Ghost Hunters The classic ghost story is shared around a campfire with frightened children, stuffing s’mores in their mouths, or on a candlelight tour around an old city (usually for a fee). When we tell ghost stories, we enter deep time, a thing so infinitely interconnected and complex that it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction and past from present. Ghost stories emerge out of ignorance, revolve around dramatic irony and distortion, and of course, linger somewhere in the haze between truth and tale. Using these same qualities, Holmes and Woolf dive into deep time with their EMF meters to write the ghost stories found in The Age of Wonder and To the Lighthouse. Likewise, Herschel hunts for ghosts in the night sky, and Mr. Ramsay
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For instance, Holmes lost access to a decade of Caroline Herschel’s autobiographical journals when she “completely destroyed” them (Holmes 186). As a result, a mutual ignorance arises where Holmes cannot access information about her, but Caroline also never knew that he would one day need to. The ignorance the characters have of Holmes’ world then fosters the same dramatic irony that characterizes a ghost story. For example, after a passage in which William meets John Adams a decade prior to his presidency, Holmes includes a footnote where Adams and Thomas Jefferson deliberate on extraterrestrials and the implications their existence would have on religion. Holmes closes this footnote with “this argument would presumably have been satisfactorily concluded the following year, when both Adams and Jefferson died and went to meet the Great Principle” (Holmes 167). The knowledge Holmes assumes the reader has that John Adams was the second president of the U.S. and that he passed away centuries ago stands in contrast to the characters’ unawareness of their futures. Therefore, the reader exists in an ironic position in deep time where he or she experiences multiple versions of the past, present, and future. The reader’s past is the character’s present, the reader’s present is the character’s future, and only the reader experiences his or …show more content…
Ramsay is a different breed of ghost hunter than the others in that he hunts his own ghost. Aware of the inevitable consequence of aging, Mr. Ramsay seeks immortality as a ghost stuck in the pages of a book or in the philosophical discussions of future generations. Mr. Ramsay wants to become what Herschel is to Holmes, a long-dead research subject who remains in limbo thanks to his intellectual gifts to the world. Furthermore, Mr. Ramsay’s work would be remembered while the man he was would not, causing him to be forced into boxes. Examples of Mr. Ramsay’s internal ghost hunting occur as he wonders how long his fame will last, musing that “it is permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter” (Woolf 39). He questions whether his ghost hunting is pointless upon realizing that “the very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare” and that his “own little light would shine, not very brightly, for a year or two” (Woolf 39). Therefore, to fight mortality, he aspires to trap himself in the spirit world with those whose lights stay faintly lit through
For instance, Holmes lost access to a decade of Caroline Herschel’s autobiographical journals when she “completely destroyed” them (Holmes 186). As a result, a mutual ignorance arises where Holmes cannot access information about her, but Caroline also never knew that he would one day need to. The ignorance the characters have of Holmes’ world then fosters the same dramatic irony that characterizes a ghost story. For example, after a passage in which William meets John Adams a decade prior to his presidency, Holmes includes a footnote where Adams and Thomas Jefferson deliberate on extraterrestrials and the implications their existence would have on religion. Holmes closes this footnote with “this argument would presumably have been satisfactorily concluded the following year, when both Adams and Jefferson died and went to meet the Great Principle” (Holmes 167). The knowledge Holmes assumes the reader has that John Adams was the second president of the U.S. and that he passed away centuries ago stands in contrast to the characters’ unawareness of their futures. Therefore, the reader exists in an ironic position in deep time where he or she experiences multiple versions of the past, present, and future. The reader’s past is the character’s present, the reader’s present is the character’s future, and only the reader experiences his or …show more content…
Ramsay is a different breed of ghost hunter than the others in that he hunts his own ghost. Aware of the inevitable consequence of aging, Mr. Ramsay seeks immortality as a ghost stuck in the pages of a book or in the philosophical discussions of future generations. Mr. Ramsay wants to become what Herschel is to Holmes, a long-dead research subject who remains in limbo thanks to his intellectual gifts to the world. Furthermore, Mr. Ramsay’s work would be remembered while the man he was would not, causing him to be forced into boxes. Examples of Mr. Ramsay’s internal ghost hunting occur as he wonders how long his fame will last, musing that “it is permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter” (Woolf 39). He questions whether his ghost hunting is pointless upon realizing that “the very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare” and that his “own little light would shine, not very brightly, for a year or two” (Woolf 39). Therefore, to fight mortality, he aspires to trap himself in the spirit world with those whose lights stay faintly lit through