Explore the eerie theme of vanishing in Gothic and Weird Fiction through Jack the Ripper, the Flannan Isles mystery, Carcosa, and The Invisible Man in this deep dive into disappearance.
Oh my goodness, there is so much to love about this essay.
* I’ve known about the lighthouse episode on Flannan Island for years since it’s a popular topic on several of the more chilling YouTube channels. I’ve wondered whether that story was the inspiration behind Egger’s “The Lighthouse” because I tend to believe that one of the men went mad and probably did in the other two and committed suicide.
* Years ago I read “Jack the Ripper: Summing Up and Verdict” by Colin Wilson, who’s notorious for having been a pen-pal with the notorious serial killer, Ian Brady. I thought there were some compelling arguments made in that book about the possibility of the killer being a butcher, who would have known how to rapidly remove organs like a kidney. Also, the killer doesn’t seem to have been educated, unless you buy in to the theories that he intentionally made himself out to be illiterate as a smokescreen. Definitely a bizarre story.
* I absolutely love Sherlock Holmes, but I think that some of Conan Doyle’s other stories (war stories, tales from the ring, etc.) are also stylistically quite good. I feel about him the way I feel about Hemingway’s earlier work: it’s not easy to write that simply and tell a story in such a smooth fashion. I’ve taken walking ghost tours of the West End on three occasions, and all of them begin or end at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. And I’m usually three sheets to the wind by the time they’re over. I think it’s just off of Leicester Square and there’s a weird statue of Oscar Wilde close to it.
* There is a famous Victorian story that I’ve been trying to relocate for years. Maybe you know it. I thought it was mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft’s essay “On the Supernatural in Literature” but it has to do with a vanishing and it’s so creepy. (Maybe it’s D.H. Lawrence who wrote it?). A man goes to see and disappears. His wife routinely goes to the hill where she saw the ship off. Decades later, she is still doing this routine. She sits down on a bench and a man sits next to her. It’s her husband. He survived and is stark-raving mad. He doesn’t recognize her, but something in him pulls him to this place and compels him to sit next to her.
* Regarding mysterious places that disappear, there is a story by Elia Wilkinson Peattie (d. 1935) called “The House That Was Not” that fits the theme of this essay. It’s available for free on Project Gutenberg. She also has a strange story about a mysterious man who washes up to the shore of a village and seems to be an embodiment of a sea fairy. A woman falls in love with him and a violent storm brews and he and she both head out into the midst of it. I think Peattie is under-appreciated. She has many stories like this.
I watched The Lighthouse the other day and I thought the Flannan Isle story might have been an influence, for sure. The Vanishing was a more engaging film though, with the abscence of the Robert Eggers style. And another lighthouse film set in that era is Cold Skin which I liked as well.
I've watched a few people put the theory forward that Jack the Ripper was one of the men that discovered one of the bodies - Charles Lechmere I think his name was. It's quite a convincing arguement as well.
I actually didn't know about Conan Doyle's boxing stories. I have a character that is a boxer that will appear in a novel that I'm planning, so I will definitely read them to learn about boxing in that era. I really need to go and do a Jack the Ripper and Sherlock tour, and visit a few more literary spots.
I really want you to find that story, but I don't think I know it. I just searched for some suggestions and got the following back: The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, sounds a bit like Algernon Blackwood’s ghostly style, Daphne du Maurier’s The Return of the Stranger, Ray Bradbury’s The Fog Horn, The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be by Gahan Wilson.
Oh my goodness, there is so much to love about this essay.
* I’ve known about the lighthouse episode on Flannan Island for years since it’s a popular topic on several of the more chilling YouTube channels. I’ve wondered whether that story was the inspiration behind Egger’s “The Lighthouse” because I tend to believe that one of the men went mad and probably did in the other two and committed suicide.
* Years ago I read “Jack the Ripper: Summing Up and Verdict” by Colin Wilson, who’s notorious for having been a pen-pal with the notorious serial killer, Ian Brady. I thought there were some compelling arguments made in that book about the possibility of the killer being a butcher, who would have known how to rapidly remove organs like a kidney. Also, the killer doesn’t seem to have been educated, unless you buy in to the theories that he intentionally made himself out to be illiterate as a smokescreen. Definitely a bizarre story.
* I absolutely love Sherlock Holmes, but I think that some of Conan Doyle’s other stories (war stories, tales from the ring, etc.) are also stylistically quite good. I feel about him the way I feel about Hemingway’s earlier work: it’s not easy to write that simply and tell a story in such a smooth fashion. I’ve taken walking ghost tours of the West End on three occasions, and all of them begin or end at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. And I’m usually three sheets to the wind by the time they’re over. I think it’s just off of Leicester Square and there’s a weird statue of Oscar Wilde close to it.
* There is a famous Victorian story that I’ve been trying to relocate for years. Maybe you know it. I thought it was mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft’s essay “On the Supernatural in Literature” but it has to do with a vanishing and it’s so creepy. (Maybe it’s D.H. Lawrence who wrote it?). A man goes to see and disappears. His wife routinely goes to the hill where she saw the ship off. Decades later, she is still doing this routine. She sits down on a bench and a man sits next to her. It’s her husband. He survived and is stark-raving mad. He doesn’t recognize her, but something in him pulls him to this place and compels him to sit next to her.
* Regarding mysterious places that disappear, there is a story by Elia Wilkinson Peattie (d. 1935) called “The House That Was Not” that fits the theme of this essay. It’s available for free on Project Gutenberg. She also has a strange story about a mysterious man who washes up to the shore of a village and seems to be an embodiment of a sea fairy. A woman falls in love with him and a violent storm brews and he and she both head out into the midst of it. I think Peattie is under-appreciated. She has many stories like this.
I watched The Lighthouse the other day and I thought the Flannan Isle story might have been an influence, for sure. The Vanishing was a more engaging film though, with the abscence of the Robert Eggers style. And another lighthouse film set in that era is Cold Skin which I liked as well.
I've watched a few people put the theory forward that Jack the Ripper was one of the men that discovered one of the bodies - Charles Lechmere I think his name was. It's quite a convincing arguement as well.
I actually didn't know about Conan Doyle's boxing stories. I have a character that is a boxer that will appear in a novel that I'm planning, so I will definitely read them to learn about boxing in that era. I really need to go and do a Jack the Ripper and Sherlock tour, and visit a few more literary spots.
I really want you to find that story, but I don't think I know it. I just searched for some suggestions and got the following back: The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, sounds a bit like Algernon Blackwood’s ghostly style, Daphne du Maurier’s The Return of the Stranger, Ray Bradbury’s The Fog Horn, The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be by Gahan Wilson.
The Vanishing was decent. Butler put in a very good performance. Think Peter Mullan was in it too and he’s always great 👍🏼
I liked The Vanishing as well, I liked the theory that they found some treasure and the people came looking for it 💰
Wow, I had no idea about the lighthouse. Fascinating read.
Thank you for making such a detailed comment! I've just nipped out for a few pints so I'll give this the reply it deserves tomorrow.
I love a good true story that ties in to the trope or theme I'm writing about