(and it makes one wonder: why the need to assert this? They been getting loads of ghost reports lately? Just wanted to clear this up, everyone... The singular exception responds to its self-doubt, shores itself up against all those other minor phantoms, faith's declaration gets corrosive and starts to gnaw...)
reminds me of Barthes's point about the Christian fear of plurality and the gadarene swine as model of 'deconstructed' text; one, two, three, many ghosts!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I read it as: this space is void of spirits, save this special one - not electing one ghost above ectoplasmic hoi polloi.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, it has the fantasy of being the only ghost about. But nevertheless, even putting the "Holy One" in the category of ghost, where there may be a time in which the "ectoplasmic hoi polloi" (hell of a phrase, Seb) rules the day, weirdly deflates the One and Only-ness of it. Yes, there are other ghosts, various pagan superstitions are dead on, but at least at this church, on this dappled lawn, there's just the big one. We swear.
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