I am, and always have been, fascinated by questions of whatвЂ™s real and whatвЂ™s Think this muddling of the symbolic and the actual is what set me up to be anДЄrtist. When youвЂ™re actually in church, however, itвЂ™s hard to believe this because the eucharist still tastes and looks like breadвЂ¦but there are stories of saints who were so holy that when they ate communion, they said it tasted like raw meat. Through the power of the ritual, these substances are transformed. Catholics are taught to think of the eucharistic bread and wine as the literal flesh and blood of Christ. ItвЂ™s a depth thatвЂ™s filled with something-not a void.ДЄnd of course, the central rite of the Catholic mass is the sacrifice of JesusвЂ™s body. ThereвЂ™s a real horror to this idea, and itвЂ™s distinct from the secular, nihilistic horror of a vacuum. That whatever suffering I might face on earth was very small compared to the suffering of those who came before, and smaller still compared to the torments I might face in purgatory or hell. I learned that even if I couldnвЂ™t directly experience these beings, I should speak to them as if they were always present and listening.

From a very early age, this gave me the sense that our lives stood in a complicated relationship to the hereafter, and that we were sustained by our connections to invisible beings: God, Mary, the Holy Spirit, angels, and the dead, which meant both saints and dead people we knew personally. But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility.вЂќ Catholicism and God permeate this book-thereвЂ™s even a Johannine (Gospel of John) cadence to some of your formulations about horror, like вЂњWe see it to believe it, and in believing, see.вЂќ What makes Catholics particularly receptive to horror and discussions of mortality?Д¬C: Well, the version of Catholicism I grew up with combined ordinary, post-Vatican II masses and catechism with my momвЂ™s more magical beliefs and practices. Greeley from The Catholic Imagination: вЂњCatholics live in an enchanted world, a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures. TM: While reading your book, I recalled this observation by Father Andrew M. I think my experience of the spiritual world has always been one of awe, fear, and dread: the вЂњtremendumвЂќ in Rudolf OttosвЂ™s definition of the numinous as вЂњmysterium tremendum et fascinans.вЂќ It wasnвЂ™t ghosts and demons that most frightened me while writing I was haunted by God. By the time I finished it, I found I was more of aД«eliever in the mysterious and supernatural than when I began, which was not Working on the book over several years, I also became more attuned to uncanny experiencesДЄnd weird synchronicities. The process of writing about my past called distant memories to surface, and some of those memories were scary-or sad. Were you ever scared while writing this book?Д¬laire Cronin: I did sometimes feel scared of what I was revealing about myself. Your book mines the spiritual in a true sense: the world of spirits and the spirit. The Millions: Blue Light of the Screen is unique, expansive, and scary-and I donвЂ™t think itвЂ™s merely because I read it during the Halloween season. We spoke about writing that scares us, the power of ritual, and the ghosts who walk among us. She earned an MFA in poetry from the University of California, Irvine, and a PhD in English from the University of Georgia. She has written for Fairy Tale Review, Bennington Review, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. Her latest album, Big Dread Moon, was described as вЂњa full-length folk horror movieвЂќ by The Fader. Love this unique book, but so will those who seek to understand fear.Д¬ronin is a writer and musician. Fans of horror films and Catholics-devoted or drifted-will Structure arrives like whispers in the dark, or frenetic prayers. She reveals how horror, ghosts, and God exist among each other. It speaks to the transcendence of her concerns: Perfect time, but CroninвЂ™s fascinating book feels absolutely made for thisД®specially disturbing Halloween. вЂњIвЂ™ve always felt hauntedвЂ¦There is something about watching ghosts on screens that satisfies this personal unprovable.вЂќ вЂњHorror fans are often asked to explain why to people who donвЂ™t like or understand the genre-to offer an apologia,вЂќ Claire Cronin writes in Blue Light of the Screen: On Horror, Ghosts, and God.

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