Yesterday I wrote that Lafcadio Hearn, who came to call himself Yakumo Koizumi, had been interested in the supernatural and the spooky way before he moved to Japan. Here’s an example of what I mean. What is the fear of ghosts among those who believe in ghosts? All fear is the result of experience,—experience of […]
When we talk about Lafcadio Hearn we often think of his folklore stories, but he also wrote a whole bunch of other stuff, and he has been fascinated by the supernatural and the macabre long before he moved to Japan. This is one of them. Long before I had arrived at what catechisms call the […]
Should you ever go down there, let’s say for the 2025 Esri User Conference, I’ve got you covered. 1. The USS Midway and the Museum of the Sea I’m not sure it’s actually worth it going inside the museums unless you’ve got time to spare (which we didn’t) and you’re really passionate about going aboard […]
The body was cold as ice; the heart had long ceased to beat, yet there were no other signs of death. Nobody even spoke of burying the woman. She had died of grief and anger at having been divorced. It would have been useless to bury her,—because the last undying wish of a dying person […]
The theatre was full. I cannot remember what they were playing. I did not have time to observe the actors. I only remember how vast the building seemed. Looking back, I saw an ocean of faces stretching away almost beyond the eye’s power of definition to the far circles where the seats rose tier above […]
Well, it’s a wrap! Autodesk University consolidated my career in BIM back in 2016, and I hadn’t participated in it in seven years. Much has changed since then. I’ve changed, and the world has, but one thing has stayed the same: the convention is still an incredible place for networking, learning and brainstorming about the […]
The daimyō’s wife was dying, and knew that she was dying. She had not been able to leave her bed since the early autumn of the tenth Bunsei. It was now the fourth month of the twelfth Bunsei,—the year 1829 by Western counting; and the cherry-trees were blossoming. She thought of the cherry-trees in her garden, […]
“I am not afraid to die,” said the dying wife; — “there is only one thing that troubles me now. I wish that I could know who will take my place in this house.” “My dear one,” answered the sorrowing husband, “nobody shall ever take your place in my home. I will never, never marry […]
Today’s reading on my Patreon is “The Spectre Barber” by Johann Karl August Musäus translated and collected by Helen Smith in The Decameron of the West (1839).
Christina Rossetti wrote “The Hour and the Ghost” in 1856. It was later published in 1862 in her collection Goblin Market and Other Poems. Here it is. BRIDE. O LOVE, love, hold me fast, He draws me away from thee; I cannot stem the blast, Nor the cold strong sea: Far away a light shines […]