The week of Halloween my brain pretty much shuts down and reverts to spirit mode (pun possibly intended) where all I want to do is watch scary movies, relish in decorations, and enthrall myself in harvest activities. As much as I love them, the holiday has never been about the costumes or the candy for me. I actually enjoy being reminded that there is a dark side which contrasts the light; as disturbing as it might sound, I think there's some little bit of evil out there which gives purpose to the good. At the same time, I delight in the totality of the horror genre because it is (however small) a challenge to my own lack of faith in actual evil, ghosts, what have you...that "haunt" the living.
The U-Guides really captured my attention by hosting a GHOST TOUR this evening complete with complimentary apple cider! After summoning some interest from a few V-Dubs (Chelsea, Hannah, Golda, and Jillian) we gathered on the front steps of the Rotunda in the darkening twilight. The Chapel tolled seven chimes and then two U-Guides bearing orange-glowing candles approached from a distance. An actual hush fell over the crowd and a strong wind snuffed their lights as they began to speak - it was all extremely theatrical, almost as if there was another presence performing for us!
(Thus I have also re-accomplished task #29: Visit Edgar Allan Poe's Room)
The first stop was Edgar Allan Poe's room on the West Range where Poe had studied for some time (literature being his favorite, of course) and later dropped out. In this room he had eerily carved into the base of his window:
O Thou timid one, do not let thy
Form slumber within these
Unhallowed walls,
For herein lies
The ghost of an awful crime.
.
While he saw his lack of continued education at the University (due to lack of funds that were supposed to have been produced by his adopted father figure) as the "crime", the suspense Poe produces even in this simple statement is up for the reader's interpretation.
(Check out the orb on the right as I was walking back alone toward the Lawn. In the previous picture which was darker it had been farther away but was definitely still in the shot. Maybe it was the ghost of Gaffy, the hero of one of Poe's stories which was ridiculed by his peers and led him to throw his manuscript into the fire!)
The tour was brilliantly enlightening in its historical rendering of the darker subjects of the University's past. I learned about the Anatomical Theater that was the only original plan of Jefferson's not incorporated on Grounds today; this building had been erected in front of what is today Alderman Library and served as a rounded theater for the study of cadavers. These cadavers even showed up in the Corks and Curls yearbook in several secret society photographs! Overall, the tour was a lot of fun, and while we regretfully had to leave early (after hearing about the Civil War soldiers that were likely murdered in every Lawn room and hid things in the floorboards) to get to choir practice, I couldn't be happier with another historical tour topic!
"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?" - Edgar Allan Poe
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