Podcast asks why people in "haunted" house stories don't just leave, and on the one hand, valid, but on the other...eh, I spent 15 years renting in Boston. If the blood coming from the walls vanishes on its own and utilities are included, I'll roll with it.
This is one of the things King did really well in The Shining, come to think of it: yes, this hotel is Extremely Sus, but is it worse than being unemployed? Nobody's entirely sure until it's too late.
Having grown up impoverished seems to have really helped with the perspective there: yes, sure, there's a dead lady who tries to strangle you, but you could just...not go into that room, as opposed to spending the next whatever years choosing between food and heat.
Considering some of the places people have tried to rent me in the Seattle area (just step over the hole in the floor. That smell is fine. They’ll pick up all the guns and trash when they move.) for freakishly high rent…I could live with a ghost.
This is where I plug one of my all-time favorite haunted house stories — Cherie Priest’s “The Family Plot.” Family-owned salvage company in deep financial trouble gets a job stripping an old mansion. The payday’s enough to save the business, which is a powerful incentive to work around the ghosts.
