds of grounds might seem "unsettled," certain possessions "uncanny." Owen Davies's The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts is brilliant in this regard, as is (in an American context) Judith Richardson's Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley.
The other thing that haunts people's imaginations, of course, is the history curriculum at school. Browsing the Paranormal Database [Previously], it's striking how many civil war soldiers, medieval monks and nuns, and Bomber Command Lancasters apparently continue to haunt the British landscape. Paranormal history is social history (and social understandings of history) writ large, and that's kind of fascinating.
posted by Sonny Jim at 10:17 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
The other thing that haunts people's imaginations, of course, is the history curriculum at school. Browsing the Paranormal Database [Previously], it's striking how many civil war soldiers, medieval monks and nuns, and Bomber Command Lancasters apparently continue to haunt the British landscape. Paranormal history is social history (and social understandings of history) writ large, and that's kind of fascinating.
posted by Sonny Jim at 10:17 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
The connection between historians and ghost stories goes back at least as far as Pliny the Younger.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:23 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by tobascodagama at 11:23 AM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Before that in ancient Mesopotamia, "Ghosts could appear to people on earth if it was thought that they needed to right some kind of wrong," according to the Ancient History Encyclopedia summary of beliefs in ghosts from around the world.
I think Dr. Young is writing from his area and period of expertise.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:35 AM on October 27, 2016
I think Dr. Young is writing from his area and period of expertise.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:35 AM on October 27, 2016
There's something peculiar about ghosts, including their modern-day equivalent, the UFO sighting. They're clearly projections of the internal life of the people who report them; witness the old conundrum "why do ghosts wear clothes?" or the way UFO aliens differed in appearance depending on the culture of the person reporting them (or at least they did until the concept of "greys" solidified in the 80s). But there also seems to be a residue of them that don't fall into the usual categories of tale-telling or hallucinations or other explanations along those lines.
I think Dr. Young is right that it speaks to a desire to connect, but I don't think he's caught the intriguing questions: why do people want to connect in this particular way? Why do some people connect so hard this way that they swear to the reality of what they've seen? It's strange when you consider how there are higher-prestige ways of connecting, say by becoming a member of the local historical society or astronomy club instead of being your town's local UFO nut or ghost hunter.
It's saying something about human psychology, but I don't know what.
posted by Quindar Beep at 11:46 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
I think Dr. Young is right that it speaks to a desire to connect, but I don't think he's caught the intriguing questions: why do people want to connect in this particular way? Why do some people connect so hard this way that they swear to the reality of what they've seen? It's strange when you consider how there are higher-prestige ways of connecting, say by becoming a member of the local historical society or astronomy club instead of being your town's local UFO nut or ghost hunter.
It's saying something about human psychology, but I don't know what.
posted by Quindar Beep at 11:46 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
> Why do some people connect so hard this way that they swear to the reality of what they've seen? It's strange when you consider how there are higher-prestige ways of connecting, say by becoming a member of the local historical society or astronomy club instead of being your town's local UFO nut or ghost hunter.
It's saying something about human psychology, but I don't know what.
I think it says that we're — quite rationally — completely terrified of death, and of absence more generally. Becoming a member of the local historical society or astronomy club can provide a sense of connectedness, but can't do anything at all to help us cope with the absurd, horrifying fact that we live so long and then die. The existence of ghosts, though, would show that in some sense that we are durable, and that by extension the collection of phenomena that we experience as we go about our short, absurd lives are likewise durable.
If we see a ghost, we have evidence that we are not obliterated at the moment of death. If we see a ghost from history, we have evidence that history, likewise, is durable; that things that happened in the past aren't bit by bit irrevocably obliterated by the passage of time. And if the past matters, that means that what's now present will matter once it has in turn become the past.
And so we want very badly to see ghosts, especially historically significant ghosts.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:57 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
It's saying something about human psychology, but I don't know what.
I think it says that we're — quite rationally — completely terrified of death, and of absence more generally. Becoming a member of the local historical society or astronomy club can provide a sense of connectedness, but can't do anything at all to help us cope with the absurd, horrifying fact that we live so long and then die. The existence of ghosts, though, would show that in some sense that we are durable, and that by extension the collection of phenomena that we experience as we go about our short, absurd lives are likewise durable.
If we see a ghost, we have evidence that we are not obliterated at the moment of death. If we see a ghost from history, we have evidence that history, likewise, is durable; that things that happened in the past aren't bit by bit irrevocably obliterated by the passage of time. And if the past matters, that means that what's now present will matter once it has in turn become the past.
And so we want very badly to see ghosts, especially historically significant ghosts.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:57 PM on October 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
I think both ghosts and aliens feed into the hope that there's something more than this - there's a life after death (even if it's malevolent, or at least prone to suddenly shutting doors and knocking over things), or there's another world beyond ours (and likely one that's smarter than us, given their ability to find us while we haven't found them on their home planet(s)).
Ghosts and aliens are like us, but a bit different. Both generally retain humanoid forms: two arms, two legs, one head with eyes, ears, nose and mouth in the same number and configuration as people. But they're not exact copies of us, or how would you tell us from them?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:58 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ghosts and aliens are like us, but a bit different. Both generally retain humanoid forms: two arms, two legs, one head with eyes, ears, nose and mouth in the same number and configuration as people. But they're not exact copies of us, or how would you tell us from them?
posted by filthy light thief at 12:58 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
> But they're not exact copies of us, or how would you tell us from them?
god how many times do i have to tell you just put on the sunglasses sheesh.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:00 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
god how many times do i have to tell you just put on the sunglasses sheesh.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:00 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
My personal theory on why there are no ghosts is very simple: Librarians. I'm talking the old school, stereotypical old maid who's extremely strict on absolutely enforcing the rules for being in a library. The number one rule being fucking quiet.
The libraries I (somewhat) regularly visit are almost loud places. And a lot of the yacking comes from the staff stationed at the front desk.
If those old school librarians could witness the state of modern libraries, they would be so incensed that they would, by any means possible, come back (forward?) to current day libraries and lay some serious smack down.
Hasn't happened*, so, therefore, there is no afterlife. Boom. That solves it for me. I'm done dealing with wondering if there is an afterlife.
*Except in the first Ghostbusters movie, of course.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 8:04 PM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
The libraries I (somewhat) regularly visit are almost loud places. And a lot of the yacking comes from the staff stationed at the front desk.
If those old school librarians could witness the state of modern libraries, they would be so incensed that they would, by any means possible, come back (forward?) to current day libraries and lay some serious smack down.
Hasn't happened*, so, therefore, there is no afterlife. Boom. That solves it for me. I'm done dealing with wondering if there is an afterlife.
*Except in the first Ghostbusters movie, of course.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 8:04 PM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
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Which lead me to search for ghost historians, and here we are.
The (Christmas season) Ghost Stories of M. R. James, previously:
- Oh, Click and I'll Come to You, My Lad (December 5, 2015)
- The Festival (December 24, 2011)
- A Ghost Story for Christmas (December 24, 2010)
posted by filthy light thief at 10:05 AM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]