What a tale—sinuous, sorrowful, and unshakably eerie. Anyone who thinks ghost stories are mere entertainment should sit with Patapsco Spirits: Eleven Ghost Stories and try sleeping soundly afterward. This isn’t just “chilling”—it’s metaphysical weather, a shift in pressure you feel in your bones.
For hauntings laced with fable and a touch of metaphysical mischief, the author’s brother, David Bentley Hart, offers a fitting companion in Prisms, Veils—strange, luminous, and just as unsettling in its own way.
Together, the two Harts remind us that the unseen world isn’t just behind the veil—it might be reading over your shoulder.
Now I return to worrying about democracy, climate collapse, and the slow death of metaphysics. But I’ll be keeping a nightlight on. Just in case.
Every morning I look for your next post here on your substack, Addison, and feel delighted when I get a notification. I liked the framing device—the two men discussing, then the notes come out—in my case it serves to put me at one remove from the story—like sitting around a campfire while telling scary stories—the fire there to remind one “we’re here and not there.” I smiled when I read about John and Elaine going out to dine with others in the funeral home business—wondering what those conversations were about. When I was young I spent a lot of time camping, backpacking, fishing and hunting alone—and I admit I was never really afraid of animals two or four-legged, but I was afraid of the spirit world—malevolent demons. Those fears eventually evaporated with age—especially as my prayer life increased as well as my firm belief in being accompanied by my guardian Angel. (I found reading Sergei Bulgakov’s treatise Jacob’s Ladder: On AngelsI immensely insightful and helpful) I also don’t engage my imagination with movies that deal with the demonic. But that said, I loved reading your novel The Antichrist and will purchase your collection of ghost stories. The conclusion of this story, taking the reader from the horrific past into the peaceful Compline prayer service really rounded out the tale nicely. Thank you for posting this. Now to my Bible reading and prayers.
I am embarrassed to admit that I neglected to read the italicized introduction for some reason before reading most of this piece. As such, I sincerely believed that what I was getting was a real story of possession (heavily narrativized, of course, but with a real set of experiences at its core). Operating within this faulty frame, my credulity was nonetheless only really strained in a few places, and (in no small part thanks to my confidence in the trustworthiness of the messenger) I was not struck by anything as wholly unbelievable. Which I guess means that the story is very good, or that I have been completely stripped of my old materialist intuitions, or that I am a moron, or (probably) all three.
Now that I have been corrected by the scroll-up function and working eyeballs, I can say that while the tale was certainly chilling and entertaining, I can't help but be a bit disappointed (though also relieved) that it is fiction. Which is hardly the fault of the author: on the contrary, it is to your credit. However, this has left me with the urge to read possession stories of a more veridical variety. You mentioned in a previous post:
"Without a doubt, there have been documented cases of “possession” every bit as harrowing as some of the most sensational reports have detailed, some of them straining beyond the breaking point the very best psychological and physicalist attempts to explain (or to explain away)."
Could you perhaps point me in the direction of some of these cases which you find particularly credible or interesting?
I write stories with verisimilitude, especially of a psychological kind, in mind. Occasionally, I will add humor, a touch of absurdity, or the fantastic, but I always want a story to be consistent enough on its own terms to be plausible. Also, I draw from real life (as I did in this one).
The literature on true exorcism cases is extensive and varied, but this article may prompt you to explore further reading about these and other authenticated cases: https://allthatsinteresting.com/real-exorcisms.
As I mentioned in my post (in the archives) about writing ghost stories, restraint is of the essence. Other forms of macabre or horror fiction may demand more explicitness, but the ghost story is more effective the more it sticks to an eerie reticence.
What a tale—sinuous, sorrowful, and unshakably eerie. Anyone who thinks ghost stories are mere entertainment should sit with Patapsco Spirits: Eleven Ghost Stories and try sleeping soundly afterward. This isn’t just “chilling”—it’s metaphysical weather, a shift in pressure you feel in your bones.
For hauntings laced with fable and a touch of metaphysical mischief, the author’s brother, David Bentley Hart, offers a fitting companion in Prisms, Veils—strange, luminous, and just as unsettling in its own way.
Together, the two Harts remind us that the unseen world isn’t just behind the veil—it might be reading over your shoulder.
Now I return to worrying about democracy, climate collapse, and the slow death of metaphysics. But I’ll be keeping a nightlight on. Just in case.
Every morning I look for your next post here on your substack, Addison, and feel delighted when I get a notification. I liked the framing device—the two men discussing, then the notes come out—in my case it serves to put me at one remove from the story—like sitting around a campfire while telling scary stories—the fire there to remind one “we’re here and not there.” I smiled when I read about John and Elaine going out to dine with others in the funeral home business—wondering what those conversations were about. When I was young I spent a lot of time camping, backpacking, fishing and hunting alone—and I admit I was never really afraid of animals two or four-legged, but I was afraid of the spirit world—malevolent demons. Those fears eventually evaporated with age—especially as my prayer life increased as well as my firm belief in being accompanied by my guardian Angel. (I found reading Sergei Bulgakov’s treatise Jacob’s Ladder: On AngelsI immensely insightful and helpful) I also don’t engage my imagination with movies that deal with the demonic. But that said, I loved reading your novel The Antichrist and will purchase your collection of ghost stories. The conclusion of this story, taking the reader from the horrific past into the peaceful Compline prayer service really rounded out the tale nicely. Thank you for posting this. Now to my Bible reading and prayers.
Thank you for your kind comments.
Will read this later. There is an article in the NYT magazine on the art scene in Trondheim, looks like you're in a great town.
Mr. Hart,
I am embarrassed to admit that I neglected to read the italicized introduction for some reason before reading most of this piece. As such, I sincerely believed that what I was getting was a real story of possession (heavily narrativized, of course, but with a real set of experiences at its core). Operating within this faulty frame, my credulity was nonetheless only really strained in a few places, and (in no small part thanks to my confidence in the trustworthiness of the messenger) I was not struck by anything as wholly unbelievable. Which I guess means that the story is very good, or that I have been completely stripped of my old materialist intuitions, or that I am a moron, or (probably) all three.
Now that I have been corrected by the scroll-up function and working eyeballs, I can say that while the tale was certainly chilling and entertaining, I can't help but be a bit disappointed (though also relieved) that it is fiction. Which is hardly the fault of the author: on the contrary, it is to your credit. However, this has left me with the urge to read possession stories of a more veridical variety. You mentioned in a previous post:
"Without a doubt, there have been documented cases of “possession” every bit as harrowing as some of the most sensational reports have detailed, some of them straining beyond the breaking point the very best psychological and physicalist attempts to explain (or to explain away)."
Could you perhaps point me in the direction of some of these cases which you find particularly credible or interesting?
I write stories with verisimilitude, especially of a psychological kind, in mind. Occasionally, I will add humor, a touch of absurdity, or the fantastic, but I always want a story to be consistent enough on its own terms to be plausible. Also, I draw from real life (as I did in this one).
The literature on true exorcism cases is extensive and varied, but this article may prompt you to explore further reading about these and other authenticated cases: https://allthatsinteresting.com/real-exorcisms.
As I mentioned in my post (in the archives) about writing ghost stories, restraint is of the essence. Other forms of macabre or horror fiction may demand more explicitness, but the ghost story is more effective the more it sticks to an eerie reticence.