Exam Set!
Your midterm exam will take place from 7:00pm onward, in IH267, on 3 May 2011.
The room has been booked and the time is now official. I will post a poster and tickets soon.
Remember, you will be telling ghost stories to the audience. I would love it if we could arrange some candles or small lights so we can turn the lights off and have a spooky, chilling atmosphere. It’d be even better if we had a candle to pass from speaker to speaker, so that the only light is coming from the person telling the story. Anyway, we’ll see. I’ll have to check whether we’ll set off the fire alarms or something. I think I’ll just test it myself with one candle.
I’ll say a little more about that in our next class.
Anyway, it’s time to start preparing your Ghost Stories. And remember — that’s the only rule. Your ghost story can be funny, spooky, strange, confusing…
The example of the not-scary, beautiful and sad and weird ghost story I wanted to tell you in class, but couldn’t remember, is this one. It’s from the TV show Dead Like Me, and narrated by the brilliant Mandy Patinkin. Don’t pay much attention to the video — it’s full of other strange and magical characters doing strange and magical things, while the man tells the story, but they’re not clearly related to his story… so just listen to the way he tells the story:
It is a ghost story, but it’s not so much scary as something else, right? Philosophical, or magical, or maybe just designed to make you wonder what happens.
But… the most effective ghost stories are usually a little bit scary, so you might consider telling one of those. And of course, you should try find something a little more unusual, special, and unique to tell. You can make the story yourself, research, or even ask people you know if they have experiences. (Remember, my best ghost story was taken from the story a teacher of mine told me in university.)
You will have five minutes each to tell us your best ghost story.
That’s all I have to say for now, so good luck!