Rome Journal: Ghosting

 

Stanley Hotel, Estes Co

Ghosts is the name of a famous Ibsen play about syphillis. Ibsen btw lived in Rome and it's where he wrote Ghosts (1881), Brandt (1866), Peer Gynt (1867) and A Doll's House (1879). Ghosts also haunted the Overlook Hotel to terrifying effect in the form of delusions produced by late stage alcoholism in The Shining. "Ghost of yesterday/ stalking round my room..." sang Billie Holiday. "Ghosting" a new urban legend is an odd choice of word since it means being "forgotten" or "avoided." Which brings up the question of Rome, a paen to the past which is filled with ghosts of a decidedly less haunting nature. The place is so rife with ghosts, it could use Ghostbusters. You don't have layers of extant pastness without ghosts. Freud equated psychoanalysis with archeology and for him Rome was plainly the equivalent a vast amusement park a Six Flags, where rides and attractions especially the House of Mirrors become increasingly dangerous--the longer you stay on the couch.

and listen to You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester

and with the trailer for the animation of Erotomania