Psychics in Fiction; Poe Reference in 'Wednesday', Episode 2

Credit: Pixabay

Well already Halloween is a week and a half behind us and before we know it, here in the United States, Thanksgiving (or "Fangsgiving", as author Ethan Long might call it), will be upon us! Yet, in my ancestries, we still celebrate our own versions of Halloween the whole month of November (All Souls’ Month, or Days of the Dead) as we invite our dead relatives and ancestors to haunt our homes, to put it a certain way. However, that's a little more of a, uh, mellowed down celebration. So, I decided to share with you a few other events: a talk by a paranormal fiction writer and a psychic that I attended last month; a psychic search engine in one of my stories; and something interesting that I learned about an Edgar Allan Poe quote used in episode 2 of "Wednesday", Netflix's "Addams Family" spinoff.

Psychics in Sac, Fiction and Search Engines?

Paranormal Romance author Danna Wilberg and psychic Linda Schooler, both local to my home area of Sacramento (“Sac” for short) California, gave a talk entitled "Lifting the Veil" at the Woodland Public Library on October 21st. Wilberg discussed her series of books, titled "Borrowed Time", which she said started off as a short story. The protagonist is a psychic who helps solve crimes and whose side kick is Linda Schooler. No kidding. 

Although psychic detectives are far from new in paranormal and crime fiction, what makes Wilberg's work so unique is that she uses real-life psychics, such as Schooler, as characters in her stories (with their permission of course). The other real-life psychic Wilberg has used as a character is Joseph Martin who was supposed to speak with Wilberg and Schooler that day but didn't make it. Schooler has a radio show although I haven't been able to locate it via internet. If any of you can find it out there, let us know in the comments box below. Martin has a web series called "The Magic Minute". 

Psychic Search Engine in My Upcoming Book

Like I said, psychic protagonists in fiction are nothing new. However, a psychic search engine just might be. That's what one of my several short stories in my upcoming book, "Bad Apps", features. The story is called "Third Eye" which is the name of the search engine that types out the user's search terms on the screen before she can type it on the keyboard. That's a capability that goes beyond even what AI search engines can do. (So far, at least.) For more about "Bad Apps" such as progress on the book and behind-the-scenes, subscribe to my free newsletter! 

'Wednesday', Poe and Lost in ‘Quotation’

As I said, I started watching "Wednesday" and actually liked it. But, Netflix being Netflix, that may be changing. However, that's a story for another time. What I wanted to talk about is a quote the title character uses from an Edgar Allan Poe story in the second episode. The quote is "Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see." Or is it? 

Well, Poe didn't say it quite like that, even though it comes close enough as far as the idea goes. The precise wording and so the actual quote is from one of Poe's short stories, "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether".  According to the Poe Museum of Richmond, Virginia, the actual quote is “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” (My emphasis.) So, there's a variation in the wording mostly due to the changes in manner of speech between Poe's time and ours. Yet it shows you how popular media can mislead us, since to actually quote an author the words cannot be changed. (An exception may be when translating a quote from another language, but even then it may be best practice to make clear that it’s a translation.) 

So, what got me searching for the quote’s original source to begin with? Well, I was really delighted when Wednesday attributed the quote to Poe because, Poe fan that I am, I hadn’t known that it originated from him. I first knew it as advice that my dad gave my brother and I when we were kids whenever we’d pass on gossip from our friends. My dad said he received that advice when he was in the military. So, someone in the military likely knew their Poe! So, I have to give "Wednesday" credit for helping me discover that that wise proverb from my dad originated, even if in a different form, from one of my favourite classic horror writers!

Have you read any fiction with psychic protagonists or characters based on real psychics?  Do you have a favourite Poe quote from “Wednesday”, or, better yet, from the man himself? 

Until next time . . .