Jump to content
Post-Update: Forum Issues Read more... ×
BPAL Madness!
Post-Update: Forum Issues

eldritchhobbit

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    667

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Blog Entries posted by eldritchhobbit

  1. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is “Halloween Lore Told” from The Butte Daily Post on 10/31/1931.
    Read the article here.
    Quote: “Halloween, the night of black hours, ‘when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead.’ will be celebrated in traditional style when the sun goes down… legend has it, the lake of hades freezes, and friends skate across to stalk the world unchallenged. Evil will possess the shadows until cock-crow.”
    ALT Halloween Lore Told

    View the full post.
  2. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is “Spook and Goblin Atmosphere of Halloween Today Tame Compared with Horror Motif Expressed in Gothic Tales” from Indianapolis Star on 10/31/1937.
    Read the article here.
    Quote: “… the Halloween tradition in its various aspects runs through a surprising amount of highly respectable adult literature. Shakespeare’s frequent ghosts, the so-called Gothic novels or novels of terror which came to a climax in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein,’ Irving’s ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and Poe’s ‘Ligeia’ are certainly all in line with the Halloween tradition…” 
    ALT Goblin Atmosphere at Halloween

    View the full post.
  3. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is “Hallowe’en Activities” from The News-Pilot on 10/29/1928.
    Read the article here.
    Quote:
    Goblins gobble and werewolves howl;
    Banshees shriek and cry and scream
    Ululations, while the mournful owl
    Makes many fitful mortals dream.
    Hallowe'en Activities (With an Owl and Witch)

