Introduction to a Diversion

The recent unpleasantness at the polls, coupled with the ongoing financial disturbances have consumed much of my attention of late. As a distraction from these dark days, I have been reading a collection of M.R. James short stories, Casting the Runes. James was an English scholar of mediaeval literature, but is better known for his ghost stories. They are as fussy and formal as a lace doily, but have been admired by such luminaries of supernatural literature such as H.P. Lovecraft.* I find them mildly diverting.

James was an orthodox Christian of the Anglican variety. I find that fact interesting in light of the disapproval with which most Christians treat ghost stories. I am getting to age at which it is silly to be ashamed of things like this, and I take a bit of comfort in James' faith. In any case, his tales were more tales of the demonic than of ghosts (in the sense of lingering human spirits harrassing the living), so in that sense, they are probably more theologically sound, at least from some people's perspective.

Reading a dozen in a row of these things reveals a pretty simple pattern. I thought it would be fun to attempt a ghost story in the style of James, but set in the present. So starting tomorrow, I present an entertainment in three parts, Hexing With Decimals.

* H.P. Lovecraft was a far better practioner of supernatural horror than James. Just the titles alone are enough to give me goosebumps after three decades: The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, At The Mountains of Madness, The Thing on the Doorstep and on and on.