“Among
primitive peoples, the surrounding air is thought to be inhabited by the souls
of the departed. Especially in the cases of those who have died of disease or
of violence is placation necessary to safeguard the living and protect them
against the vengeance of the tomb. The advance in knowledge did little to
modify this primitive fear of death and new bogies developed to replace outworn
superstitions and discarded beliefs. The Middle Ages were obsessed with worms
and grinning skulls, with were-wolves and ghouls, vampires (the living dead who
can be slain only by a nail driven through the heart), ghosts, witches, and all
the other paraphernalia of medieval magic. We have not yet outgrown all these
beliefs. Many superstitions linger on, although we may have forgotten the
significance of the homage we unconsciously pay them. Thus we place tombstones
over the graves of our dead – to prevent their return to haunt us; and should
they escape, the funeral wreath is there to trip their steps.
“There
is a fascination and horror connected with death that few, if any of us ever
escape. Corpses exert a powerful attraction over hundreds who have no direct
connection with the dead. They come to ‘view the remains’. The morgue is
constantly visited by people who have no legitimate business there. In a few,
this universal morbidity is exaggerated to the point where perversity
supervenes. An unholy love is mixed with the necrophobiac’s fear of the dead –
a wild desire, but one step removed from madness, to possess the unspeakable
corruption that inspires his abject terror, and so to lose himself in the
horror and stillness of death.”
John Vassos
New York City
May 25th 1931
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