    View the full post.
  4. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is “Twinkling Feet’s Hallowe’en” from The Topaz Story Book: Stories and Legends of Autumn, Hallowe’en, and Thanksgiving (5th ed. 1928) compiled by Ada M. and Eleanor L. Skinner.
    Read it here.
    Quote: The pixie looked at her for a moment. Then he asked, “Do the children laugh a good deal on Hallowe’en?”
    “Why, my little man, it’s the time in all the year when they laugh most. To-night there is to be a witch’s party. I shall secretly join the children, and play all sorts of tricks for their amusement.“ 
    ALT
    View the full post.
  5. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is Helps and Hints for Hallowe’en (1920) by Laura Rountree Smith.
    Read it here.
    Quote: Hist! be still! ’tis Hallowe’en,
    When fairies troop across the green!
    On Hallowe’en when elves and witches are abroad, we find it the custom over all the world to build bonfires, to keep off evil spirits; and this is the night of all nights to entertain friends with stunts similar to those performed two hundred years ago. On this night fortunes are told, games are played, and if it so happens that your birthday falls on this night, you may even be able to hold converse with fairies—so goes the ancient superstition!
    ALT
    View the full post.
  6. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is The Book of Hallowe’en (1919) by Ruth Edna Kelley.
    Read it here.
    Quote: All superstitions, everyday ones, and those pertaining to Christmas and New Year’s, have special value on Hallowe'en.
    It is a night of ghostly and merry revelry.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  7. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is Games for Hallow-e’en (1912) by Mary F. Blain.
    Read it here.
    Quote: The dining-room should also be in total darkness, except for the light given by the Jack-o’-lanterns, until the guests are seated, when they should unmask. The supper could be served in this dim light or the lights turned up and the room made brilliant. After the supper is over and while the guests are still seated a splendid idea would be to extinguish all the lights and to have one or more of the party tell ghost stories….
    Another suggestion is to have the hall totally dark with the door ajar and no one in sight to welcome the guests. As they step in they are surprised to be greeted by some one dressed as a ghost who extends his hand which is covered with wet salt.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  8. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is Myra’s Well: A Tale of All-Hallow-E’en (1883) by George Francis Dawson.
    Read it here.
    Quote: It is the night of all nights of the year,
    When ghosts and warlocks haunt the troubled earth,
    And disembodied spirits visit us—
    Spirits of good and evil from the dead,
    Fresh from the angel hosts and from the damned,
    And from the vast profound betwixt the two…
    ALT
    View the full post.
  9. eldritchhobbit
    Today we begin the final part of our countdown this year with texts (that are available online) about Halloween itself!
    Today’s work is Halloween, A Romaunt, with Lays, Meditative and Devotional (1845) by H.S. Parsons.
    Read it here.
    Quote: If souls, once more, to these their haunts on earth,
    Can come, dear Lady, from the Spirit-land,
    I ask’d thee,—would it spoil thine hour of mirth,
    To see some sudden shape before thee stand!
    And a cold shudder told me, and thine hand
    Press’d dearer to mine own. But then said I,
    Oh! if thy friend were dead, and could command
    Some midnight hour to visit thee; reply,
    Say, would it grieve thee, Love, if love could never die!
    ALT
    View the full post.
  10. eldritchhobbit
    Let’s wrap up the Gothic portion of this year’s countdown with a classic that was published the same year as the now-better-known Dracula: The Beetle (1897) by Richard Marsh.
    Read it here.
    Quote: So far, in the room itself there had not been a sound. When the clock had struck ten, as it seemed to me, years ago, there came a rustling noise, from the direction of the bed. Feet stepped upon the floor,— moving towards where I was lying. It was, of course, now broad day, and I, presently, perceived that a figure, clad in some queer coloured garment, was standing at my side, looking down at me. It stooped, then knelt. My only covering was unceremoniously thrown from off me, so that I lay there in my nakedness. Fingers prodded me then and there, as if I had been some beast ready for the butcher’s stall. A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human,— nothing fashioned in God’s image could wear such a shape as that.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  11. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is “A Night in Monk-Hall,” an excerpt from The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall (1845) by George Lippard.
    Read it here.
    Quote: I was sitting upright in bed, chilled to the very heart, afraid to move an inch, almost afraid to breathe, when, far, far down through the chambers of the old mansion, I heard a faint hushed sound, like a man endeavouring to cry out when attacked by night mare, and then great God how distinct! I heard the cry of `Murder, murder, murder!’ far, far, far below me.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  12. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is the short story “The Invisible Girl” (1833) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
    Read it here.
    Quote: “What beacon is it that helps us at our need?” asked Vernon, as the men, now able to manage their oars with greater ease, found breath to answer his question.
    “A fairy one, I believe,” replied the elder sailor, “yet no less a true: it burns in an old tumble-down tower, built on the top of a rock which looks over the sea. We never saw it before this summer; and now each night it is to be seen,—at least when it is looked for, for we cannot see it from our village;—and it is such an out-of-the-way place that no one has need to go near it, except through a chance like this. Some say it is burnt by witches, some say by smugglers; but this I know, two parties have been to search, and found nothing but the bare walls of the tower. All is deserted by day, and dark by night; for no light was to be seen while we were there, though it burned sprightly enough when we were out at sea.”
    “I have heard say,” observed the younger sailor, “it is burnt by the ghost of a maiden who lost her sweetheart in these parts; he being wrecked, and his body found at the foot of the tower: she goes by the name among us of the ‘Invisible Girl.’”
    ALT
    View the full post.
  14. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s text is The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo (1819) by Uriah Derek D’Arcy.
    Read it here.
    Quote: When reason and sense returned, she [The Lady] found herself in the same place; and it was also the midnight hour. She was laying by the grave of Mr. PERSONNE, and her breast was stained with blood. A wide wound appeared to have been inflicted there, but was now cicatrized. Imagine if you can, her surprise; when, by a certain carniverous craving in her maw, and by putting this and that together, she found she was a—VAMPYRE!!! and gathered from her indistinct reminiscences, of the preceding night, that she had been then sucked; and that it was now her turn to eject the peaceful tenants of the grave! 
    With this delightful prospect of immortality before her, she began to examine the graves, for subject to satisfy her furious appetite. When she had selected one to her mind, a new marvel arrested her attention. Her first husband got up out his coffin, and with all the grace so natural to his countrymen, made her a low bow in the last fashion, and opened his arms to receive her! 
    ALT
    View the full post.
  15. eldritchhobbit
    Hello, all! I am looking for recommendations of Dark Academia works (novels, short stories, films, television series) based on true crime. I would be grateful for any suggestions for my list. Thank you!
    I am intentionally casting my net widely, defining the Dark Academic genre (as opposed to the aesthetic) as one that focuses on an academic setting and educational experience, employs Gothic modes of storytelling, cultivates a dark mood by contemplating the subject of death, and offers critique for interrogating imbalances and abuses of power.*
    ALT Below the cut is my current list of Dark Academia Works Inspired by True Crime Cases. All suggestions are welcome!
    Dark Academia Works Inspired/Informed by True Crime Cases
    Note 1: “True crime” is defined here as a specific case (for example, a murder or missing person’s case), not as a larger historical event (for example, the Salem Witch Trials or the Opium Wars) or an amalgam of cases (for example, general hazing in fraternities).
    Note 2: This list is in chronological order based on the true crime case.
    Note 3: Some works that aren’t fully DA but incorporate DA sections are included.
    TRUE CRIME: 1897 disappearance of student Bertha Mellish from Mount Holyoke College
    DA novels: The Button Field by Gail Husch (2014)
    Killingly by Katharine Beutner (2023)
    TRUE CRIME: 1924 killing of Bobby Franks by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb
    DA Novels: Compulsion by Meyer Levin (1956)
    Nothing but the Night by James Yaffe (1957)
    Little Brother Fate by Mary-Carter Roberts (1957)
    These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever (2020)
    Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed (2022)
    Jazzed by Jill Dearman (2022)
    DA films: Rope (1948), Compulsion (1959), and Murder by Numbers (2002)
    TRUE CRIME: 1932 kidnapping and killing of Charles Lindbergh, Jr.; 1933 kidnapping and killing of Brooke Hart; and 1932-1934 crime spree of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
    DA novels: Truly Devious books by Maureen Johnson (especially the first trilogy, 2018-2020)
    TRUE CRIME: 1944 killing of David Kammerer by Columbia University student Lucien Carr
    DA film:
    Kill Your Darlings (2013)
    TRUE CRIME: 1946 disappearance of student Paula Jean Welden from Bennington College
    DA novels:
    Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson (1951)
    Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh (1952)
    The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
    Shirley by Susan Scarf Merrell (2014)
    Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan (2022)
    TRUE CRIME: 1973 killing of student Cynthia Hellman at Randolph-Macon Women’s College
    DA novel:
    Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison (2019)
    TRUE CRIME: 1978 killing of students Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy and attack of students Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler by Ted Bundy at Florida State University
    DA novel:
    Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (2023)
    TRUE CRIME: 1985 killing of Derek and Nancy Haysom by University of Virginia students Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Söring
    DA novel:
    With a Kiss We Die by L.R. Dorn (2023)
    TRUE CRIME: 1999 killing of student Hae Min Lee from Woodlawn High School (by Adnan Syed? debated)
    DA novel:
    I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (2023)
    TRUE CRIME: 2022 killing of students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin from the University of Idaho (by Washington State University student Bryan Kohberger? currently awaiting trial)
    DA novel:
    This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead (2025)
    *(I go into this definition in further detail in my segment here on the StarShipSofa podcast, my graduate course on Dark Academia, and my 2023 academic essay “Dark Arts and Secret Histories: Investigating Dark Academia.”)

