Haunted Quotes

“Perhaps most people are to a certain extent naturally syncretic. We believe contradictory things all the time. More often than not, when emotions enter the equation-fear, love, hatred, disgust- reason often becomes irrelevant.”
― Leo Braudy, Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds

“the house in horror is often the image of the body, a metaphor for the different aspects of the self, the self with other people and the self alone. the body is generally under attack in horror, and the bedroom - the place for sex, sleeping, and dreaming - is the pace of greatest vulnerability.”
― Leo Braudy, Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds

“Instead of the [natural] monster being a King Kong, torn from his native habitat to supply the demands of a corrupt show business, or a Godzilla, aroused by war, it was nature itself, distorted by human activity that wrecked its vengeance by cold, heat , and disease.”
― Leo Braudy, Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds

“nature might be what is outside you or inside you. it might be what is regular and systematic, or what is irregular and random. it could define what is fundamentally human or what is fundamentally animal. it might contradict the conventions of society, politics, culture, and art, or it might be their real meaning. it could be the heart of things or it could be the surface of things. politically, it could mean freedom (as a return to a lost or repressed human nature) or confinement (as the need to abide by an unchangeable human nature). artistically, it could mean the need to follow eternal rules of the need to forget all rules. theologically, it could mean what's permanent or what constantly changes, what is pure (and innocent of thought) or what is impure (and beyond any thought).”
― Leo Braudy, Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds