Random peeve

[conuly]

(I have those too, though I try not to boast about it)

If a ghost is the spirit of a deceased person, then it does not live anywhere. It resides, dwells, or possibly haunts a place but - and this is somewhat inherent in the definition of the words "ghost" and "live" - it does not live anywhere.

However, knives and shirts and sheets all do live in their respective drawers or cabinets or closets. No, I will not justify this.

Comments

[redbird]

It does seem reasonable for ghosts in fiction to say things like "I've lived here for a very long time" rather than saying something like "resided," even if the structure of that story/world allows for a spirit to both know it's dead, and remain around to haunt someone or something.

[spiralsheep]

Yes, also tradition maintains that some ghosts don't know they're dead / ghosts.

[conuly]

What is this, Schrodinger's ghost? The fact that you don't know you're alive doesn't mean you are both dead and alive until somebody opens your coffin and checks.

[spiralsheep]

Merely an observation that people are often not very self-aware and, traditionally, human ghosts don't necessarily become more self-aware after death. Of course there are other traditions in which ghosts become many things they weren't when they were alive.

I did appreciate the pedantry in your original post though, and share your prejudice in the matter of ghosts not living anywhere (although some apparitions are supposedly projections of living people, which complicates matters...). :-)

[jessie_c]

Case in point: Professor Binns.

[conuly]

Doesn't he like to walk through chalkboards? He must remember at least a little that this is not normal behavior for the living.

[jessie_c]

I read him as the ultimate absent-minded academic who pays absolutely no attention to anything outside his specialty obsession.

[conuly]

I’m not arguing with a ghost, only the living.