SUNDAY, December 31st at The Dickens Project: Ghost Stories!

 

Winter ghost stories are a Victorian Tradition - after all, Dickens' A Christmas Carol is at heart a ghost story.

Trains became a popular mode of transport during Dickens’s lifetime, and he was a seasoned traveler, using the locomotive to travel the country to see friends and carry out his reading tours. But as this new technology developed there were also devastating accidents. Dickens himself experienced the Staplehurst Railway crash in 1865, a year before he wrote this story. Dickens was haunted by memories of the accident for the rest of his life.

“Now, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled.  The spectre came back a week ago.  Ever since, it has been there, now and again, by fits and starts.” 

“At the light?” 

“At the Danger-light.” 

“What does it seem to do?” 

He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that former gesticulation of, “For God’s sake, clear the way!” 

Then he went on.  “I have no peace or rest for it.  It calls to me, for many minutes together, in an agonised manner, ‘Below there!  Look out!  Look out!’  It stands waving to me.  It rings my little bell—”

Join Caledonia Skytower for this tale and more.

Teleport to the venue from the Welcome Area 

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FRIDAY, December 28th, 2pm at The Dickens Project: MORE GHOST STORIES!

We continue down our in-between-the-holidays path today with a return to Dickens, but not the Dickens most people think of - especially not at this time of year. 

Da5id Abbot and Caledonia Skytower share two tales from the darker recesses of the Dickensian canon:

The Signal-Man was first published as part of the "Mugby Junction" collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round. The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of an apparition that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident.

To Be Read at Dusk finds its first-person narrator amid the Swiss mountainous region of Saint Bernard, eavesdropping on a nearby group of men while avoiding the boring conversation of fellow travelers indoors. The sun is setting, giving way to strange thoughts and memories. The group is composed of five couriers from different nationalities, sharing instances of déjà vu, of omens and visions that mysteriously come true. As their stories co conclude, the couriers vanish leaving the narrator admitting that what he has heard has rendered him afraid of being left alone in such a place or in any other place.

Presented live in voice, in Dickens Square.

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SUNDAY, November 26th at 1PM: TEA TIME with Charles Dickens

Come join us for the opening events at "The Dickens Project" as we share distinctly un-holiday stories in "Christmas Past." 

Bryn Taleweaver will start us off with Dickens' ghostly The Signal-Man. The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of a ghost that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident.

Caledonia and Kayden will follow up with Chapter 2 from Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens's second novel, it was first published as a serial 1837–39. The story centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Twist travels to London, where he meets "The Artful Dodger," a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal, Fagin.

Oliver Twist is notable for its unromantic portrayal by Dickens of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid--19th century.  In this early example of the social novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labour, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The tale was among the early success that built Dickens' reputation as a popular author.

Stories told in voice, and followed from 2-4pm by "Dancing in Past" with DJ Dano Bookmite.

At the Docks in the "Christmas Past" area of The Dickens Project on LEA 7

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FRIDAY, December 16th: More Dickens!

It's our day to pick up a few bits and bobs of choice words from Charles, before we make the clubhouse turn into our final days of Dickens:

• @ NOON slt - MORE DICKENS!  With VT Torvalar - "The Signalman" and a selection from  "The Pickwick Papers"
• @ 3pm slt - A CHRISTMAS CAROL Concludes - the final Story Tour with Dubhna Rhiadra & Caledonia Skytower.

Live in voice at The Dickens Project SL

ALSO, be sure and check out the Eight Days of Dickens Mini-Hunt, is at the main Dickens Project site on Water haven, and at the Dickens Project Resource Center.

AND, Mark your calendar for Saturday from 1-3pm slt and FEZZIWIG'S BALL at the Christmas Past Docks with DJ Dano Bookmite!

The Dickens Project 2016 on Water Haven in Second Life.

SUNDAY, December 13th at 1:30pm: TEA TIME with Mr. Dickens

THE DICKENS PROJECT CONTINUES . . . 

Today we share a few other works by Charles Dickens; from short stories to selections from novels.  Join Corwyn Allen, Dubhna Rhiadra, Kayden Oconnell and Caledonia Skytower in the Dickens Gallery (above the Book Shop) for The Signalman, The Child's Story, and selections from Little Dorrit, and Oliver Twist - presented live in voice.

Come a little early, at 1:15 pm, and enjoy the Raglan Shire Tinie Carolers in the Plaza!