It has been bothering me for some time in my study of the Ghostbreakers that some cases come very close to being occult detective story but fall short. Others plague me with doubts though I include them. This criteria is presented as a yardstick by which I sift through the evidence. I’m not claiming it is perfect but some readers might find it useful.
Criteria
AN OCCULT DETECTIVE …
– seeks out supernatural phenomena for their own reasons or as the agent of another.
– must have experiences or knowledge of the supernatural which allows them to see what others miss.
– uses unusual methods not available to ordinary people.
– understands both the supernatural and the scientific (usually seeing them as two halves of a single whole) and
(a) differs from a priest or holy man in that he does not operate on faith alone but a bank of careful study.
(b) differs from the scientist in that he can deal with phenomena that defy commonly-held scientific beliefs.
– may have psychic abilities or supernatural powers.
– need not be “human”, but usually fights on the side of humanity, consciously or not.
Types of Ghostbreakers
This means a ghostbreaker is one of these four types:
1) a psychic doctor, such as Martin Hesselius or John Silence – a psychic doctor deals with problems as a physcian would, with an understanding of supernatural ailments or causes.
2) an occult detective, such as Sherlock Holmes or Jules de Grandin – an occult detective uses deductive methods to solve supernatural-appearing mysteries (either real or false).
3) a psychic detective, such as Moris Klaw or Norton Vyse – a psychic detective uses psychic abilities to solve mysteries -these do not have to be supernatural in nature.
4) a ghostbuster, such as John Thunstone or Silver John – a ghostbuster is a person who specializes in defeating monsters and their human masters or slaves.
Two Stories
Two stories that make this distinction clearer for me are “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen and its character of Clarke and Somerton of “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” by M. R. James. The criteria above could describe both men but one is an occult detective (to my mind) and the other is not. I think the thing that separates them is intent. An occult detective may stumble into a career at first, as many characters in horror stories do, but chooses to pursue the dangers of continued investigations despite the risks. Your average ghost story participant, if they survive, would do anything NOT to see another materialization of the Beyond.
Mr. Clarke is described thus:
“…Clarke knew that he still pined for the unseen, and little by little, the old passion began to reassert itself, as the face of Mary, shuddering and convulsed with an unknown terror, faded slowly from his memory. Occupied all day in pursuits both serious and lucrative, the temptation to relax in the evening was too great, especially in the winter months, when the fire cast a warm glow over his snug bachelor apartment, and a bottle of some choice claret stood ready by his elbow. His dinner digested, he would make a brief pretence of reading the evening paper, but the mere catalogue of news soon palled upon him, and Clarke would find himself casting glances of warm desire in the direction of an old Japanese bureau, which stood at a pleasant distance from the hearth. Like a boy before a jam-closet, for a few minutes he would hover indecisive, but lust always prevailed, and Clarke ended by drawing up his chair, lighting a candle, and sitting down before the bureau. Its pigeon-holes and drawers teemed with documents on the most morbid subjects, and in the well reposed a large manuscript volume, in which he had painfully entered the gems of his collection. Clarke had a fine contempt for published literature; the most ghostly story ceased to interest him if it happened to be printed; his sole pleasure was in the reading, compiling, and rearranging what he called his “Memoirs to prove the Existence of the Devil,” and engaged in this pursuit the evening seemed to fly and the night appeared too short.”
Clarke’s hobby of pursuing strange things leads him to Helen Vaughn and her terrible secret, and ultimately the duty of sentencing her to death. Like Abraham van Helsing (who actually appeared three years later!), Clarke and his pal, Villiers, are the guardians of humanity.
Justin Somerton in “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” is described as a man of leisure. Legends and whispers draw him to look further:
“At intervals during his researches Mr. Somerton had been haunted by the recollection of the gossip about the hidden treasure, and, as he thought the matter over, it became more and more obvious to him that if the Abbot meant anything by the enigmatical answer which he gave to his questioners, he must have meant that the secret was to be found somewhere in the window he had placed in the abbey church.” (Wow! That’s one sentence!)
The mystery of the church window draws Somerton on a treasure hunt that ends with this encounter:
“…Then I heard him call softly, ‘All right, sir,’ and went on pulling out the great bag, in complete darkness. It hung for an instant on the edge of the hole, then slipped forward on to my chest, and put its arms round my neck.”
Whether Somerton survived the encounter with the treasure’s guardian is not the important factor here. Yes, most occult detectives have more than one adventure, but if Sherlock Holmes had only appeared in A Study in Scarlet, we wouldn’t think he was NOT a detective. The occult detective, Professor Mignon, from “Ghost Hunt” by H. Russell Wakefield, only appears once but is without doubt some kind of ghostbreaker. Like Clarke, Mignon only gets one story but we can glean from their reputation they had others. Not so with Somerton. John Bowen’s 1974 adaptation for the BBC changes Somerton’s background to appear as more of a ghostbreaker.
What is important is Somerton’s intentions. He is a treasure-seeker who must solve a cipher. Like the William Legrand from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug” ( Dollar Newspaper, June 28, 1843), Somerton has no interest in solving mysteries for the rest of his life. He just wants to spend his fortune once it is found. Poe’s cipher story is often included with his true detective stories, partly because of the code breaking but also because of a lack of better material. Poe only wrote a handful of tales of ratiocination.
Priest vs. Scientist
Another type of story that I wouldn’t usually include is that of a religious character defeating a supernatural enemy. Christ casting out demons from the possessed would not be thought of as an occult detective story, for instance. Otis Adelbert Kline wrote in “Why Weird Tales?” (1924):
“The types of stories we have published and will continue to publish may be placed under two classifications. The first of these is the story of psychic phenomena or the occult story. These stories are written from three viewpoints: The viewpoint of the spiritualist who believes that such phenomena are produced by spirits of the departed; the scientist, who believes they are either the result of fraud, or may be explained by known, little-known or perhaps unknown phases of natural law; and the neutral investigator, who simply records the facts, lets them speak for themselves and holds no brief for either side.”
Kline definition removes the tale of a purely religious nature. Ghostbreakers are truly an invention of the scientific age, having both a foot in the supernatural and the scientific. If they fall entirely on one side or the other, they cease to be ghostbreakers and become just a priest or a scientist.
Where the exceptions begin is with a character like Father Damian Karras in The Exorcist (1971), who has lost his faith, is leaning more and more toward Science. Blatty began the novel with the intention of writing a ghostbreaking story. The final product is a matter of opinion. I chose to allow it. The same goes for Father Brown, who is a priest but also the solver of supernatural-looking crimes. Like Sherlock Holmes and Simon Ark, he is a false-monster detective. Oddly, “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” inspired the false-monster detective, Gideon Fell’s first novel, Hag’s Nook (1933).
With Clarke and Somerton, neither man is a priest or a scientist, but Clarke’s monograph “Memoirs to prove the Existence of the Devil” again shows the difference between the two men. His ‘study’ of strange phenomenon is scientific in its nature. Certainly, hanging around with men like Dr. Raymond in the intro portion of the story shows he is not religiously-minded in the ordinary sense. Somerton is clever in a mathematical way but is more like the guy who can do The Times crossword in pen than an occult detective.
Conclusion
I know this criteria is not perfect. Horror fiction (thank goodness) is not so homogenized that everything falls neatly into categories. New writers are constantly creating new ghostbreakers that challenge the old paradigm. Often I see ghostbreaker elements in other genres (Is not Conan really a sword-swinging ghostbreaker?) Gothic fiction threw off many orbiting satellites including the occult detective story. Who knows what new combinations we will see tomorrow?
