The Ghost of the (Female) Hand

Roald Dahl had a brilliant idea. He thought of a TV series on ghost stories. It happened that Alfred Knopf, his good mate, had a brother in Hollywood. Edwin Knopf was a film producer and he liked Dahl's idea. The author was tasked to search for the best ghost stories ever written. He loaned books from the library, searched for old news clippings. He even bought paperbacks and periodicals, which helped him in writing the screenplay (for the pilot episode). He made a startling discovery. The great names in literature attempted to write a ghost story, and many did a bad job. (Better not name names, as a never-ending argument would follow.) Many good ghost stories were penned by female authors. How so?

Before we proceed, it would be interesting to note that Dahl came up with the idea in 1958. It was the same year when Rod Serling thought of "The Twilight Zone". There was no communication between the two, but don't discount dream telepathy.

Dahl, a short story writer, admitted that he couldn't compose a decent ghost story. He attempted one, while writing "The Landlady". But he didn't fancy the outcome. (The native of Cardiff changed the ending and made it a non-ghost story.) A ghost story won't be less than ten pages, and a composing a great one could be a Herculean task. It should be creepy. Readers must be unaware of a specter until the final page. How the women did better? Here are the following reasons:

Female authors have the flair for writing about the supernatural. "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, "Thou Shall Not Suffer a Witch" by Dorothy K. Haynes, "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill. These fine supernatural tales involved emotion. Not that male authors couldn't tap into their emotional side, but a woman would know. "The Woman in Black", for instance, probed into the mystery of a lady with pale face and dark eyes. The residents of Crythin Gifford won't dare look at her, as tragedy would struck them. It was a culmination of unfortunate events, which caused her much distress and suffering. Some would point out Henry James, but the American was rather analytical in his approach. There was a historical context behind his premise.

There was lack of female artists in music and painting. Dahl came to this conclusion after his thorough research, but some might disagree with it. Jane Austen could fancy music, but she rather listened to it. The Brontë sisters might have tried painting, but Branwell would be better than them. Then again, there have been limited opportunities for women back then. A composer was at the service of the king, and it could be a complicated relationship. (Mozart had stories to tell, if he were around.) A painter would struggle throughout his life. (Only a few were lucky, and female artists wouldn't risk it.) Maybe authorship had more opportunities, where they could explore their artistic nature.

Ghost stories would be incomplete without screaming. It would be hard to imagine a male character screaming after his close encounter with a specter.