    View the full post.
  16. eldritchhobbit
    Let’s keep this Gothic Halloween-fest going!
    Today’s text is Wieland; or, The Transformation (1798) by Charles Brockden Brown.
    Read it here.
    Quote: The tales of apparitions and enchantments did not possess that power over my belief which could even render them interesting. I saw nothing in them but ignorance and folly, and was a stranger even to that terror which is pleasing. But this incident was different from any that I had ever before known. Here were proofs of a sensible and intelligent existence, which could not be denied. Here was information obtained and imparted by means unquestionably super-human.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  17. eldritchhobbit
    Before we leave the subject of Northanger Abbey completely, let’s include one more work that inspired the novel (and left a lasting mark on the Gothic tradition), The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis.
    Read it here.
    Quote: “Be cautious not to utter a syllable!” whispered the Stranger; “Step not out of the circle, and as you love yourself, dare not to look upon my face!”
    ALT
    View the full post.
  18. eldritchhobbit
    One more of the so-called “horrid novels” referenced in Northanger Abbey is The Orphan of the Rhine (1798) by Eleanor Sleath.
    Read it here.
    Quote: “Here Silence has fixed her abode, disturbed only at intervals by the howling of the wolf, or the cry of the vulture. In such a situation actions have no witnesses; these woods are no spies.”
    ALT
    View the full post.
  19. eldritchhobbit
    Today’s creepy novel, also mentioned as “horrid” in Northanger Abbey, is The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) written by Carl Friedrich Kahlert (under pseudonym) and translated by Peter Teuthold.
    Read it here.
    Quote: “…a dreadful chilliness seized us, we felt the grasp of the icy fangs of horror, being in a burying vault surrounded by rotten coffins. Skulls and mouldered bones rattled beneath our feet, the grisly phantom of death stared in our faces from every side, with a grim, ghastly aspect. In the centre of the vault we beheld a black marble coffin, supported by a pedestal of stone, over it was suspended to the ceiling a lamp spreading a dismal, dying glimmering around.”                                                
    ALT
    View the full post.
  20. eldritchhobbit
    Some of the Gothic works deemed “horrid” by Jane Austen in 1818’s Northanger Abbey (“are you sure they are all horrid?”) are available online, so let’s shift this countdown to those dark and delicious novels. (One is The Children of the Abbey, already covered on Day 7.)
    Today’s title is The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons. 
    Read it here.
    Quote: “My Lord came here once or twice, but the ghosts made such a noise he could not stay. Several gentry have slept here at times, but no body would stay a second night, and so we have all to ourselves by day, and the ghosts, or what they be, have got all the rooms by night and then they be quiet enough.”


