Books that I've recently read for school

This semester, I am taking a Literature and the Occult class. Far from the hokiness that this scene might have taken, this class has been a quality examination of the "other world" and what people have written about this other world. I've looked further down the book list, and I see several books that I think will end up being awesome. At the moment though, I'm not overly impressed with the few books we have already read.

First off, we read a short story called "The Whistling Room". This is a short story in the vein of the Sherlock Holmes stories, where an investigator of the paranormal is recounting his experiences with his friends. This story is actually the only one so far that we've read that had any creepiness factor whatsoever for me. The haunting itself is not so scary, but the effects of it are a bit chilling, and the climax of the story is definitely a cut above the rest of the stories we've read. I would give this one a 3 out of 5. This is a typical ghost story, albeit done very well.

The next book we read was "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson. I'm not very fond of this book to be honest. I realize that it's supposed to be a ghost story, but I see this book as more of a story about psychic phenomena. I don't think that there are any ghosts, or residue (as our instructor calls the leftover impressions made by terrible events that have happened in the house's past). Rather, I see this as a slightly disturbed young woman with psychic powers who manifests those powers subconsciously. She isn't even aware that she is affecting her surroundings with her powers. This story is pretty decent, and is set up fairly well (as is evidenced by the fact that multiple movies have been made based upon this formula). I'm still not an overall fan though. This doesn't seem ghostly to me. I was disappointed. 3/5 as a psychic story, 1/5 as a ghost story.

We moved on from there to Margaret Oliphant's "The Library Window". This book had very little action in it. However it was a good story about a ghost haunting the female blood line of a family of women who were responsible for the ghost's death. This story is not overly used in modern literature (although, i don't frequently read romance novels, where i suspect this setting has slightly more play). I was not overly fond of this book simply because I did not identify with the young teenage female protagonist. 3/5

Lastly, we've read "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. This book is slightly better than the rest. I enjoy his style of prose. I knew beforehand that there is a lot of debate as to the goings on of this book. While I can see and understand where people are coming from in regards to the possibility that the governess might be insane and attacking the kids...I don't see that she could be making the ghosts up in her own mind. My biggest piece of evidence is the fact that she perfectly describes Quint before even having known who he was. I find little literary evidence of the fact that she could have known anything about him prior to having seen his ghost. I appreciate much of the ambiguity in the story though. Just what are the children's motives? Even if they are not responsible for the poltergeistic activity (which is one theory as to their strange behavior), they are definitely odd kids. I honestly feel however, that James, who was well known for his ghost stories, did not intend to create dispute. I think he was simply out to write a good, alternative ghost story. He succeeded in his goal. 4/5

Next up for the class will be some random ghost stories in a book of modern ghost stories. I'll see how they go.

For me personally? I'm still working (albeit rather extremely slowly) on "Still Life with Crows". This book, I must admit is much better than I would have given it credit for given its setting. Still waiting for The Scourge of God to arrive in paperback.