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Walls keep Secrets

I think ghosts are energy that lingers over time and, if it’s not cleared or amplified, it can be made manifest. Not to be metaphysical—I see the clutter that arises out of hoarding in the same way, but that’s a whole other can of worms. Houses, especially those steeped in history, are inherently liminal spaces—they exist at the threshold between the past and the present, the seen and the unseen.
We were once afraid of the darkness in the open expanse of the wilderness at night, and now the darkness is contained with us within four walls. You don’t know what’s going on in those four walls until you’re inside and staying there for a while, whether it’s an overnight stay as a guest, a lease with a fixed term, or a long-term purchase.
Mark Fisher’s concept of the weird captures this unease perfectly. The weird is that which feels out of place—an energy, an object, or a memory that doesn’t belong but refuses to leave. Houses are often full of these anomalies: a creaking floorboard, a shadow in the corner of your eye, a strange layout that never quite makes sense. These small dissonances accumulate, creating an atmosphere that feels uncanny, as though the house itself is alive and aware of your presence.
The trap of the house is also deeply modern. Once you discover its unsettling secrets, you have to stay there, tethered by responsibility and the cost of leaving. The house becomes a site of entrapment—a perfect example of Fisher’s liminal, where you’re stuck in a space that isn’t quite safe but isn’t immediately escapable either, with whispers and presence making themselves known to you from out of time.
If this resonates, you might enjoy my autobiographical contemporary gothic story about living in a house that used to be an old maternity hospital (pictured), where I explore these feelings and ideas. You can read it here: Haunting.

@taterhole

Dec 28, 2024

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exchanging scary stories

whether they involve ghosts or time warping or crop circles, I love to listen to people’s stories about their brushes with the unknown….this is one that happened when I was around seven years old, and recall so vividly it plays like a movie in my mind:
One morning, when my sister and I were very small, my family took us to Santa Fe to visit our uncle. We stayed in a gorgeous old adobe hacienda-style home, with my sister and I sharing a room. One early morning, our first one there, my sister (around four years old at the time) woke all of us up when she ran out of the bathroom absolutely hysterical, screaming that a man was in the bathroom. My parents, jumping to the conclusion that there must’ve been a peeping Tom in the tiny stained glass window adjacent to the toilet, scoured the area for anyone, or any sign of anyone. of course, they found nothing.
Later, when she was calmer and more intelligible, my sister told us a tall man wearing a coat and hat had appeared directly in front of her out of thin air, and she’d had to run around him to escape the bathroom. That evening, when my parents described the incident to my uncle (an architect whose boss graciously allowed us to stay in that house), he told us that while his boss had made jokes about the place being haunted, he never would’ve guessed it was true.
if you have a creepy story you’ve been itching to tell, help us set the Halloween mood at Gilded and send it over! We want to read it for our upcoming Halloween special. Our hearts (and Google form) are open to you ❤️🎃

@nunjournal

Sep 21, 2024

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A GHOST STORY

idk there’s something kind of romantic about haunting my partner till the end of time and back

@autumninspring

Jun 8, 2025

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ENDING SENTENCES WITH ELLIPSES LIKE A BOOMER

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Never changing

My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌

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I am a woman of the people

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