Analog Horror And Nostalgia

The fundamental idea of analog horror is found in a feeling of hauntedness that clings to abandoned and archaic technology, generally (but not always) those related to the distribution of media, such as recording or broadcast equipment. This is related to something that I discussed with the students in my literature class last semester when I showed them a story from Stefan Grabiński’s The Dark Domain, “The Motion Demon” about a haunted train — possibly the first example of such. While, now, the idea of a ghostly steam engine is nothing to bat an eye at, Grabiński wrote the story in 1919, and the first rail line in his homeland of Poland (then part of the Russian Empire) was operational in 1845. That’s a 74-year gap. Is that the amount of time that needs to pass for something to be entrenched in the culture enough that it is coherent to say… read more >