November / December 100 Word Anonymous Challenge Discussion

Well, I learned a word: HAUNTOLOGY .... My guesses went to something spooky, but that was only partly correct.
 
Parson said:
Well, I learned a word: HAUNTOLOGY .... My guesses went to something spooky, but that was only partly correct.
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What does it mean? I’ve been reading about it on the internet and can’t make any sense of it. Something about modern society being haunted by its lost possible futures? And yet it is also about ghosts existing paradoxically in both the past and the present. Which seems to assume that ghosts are real. I guess I am being too literal...?
 
Provincial said:
What does it mean? I’ve been reading about it on the internet and can’t make any sense of it. Something about modern society being haunted by its lost possible futures? And yet it is also about ghosts existing paradoxically in both the past and the present. Which seems to assume that ghosts are real. I guess I am being too literal...?
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I can see you are thinking more deeply than I am. I was thinking of a kinda alternate history with paranormal aspects. Maybe I'm completely wrong?
 
Parson said:
I can see you are thinking more deeply than I am. I was thinking of a kinda alternate history with paranormal aspects. Maybe I'm completely wrong?
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That sounds like a good working hypothesis. Let’s say you are completely right, it certainly works for me. :giggle:
 
Hi everyone. I figured some people might have some questions on this. My interpretation of Hauntology is more grounded in music, whereby modern music apes a sound, ambience and mood of another era. An extension of that would be perhaps the first season of His Dark Materials, which was a modern era inspired by the design and style of WW2-era Europe, with old cars, Zeppelins, etc.

I think the essence of Hauntology is what we all thought the future would be like in the past. So maybe make it really personal and go right back to your childhood and how you imagined the world would look like when you were a parent or a grandparent. Think modern times but locked in the style and mindset of the 50's or 60's. To a certain degree, Steampunk is a brand of Hauntology; a future inspired by the industrial revolution.
 
@BT Jones, would you consider Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” to be a hauntological novel?
 
I found this explanation after some googling:
"...it's the idea that people are unable to escape the past. Everything people make is in a sense haunted by past artistic movements..."

So it could be used to describe steampunk as @BT Jones said. I don't know about 'High Castle", but perhaps 1984 would fit the description as Orwell was reusing existing ideas of oppression and state control.
 
Provincial said:
@BT Jones, would you consider Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” to be a hauntological novel?
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I've never read 'The Man in the High Castle' @Provincial. But, yes, @Capricorn42, I would say 1984 would definitely qualify. I think depictions of the future from the early 20th century are ripe for hauntilogical treatment.

Being such a limited reader of books, most of my appreciation for writing and stories comes from film. Now that I think about it, the perfect example for 'hauntology' in film would be my favourite movie of all time, Children of Men. Despite being set in 2027, it's dripping with Thatcher-era Great Britain in terms of mood and style.

Hopefully I haven't picked a genre too obscure and unappealing.
 
In “High Castle”, Japan beat the USA in World War Two, Germany beat the allies and white Americans are very much third class citizens in their own country, but a book written by the man in the high castle (a pen name) describes an alternative present where Germany and Japan both lost, and it is stirring up rebellion. There was recent talk of making it into a movie, I believe.
 
Provincial said:
In “High Castle”, Japan beat the USA in World War Two, Germany beat the allies and white Americans are very much third class citizens in their own country, but a book written by the man in the high castle (a pen name) describes an alternative present where Germany and Japan both lost, and it is stirring up rebellion. There was recent talk of making it into a movie, I believe.
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I'd heard of the TV show but hadn't got around to watching it.
 
Another movie that perhaps has essence of Hauntology is V for Vendetta. It's got that same Children of Men-esque vibe of 80's Britain. I was about to wonder if I'd picked too obscure of a topic based on the number of entries so far. But then it's probably on par to match last month's quota. And the entries are all very imaginative.
 
Oh dear. No comments in 10 days. No new entries since Monday. Please, please, somebody save me from the 'least inspiring workshop challenge EVER' medallion!

I feel like the guy that put 'A Little Less Conversation' on at a rotary ball I went to ages ago. The dancefloor emptied. They stopped the song after 1 minute and stuck on 'Brown Eyed Girl' or something like that, and all the 50-70 year olds came flooding back.

Help me out here, guys!

It's either that or I call the A-Team, and maybe they can burst out of the barn with another 6 entries, fashioned out of timber, aerosol cans and an old bedsheet.

Hey, that's a great idea for a Hauntology story: a future extrapolated from 1980's action TV, where none of the bullets hit, and the only fighting allowed in the world is flying rugby / NFL tackles.

...and David Hasselhoff becomes president of the USA!
 
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