The inspiration for my short story "Towers Of Jerhico" came from two sources. The first was the true story of Minot's Ledge, a lighthouse built in the waters off Cohassett, Massachusetts. In 1855, s torm destroyed the first lighthouse to stand at that location. Wilson was the structure's assistant keeper, his chief having gone back to shore a littler earlier. The real Wilson was young and, to my knowledge, had no children. The log book from the lighthouse still exists, and I recorded the log entry which begins "Wind blowing E" verbatim. The other entry, and all the rest of keeper Wilson's history, was my invention. The new lighthouse still stands today and on the outside it looks just as I described it. The part about keepers communicating by tapping on the pipes is also true. Upon reading the details about the lighthouse in Snow's book, "The Lighthouses of New England", I decided it would provide great atmosphere for an old fashioned New England ghost story.
I struggled for a long time trying to come up with a story that made some use of the difference between New England's romantic past and its modern lifestyle. However, that wasn't working and I put the story aside, concluding that it was nothing more than an interesting setting with no story behind it. Then I happened upon my second inspiration. It not only filled out the story, but gave it a more philosophical bent then I had originally intended.
In the past, a popular Christian apologetic circulated known as the "3-L" argument. Formulated most famously by C.S. Lewis, it proposes that Jesus Christ was one of a liar, lunatic, or Lord (that is, God). The remaining discussion attempts to prove that Jesus was divine by process of elimination, arguing in turns that neither the liar nor the lunatic labels apply. The logic employs various layers of false dichotomies and broad generalizations, but for the purpose of my story I left these issues aside. Instead, I asked myself a question: can a man inspire people and still be crazy? Though the inspiration was the "3-L" argument, my story is a departure from any specifically religious rumination and focusing on the psychology of that question alone.
What I did is write a story about a man who taught himself a story to make sense the life of his grandfather, a story which was partly true and partly myth. He was bound by that story and the belief that it is what killed his family off. When that man's son learns the truth, the ghost no longer has to bear the burden of being a legend and the family can live their own lives now that they are free of the past. This notion brought me full circle in my desire to evoke a bit of the romance of old New England in which my own ancestors lived. Of course, they didn't think of those times as romantic at all, and that is my point.
The title "The Towers Of Jerhico", comes from the book of Joshua in the Bible. In it, Joshua, the heir of Moses, brings down the walls of the great city of Jerhico as a part of his conquest of the promised land, the land of modern Isreal. My towers aren't a part of those city walls, but lighthouses. When they fall, it symbolizes the release from bondage to old myths. Not that I have anything against those myths. It is more about how we respond to them that matters.
Where does the father's stubborness come from? It is honesty trying to get out, but unable to because it is trapped by the notion that there is only one way from him to live. The others in the family die because they are trying to find out the truth. In the end the truth kills them. It's a real horror show to find out they've been living a lie. In the end, one may see Andy Wilson as a sort of Christ figure and his log book at the Bible, or God's unfinished revelation to humanity.
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