Here's my favorite question from the interview I did with Anna Katterjohn of the Library Journal. Her question was probably inspired by the ghost stories in Legends of the Chelsea.
Do you believe in ghosts?
Philosophically, I'm a strict materialist who holds, with Ludwig Wittgenstein, that “the world is all that is the case.” On the other hand, even Wittgenstein believed that all the really interesting things that we talk about are outside the physical world, strictly defined. Even if ghosts are all in the mind, does that make them any less real? If any place will make you believe in ghosts, it's the Chelsea, where the presence of the old writers and artists is something that all of us here live with daily. Though I don't exactly feel myself to be haunted by these spirits (in my case Thomas Wolfe and Jack Kerouac), as that has such a negative connotation, I know that many of my fellow residents do feel that way, and I think it would be facile to simply dismiss their beliefs as delusion or hallucination.
Hi. I've posted about your new blook at Blooking Central - [http://blooking.blogspot.com/2007/09/legends-of-chelsea-hotel.html . I thought you might want to reply.
Posted by: Cheryl Hagedorn | September 20, 2007 at 02:25 PM