The land doesn't feel "malevolent" to me at all. I'm not frightened of the forests or anything in them. Bankers and lawyers and corporate journalists and assorted middle management robots absolutely horrify me though.
“An unmistakably dark aura emanates from the American wood. Something heavy and sinister. Tales of ghosts, cryptids, missing people, and occult phenomena arise from every corner of the country. Paranoia over just what kind of threats might exist out there in Nature persists deep into the subconscious of the insulated American mind.”
I get where you are going with this and I will subscribe, but —
It’s not as if, say, European forests have never been considered dark/sinister/haunted. On the contrary, the archetypal European fairy tale presents “entering the forest” as supremely dangerous; it is there that the innocent, the Fool, or the adventurer encounters supernatural evil.
Nature is chthonic. We don’t fear forests because we are Americans. We fear them because they are thin places, no matter where they are on the planet or what our respective national cultures make of them…
There seem to be places where supernatural phenomena is more likely. I suppose “thin place” is more a metaphor than anything else - who knows really why one house “is haunted” and the next one isnt? — but the idea is that the barrier between our physical world and non-physical reality is sometimes more permeable, and the permeability seems sometimes to be associated with specific physical locations.
Fascinating! Thank you - I feel there are “thin” places like that (for instance in Cornwall and Egypt) that were sought out by Ancient cultures for their rituals and transitional practices. in forests the thinning or permeation might be more chaotic and unbridled because it was never “used” or ritualized and could run rampant over Millenia.
In the city I live in, there areas of interest: the demilitarised zone which reeks of a palpable blackness that surrounds you and crushes you. Blood Alley where the gallows are, where men were hung, swinging in the alley near the gaols. And of course, Deadman's Island where one cannot set foot on one inch of the small island without stepping on bones after a massive north south tribal war a few hundred years ago, then a quarantine zone for cholera and yellow fever.
Further out, we have the Pacific Northwest legendarily haunted by Sasquatch and Wendigo and of course, the usual crew of utter psychos who have gone feral. That and the rain and the haunted feeling are why the X-Files came to be filmed here. Equally, the Canadian spirit is schizoid - the prairies full of people who fought the land and won, and far west and east full of people who capitulated during various wars. Our spirit is a smug one, this uneasy feeling of surrender without knowing fully why, so we brag and consider ourselves not American.
And then there's Stanley park, a tale in itself. I have had friends tell me of dark figures in cloaks late at night performing unnatural acts, there's the Fruit Loop where you can have sex in the pitch black and everyone warns you don't walk around there at night, it's a thousand acres of nasty. Maybe it's in the city to remind of savagery.
As Americans turns their back on Christ the pagan corn gods return for blood.
Excellent.
Always liked that photo.
Magnificent work - the pictures are haunting and beautiful. Love your style
Fantastic.
https://youtu.be/K2tgZCabTzs?si=ts7ISXRe1TyzDLpN
(Ugh since Substack doesn’t show previews - link to appropriate commentary on subject from Naked Lunch)
A unifying theory of America
“Our national character is aversion— to the unfamiliar, the exotic, the uncivilized.“
What would this imply in regards to counter-cultural movements?
Well done.
The land doesn't feel "malevolent" to me at all. I'm not frightened of the forests or anything in them. Bankers and lawyers and corporate journalists and assorted middle management robots absolutely horrify me though.
“An unmistakably dark aura emanates from the American wood. Something heavy and sinister. Tales of ghosts, cryptids, missing people, and occult phenomena arise from every corner of the country. Paranoia over just what kind of threats might exist out there in Nature persists deep into the subconscious of the insulated American mind.”
I get where you are going with this and I will subscribe, but —
It’s not as if, say, European forests have never been considered dark/sinister/haunted. On the contrary, the archetypal European fairy tale presents “entering the forest” as supremely dangerous; it is there that the innocent, the Fool, or the adventurer encounters supernatural evil.
Nature is chthonic. We don’t fear forests because we are Americans. We fear them because they are thin places, no matter where they are on the planet or what our respective national cultures make of them…
Okay maybe I was too quick to comment - just read your 50 truths post & it is very good. ❤️
Supernatural history - I have a question: when you say European forests are “thin” places; what do you mean? I’m intrigued!
Also, I didn’t mean that European forests alone are thin places. On the contrary, all forests are, or could be.
There seem to be places where supernatural phenomena is more likely. I suppose “thin place” is more a metaphor than anything else - who knows really why one house “is haunted” and the next one isnt? — but the idea is that the barrier between our physical world and non-physical reality is sometimes more permeable, and the permeability seems sometimes to be associated with specific physical locations.
Fascinating! Thank you - I feel there are “thin” places like that (for instance in Cornwall and Egypt) that were sought out by Ancient cultures for their rituals and transitional practices. in forests the thinning or permeation might be more chaotic and unbridled because it was never “used” or ritualized and could run rampant over Millenia.
It’s also entirely possible that rituals can create them.
You are so right!
In the city I live in, there areas of interest: the demilitarised zone which reeks of a palpable blackness that surrounds you and crushes you. Blood Alley where the gallows are, where men were hung, swinging in the alley near the gaols. And of course, Deadman's Island where one cannot set foot on one inch of the small island without stepping on bones after a massive north south tribal war a few hundred years ago, then a quarantine zone for cholera and yellow fever.
Further out, we have the Pacific Northwest legendarily haunted by Sasquatch and Wendigo and of course, the usual crew of utter psychos who have gone feral. That and the rain and the haunted feeling are why the X-Files came to be filmed here. Equally, the Canadian spirit is schizoid - the prairies full of people who fought the land and won, and far west and east full of people who capitulated during various wars. Our spirit is a smug one, this uneasy feeling of surrender without knowing fully why, so we brag and consider ourselves not American.
And then there's Stanley park, a tale in itself. I have had friends tell me of dark figures in cloaks late at night performing unnatural acts, there's the Fruit Loop where you can have sex in the pitch black and everyone warns you don't walk around there at night, it's a thousand acres of nasty. Maybe it's in the city to remind of savagery.
Most of this applies to Australian outback too