A Pregnant Ghost and Other Sexual Hauntings by Colin Waters
| A Pregnant Ghost and Other Sexual Hauntings by Colin Waters | |
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| Category: Spirituality and Religion | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: What at first looks to be a limited survey of spooks proves a great compilation of carnal creepiness. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 176 | Date: April 2010 |
| Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd | |
| ISBN: 978-0709089902 | |
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This is a book that does what it sets out to do on the tin, and does so in almost glorious fashion. The back cover blurb promises hilarity and tittilation, but this will also fit on the shelf of any academic looking into the hornier side of the Fortean world, as well as anyone relishing the most singular collection of ghost legends that I can remember reading.
There are forty-five examples of hauntings here, all related to the slightly perverse habits of the undead. Witness the tramp seen fiddling with himself in someone's back garden, who turned out to have died of a heart attack doing the same thing six months ago - during which time the owners of the property changed, but shared a first name. Witness the spook, forever seen to be hastening across train tracks in a mirror of a young, love-struck (and, fatally, train-struck) female of years ago. Witness too the couple of human, er, lovers, interrupted by a couple of markedly different make-up doing the same thing in the room next door.
There are some instances that don't quite have a sexual connection - the leprechaun that wees on you, the ghostly farting ("blarting") competition, Edward II's rough demise echoing from its source to this day. There are some that will definitely not titillate - one example of ectoplasm in a chimney is exceedingly grisly if the truth be told.
But this book opens our eyes to a whole new aspect of ghost life, while never trying to editorialise. The fact we only get two pages of introductions, and then the reported tales, however, does not mean this book cannot tell us a lot more, subliminally, about the nature of ghosts. It asks in a subtle way what actually makes a ghost - if, as many say, it is made with the help of heightened emotion and stress, who would deny rape victims and other carnally indulging people their chance to have an afterlife - after both the petite and the grand mort?
It lets us look at what makes a ghost story, too, as some of the instances here are obviously taken from modern press cuttings, some told direct to our compiler, and some go back centuries. Who is to be certain of anything in those instances? One of the more interesting instances might have had details added at a later date, at least - the tale of a boy ghost that allegedly appears naked to homosexuals, clothed to heterosexual men.
We also get to question the very definition of haunting - is there really a ghost in these pages who was scared off - haunted - by a ghost in turn himself?
This book then goes way beyond some smutty compilation of instances of incubi and succubi. Since it's first appearance in 1993 I would wish for some brief updating, and the removal of a few typos (the 1680s become the 1860s in the title story), but this is an unexpectedly charming book, and one which will delight any browser with any level of interest in reading about ghosts, and what they, er, get up to.
I must thank the publisher for my review copy.
A completely fictional side of the same coin is to be found in Dying for It by Mitzi Szereto, which is an erotica compilation featuring ghosts galore. This volume under consideration was obviously their inspiration. You might also enjoy The Haunted Book by Jeremy Dyson.
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You can read more book reviews or buy A Pregnant Ghost and Other Sexual Hauntings by Colin Waters at Amazon.com.
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