Here There Be Monsters

Let’s start with a frightening tale: Year after year, in a grand ballroom, the literati came together to celebrate the best writing of the day. Here — amid the whimsy of feted storytellers and the intoxicating sizzle of champagne — they believed culture was made. Yet they were deceived in their merriment, for the abominable fiends and howling phantoms they thought were confined to the dark streets and cold woods beyond the gilded walls were, in fact, wandering among them freely. Lost in the dazzle of their gala, the partygoers simply failed to see or hear the ghosts.

At first, this invisibility caused the revenants an aching sadness. Over time, however, as more and more ghastly shades came wailing into the sparkling room, only to go unseen and unheard, an idea woke among them. Perhaps, they thought, if enough of them came at once, the liminal scales might begin to tilt in their favour, away from grandeur and pomp and glitter. Perhaps the grime and shadow of the dark...