WEIRD U.S.: YOUR TRAVEL GUIDE TO AMERICA'S LOCAL LEGENDS AND BEST KEPT SECRETS
BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS, 356 PAGES, $19.95
AMERICA IS A haunted house. In many ways, it bears a close resemblance to that suburban tract house in the movie Poltergeist, where the ghosts come out of the tv set and abduct the little girl. America is built on an Indian burial ground. The persecution of the indigenous people of this hemisphere is unique in its scale and persistence-and nowhere in this hemisphere has it been as thorough as here in these United States. It is the most effectively prosecuted campaign of genocide in human history, and it continues to this very day. These deeds breed ghosts and hideous anomalies, atavisms and teratomas. The eldritch horrors that sustain our bloated appetites elude our denial and manifest in basements and attics, in hospital ruins, down dark country roads and under bridges. We are living in a Stephen King novel. That's why they are so popular.
Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran took it upon themselves to assemble a chronicle of the hauntings, local legends and dark secrets of New Jersey more than a decade ago with the publication of their magnificent periodical, Weird New Jersey. The magazine and bestselling book of the same name serve as the indispensable guide to the chthonic regions of the state that most perfectly serves as a microcosm of the nation. The exploration of these regions is a rewarding and highly recommended pursuit for any New Yorker with a car (or the ability to rent one) and an appetite for novelty.
Now they have expanded their area of inquiry to the national level, with the recent release of the superb Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets.
I've driven across this country four times in the last four years, and crossed it by rail, bus or hitchhiking six times before that. America is invisible from the air. To be understood, it must be approached from ground level. Driving to L.A. or San Francisco isn't so much about getting there as it is about how you get there. It's the little towns and the local lore and color that fill the trip and paint the backdrop. The Weird Marks have done a very thorough job of assembling points of interest from the accursed abandoned village of Dudleytown in northwestern Connecticut to the mad nonsense architecture of the Winchester House just outside of San Jose, CA. According to the authors, none of the stories is fiction. As they put it, "Some might not be completely true, but none were made up solely for the sake of entertainment."
What is the significance of the persistent stories of murderous cannibalistic "Melon-Heads" roaming the northern Ohio woods near the Chagrin River? For generations, residents of Fairfax County, VA, have lived in fear of an axe-wielding maniac dressed as a giant bunny rabbit. By now, thanks to John Keel and the film version of his book, The Mothman Prophecies, everyone knows about the Mothman of Point Pleasant, WV, but who among us recalls the epidemic of clowns accosting children that began in Boston in 1981 and spread to Missouri, Kentucky and Pennsylvania in a matter of weeks?
We think we know what reality is, and we vigorously suppress any challenge to the consensus-construct as myth, hallucination or hoax. However tall and broad the walls we build to enshrine and protect this small circle of light that we call "reality," the outer darkness still seeps in, the anomalous persists and recurs, unspeakable things shuffle and gibber in the shadows. The footsteps in the attic, the voices in the basement, the door that opens by itself-denying the unexplainable makes it no less real. It's easy to dismiss the Jersey Devil as a myth from a living room on the Upper West Side. It's a lot trickier from the sandy edge of Scott's Landing Road in Leeds Point, at sunset.
Kudos to Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman for their intrepid willingness to venture down the forbidden roads and explore the musty tunnels of America's shadowlands. To understand America, one must begin by examining America's most primal fears and nightmares. This is the book by which future explorers will chart their road trips in pursuit of the meaning of this nation.