    ALT
    View the full post.
  21. eldritchhobbit
    We’ve reached the last post in the portion of this countdown devoted to the creepy Gothic books beloved by the women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. Today’s entry is the controversial autobiography of Maria Monk (1836).
    Read it here.
    Quote: We all believed in ghosts.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  22. eldritchhobbit
    Another dark and dreadful novel that women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts reported enjoying was Alonzo and Melissa (aka The Asylum) by Isaac Mitchell (1804/1811).         
    Read here the later version attributed to Daniel Jackson, Jr.
    Quote: The person in her room then uttered a horrible groan, and gliding along by her bed, took his stand behind the curtains, near the foot. The noises below, the cry of murder, the firing of the second pistol, and the running up stairs, were all corresponding scenes to impress terror on her imagination. The pretended ghost then advanced in front of her bed, while lights were slowly introduced, which first shone faintly, until they were ushered into the room by the private door, exhibiting the person before her in all his horrific appearances. On her shrieking, and shrinking into the bed, the lights were suddenly extinguished, and the person, after commanding her to be gone in a hoarse voice, passed again to the foot of the bed, shook it violently, and made a seeming attempt to get upon it, when, perceiving her to be springing up, he fled out of the room by the secret door, cautiously shut it, and joined his companions.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  23. eldritchhobbit
    Another Gothic novel that was a favorite with women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Three Spaniards (1801) by George Walker.
    Read it here.
    Quote: “That unhappy phantom will ever pursue Fernando, till he shall be pacified. He ever attends him invisible, and at this moment sits at the foot of the corpse of Almira.”
    The Inquisitors and the prisoners shuddered, and turned their eyes towards the spot; but they could see nothing, except the pale body of the murdered maid.
    “… I will command this unhappy spirit to become visible, and say what are his particular desires, and how he shall be tranquilized in the grave; then shall Fernando enjoy that uninterrupted repose he so well merits.”
    ALT
    View the full post.
  24. eldritchhobbit
    Another Gothic title very popular with women working in 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Children of the Abbey (1796) by Regina Maria Roche.
    Read it here.
    Quote: The horrors of my mind I cannot describe; I seemed to stand alone in the world, without one friendly hand to prevent my sinking into the grave, which contained the dearest objects of my love.
    ALT
    View the full post.
  25. eldritchhobbit
    A second Ann Radcliffe novel read and savored by women working in the 19th-century mills in Lowell, Massachusetts was The Mysteries of Udolpho (1994).
    Read it here.
    Quote: “… I am not so much afraid of faeries, as of ghosts, and they say there are a plentiful many of them about the castle; now I should be frightened to death, if I should chance to see any of them. But hush! ma’amselle, walk softly! I have thought, several times, something passed by me.”
    ALT
    View the full post.
×