The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction — John Shaqi
The Supernatural in Modern English FictionScarborough, Dorothy
History
The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction
Scarborough, Dorothy
English fiction -- History and criticism; Supernatural in literature
Under-world. True, the materialist may argue that the actual is more
marvelous than the imagined, that the aeroplane is more a thing of
wonder than was the hippogriff, that the ferry is really the enchanted
boat, after all, and that Dante would write a new _Inferno_ if he could
see the subway at the rush hour, but that is another issue.
We might have more psychal experiences than we do if we would only
keep our eyes open, but most of us do have more than we admit to the
neighbors. We have an early-Victorian reticence concerning ghostly
things as if it were scandalous to be associated with them. But that
is all wrong. We should be proud of being singled out for spectral
confidences and should report our ghost-guests to the society columns
of the newspaper. It is hoped that this discussion of comparative
ghost-lore may help to establish a better sense of values.
In this book I deal with ghosts and devils by and large, in an
impressionistic way. I don't know much about them; I have no learned
theories of causation. I only love them. I only marvel at their
infinite variety and am touched by their humanity, their likeness to
mortals. I am fond of them all, even the dejected, dog-eared ghosts
that look as if they were wraiths of poor relations left out in the
rain all night, or devils whose own mothers wouldn't care for them. It
gives me no holier-than-thou feeling of horror to sit beside a vampire
in the subway, no panic to hear a banshee shut up in a hurdy-gurdy box.
I give a cordial how-do-you-do when a dragon glides up and puts his paw
in mine, and in every stray dog I recognize a Gladsome Beast. Like us
mortals, they all need sympathy, none more so than the poor wizards and
bogles that are on their own, as the Scotch say.
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