Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Ghostwriter


At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

I had the strangest dream the other night, and I woke up with the following question. (The dream had nothing to do with the question. That's the weirdest part.)

What if we could access books written by ghosts? (Specifically: The books are written by ghosts. I'm not talking about being haunted by a writer who has books that were published while they were alive.)

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13 comments:

  1. SongbirdSeptember 7, 2021 at 9:12 AM

    Why am I suddenly thinking of the movie Beetlejuice and the Handbook for the Recently Deceased?

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    Replies
    1. Liz A.September 7, 2021 at 3:21 PM

      I had not considered that. It's been a while since I saw Beetlejuice.

      Delete
    2. SongbirdSeptember 8, 2021 at 5:54 AM

      It would be quite a book …

      Delete
  2. LisaSeptember 7, 2021 at 9:30 AM

    How do we know we don't? Perhaps the living author on the cover is really just the "ghost writer"!

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  3. peppylady (Dora)September 7, 2021 at 12:58 PM

    Do you think they look at our writing and such.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  4. AlanaSeptember 7, 2021 at 2:27 PM

    Perhaps, most ghosts in their world don't care that much about our world? Otherwise, perhaps we'd be interacting with ghosts on a daily basis? If we could see their books (if they write books) we don't have the shared experience of living in the ghost world - perhaps they are full of subject matter and jokes we just would never understand?

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    Replies
    1. Liz A.September 7, 2021 at 3:22 PM

      Could be. What would ghosts be interested in, do you think?

      Delete
  5. RedSeptember 9, 2021 at 2:54 AM

    This question seems like a good one for Jasper Fforde. If you haven't read his stuff, I think you would enjoy it. He doesn't have "ghost" writers, but the entire Thursday Next series is about a sort of alternate reality that gets into how books are REALLY written and read.

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  6. BirgitSeptember 9, 2021 at 9:47 AM

    I would read their books and, like the living, some would be good and others, bad.

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  7. Pradeep NairSeptember 10, 2021 at 7:08 AM

    There are no ghosts. If at all there are, they are humans only! So, it should be no different from the books I am reading now!

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I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.

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