IAN SIMMONS wonders what happened to the strange children’s mythology uncovered by journalist Linda Edwards
Publicity surrounding the recently released film The Florida Project,1 which focuses on the precarious lives of children living in scruffy motels around Disney World, set me thinking about an extraordinary tale that emerged from similar circumstances 20 years ago.
In June 1997, journalist Linda Edwards published a story in the Miami New Times under the title “Myths Over Miami” 2 in which she recounted a series of vivid tales she had heard from children very similar to those in The Florida Project.The kids in the film, drifting through an endless succession of temporary residences in decaying motel rooms rented by the day, are just a moment’s misfortune away from the homeless shelters in which Edwards found the children she interviewed, whom she claimed possessed a surprisingly consistent secret mythology. Edwards claimed that this mythology was shared among homeless children, aged mostly under 10, not just in Miami, but right across the US, quoting examples from as far away as Chicago and Oakland, California. Passed on orally by children telling each other stories when they gathered in the shelters, it was a rich and strange brew, fraught with horror and imminent danger, along with rituals and beliefs to summon, contain and defend against demonic forces; and it was quite unlike anything anyone had ever come across before.
Denne historien er fra Christmas 2017-utgaven av Fortean Times.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra Christmas 2017-utgaven av Fortean Times.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited
The moving coffins of Barbados have been a staple subject of books on the unexplained for over a century, and yet no one has so far provided a wholly satisfactory solution to the mystery. BENJAMIN RADFORD argues that we might have been looking in the wrong place...
The Haunted Generation
Bob Fischer Rounds Up The Latest News From The Parallel Worlds Of Popular Hauntology...
The House On The Borderland In Search Of William Hope Hodgson
In his new book, EDWARD PARNELL goes in search of the ‘sequestered places’ of the British Isles and explores how these haunted landscapes shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema. Here, he arrives in Cardiganshire to look for the house in which the neglected master of weird fiction William Hope Hodgson wrote one of his greatest works.
Fortean Traveller: 117. The Mediæval Crime Museum, Rothenburg, Germany Fortean Traveller
STEVE TOASE feels the thumbscrews tighten as he explores a grisly collection exploring the history of mediæval torture and its relationship with the law
Where Ghosts Gather
In 1977, Usborne published World of the Unknown: Ghosts, the children’s book that inspired a generation of junior forteans. Four decades on, following a concerted fan campaign, the book is back in print... and the perpetually haunted BOB FISCHER tracked down its pleasantly surprised writer, Christopher Maynard, to discuss its genesis and unexpected impact.
A Bang On The Head
MARK GREENER explains how traumatic brain injury can change personality, creating serial killers and even vampires.
Out Of The Shadows
In an extract from a new book celebrating the history of Boscastle’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Professor Ronald Hutton introduces the photographs of Sara Hannant, which aim to bring a range of enigmatic objects from the museum’s unique collection to life.
The Face In The Window - Windowpane Ghosts And Lightning Daguerreotypes
One of the most fortean of lightning phenomena is the “lightning daguerreotype,” where a face or figure, often recognised as a particular deceased person, is mysteriously etched upon a windowpane. Chris Woodyard traces some of the fenestral flaps of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Bodies On Ice
Couple who went missing 75 years ago ... found by chance in thawing Swiss glacier
happy old christmas
you thought it was all over, but due to the orthodox refusal to accept the new fangled gregorian calendar, many people – from margate to memphis – will still be celebrating christmas in january. ted harrison goes in search of some stubborn old traditions...