Future of Ghosts, How to Make a Monster, Best Horror Stories

PLUS: The Truth about Psychopaths and Halloween Candy, Ghost House, Hot Halloween Pipes

𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒:

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬

Jeanette Winterson | Paris Review | 23rd October 2023
Ghost stories may well have proliferated in the 19C because of the excess carbon monoxide from gas lamps — low level poisoning can cause hallucinations and dread. In the 21C, our hauntings will be predicated on the intangible reality we already inhabit. “A ghost is the spirit of a dead person. An avatar is a digital twin of a living person. Neither is 'real'. A haunted metaverse. Why not?”

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐀 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

Charity Urbanski | Medievalists | 23rd October 2023
For most of history, a “"monster” was not necessarily an imaginary creature like a vampire or a werewolf. Any deviation in appearance or behavior (via a birth defect or disability, say) was folded into the concept of monstrosity. By the 12C, a complex visual language had developed that conflated otherness with demons, and this was used to persecute those perceived to be outsiders