Steamily Moist

He asks, "In what way would you say that ghosts are 'real'? Do you think this is a fair question?" And she replies, "Well, I am not sure at all that it is a question that makes sense." Ha ha! I love reading the excruciatingly polite debate of these dry British people about the existence of ghosts! Can there be anything more pleasurable? Another woman in this book has a theory that ghosts are just photographs printed on the atmosphere (I don't think I'm oversimplifying her position much). She claims that ghosts are "more common in moist climates rather than in the drier ones. Thus, Scotland and Ireland have a considerably larger number of apparitions than England. In some parts of India where the atmosphere is, at least for some months of the year, steamily moist, ghosts abound, both indigenous and foreign." Of course, the anthologist, while conceding to Dr. Murray that a ghost will "grow fainter in its later appearances," also takes issue with her: "I am not convinced that there is any true comparison to be drawn between fading apparitions and fading photographs," he huffs discreetly. "Flowers also fade, as do the colours in many textiles. The list could be extended." Ha ha! I love this guy so much. Funny thing, my friend Eugene had a similar theory to Dr. Margaret Murray's. He claimed to have heard a couple of ghosts making plans to catch a long-defunct ferry one night. He told me there were so many ghosts in Mobile because "it's so humid, things we do get stuck in the air." I think he compared it to a skipping phonograph needle.