Grim, Grinning Ghosts

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Thanks, y'all, for the ghoul/ghost responses. I'm not sure what got me thinking about this, but realizing my own definitions made me wonder how much they matched up with others'.

Turns out there is some overlap. A lotta folks said that tbe big difference was corporeality--one of the two defining things for me, too. I'm a bit weird, though--my ghouls seem to be stuck halfway between ghosts and zombies. They may be able to hover and fly like ghosts, but like zombies they look like rotten corpses.

The other big thing is their attitude. That had some overlap, too--the term "soulless" was bandied about. Maybe that's why I consider ghosts to to be more like people in their emotional ranges. Ghouls are, well, ghoulish. They aren't human and never were, they have no empathy, but there's a spark of intelligence there (unlike with zombies) that gives them a nasty sense of humor.

So, yeah, basically all my ghouls are variations on the Crypt Keeper. I wanted to see if that was just me.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

I didn't respond because I was somewhat ashamed that I didn't have any other response to give than the standard D&D descriptions. *sheepish*

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Don't worry--you weren't the only one. ;)

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

There's also the matter of subtypes. Well, with ghouls its more of a matter that no one could agree on the exact definition, because they never got very far out of mythology. Ghosts, on the other hand, have a rich and concrete parascience built around them, mostly by people like ghost hunters who investigate reported hauntings. There are at least two basic types of ghosts (residual and intelligent) which have different behaviours based on their circumstances, and a number of other things which can cause hauntings (poltergeisting, spirits and demons mostly). So it's not surprising that people have a vague idea what entails either concept.