OCCUPY DARKNESS - Jameson Currier
Can you discuss a favorite book or writer in terms of your own writing?
I am a great admirer of the short fiction of Daphne Du Maurier, and have gone out of my way to try and find copies of the few ghost stories (short stories) that she wrote. And they are all worth the effort. One of the most unsettling films I have seen is Don’t Look Now, which is set in Venice and has as its source material a short story by Daphne Du Maurier. It is a terrific and moving story on both film and paper, a synthesis of crime, violence, ghosts, psychic visions, religion, love, and tragedy. Every time I have visited Venice, I have thought of that movie and of that story. I wanted to write a similar tale and I used it as inspiration to write “Death in Amsterdam,” a ghost story that is included in The Haunted Heart and Other Tales. It’s about a gay reporter in Amsterdam covering a pride event who is drawn into a tragic event.
Do you see yourself as part of a tradition?
I hope I am continuing the line of literary ghost stories but making them inclusive and contemporary with gay characters and relevant gay themes.
Seen in that context, what do you believe is the chief significance of your own work?
It’s always hard to objectively assess your own work. I would like to think that I am part of a long tradition and a new movement.
