If You Should Go at Midnight: Legends and Legend Tripping in America

Legend tripping is a growing cultural phenomenon in America, where people seek out paranormal experiences in forgotten graveyards, darkened woods, and abandoned buildings. Author Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl explores this practice in his book, arguing that it is a meaningful social practice that reflects the modern world, emphasizing individual agency and values. He suggests that while traditional institutions are less capable of providing meaningful experiences, legend trippers voluntarily search for them and actively participate in shaping and interpreting their experiences.

Format: Hardback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 15 May 2023
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi

In the depths of the night, across the vast expanse of America, countless individuals embark on a thrilling adventure. They venture into overgrown graveyards, navigate through darkened forests and untamed wildlands, and explore the crumbling corridors of abandoned buildings. Their quest? To seek out a profound and otherworldly paranormal experience, one that may seem to fulfill their deepest desires. These brave souls are part of a growing cultural phenomenon known as legend tripping.

In his captivating book, If You Should Go at Midnight: Legends and Legend Tripping in America, author Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl takes readers on a captivating journey into the world of legend tripping. Drawing on years of scholarly research, documentary accounts, and his own extensive fieldwork, Debies-Carl delves deep into the mysteries and complexities of this practice. Poring over old reports and legends, spending nights in haunted inns, and traversing wilderness filled with cannibal mutants and strange beasts, Debies-Carl offers an in-depth analysis of this practice that has long fascinated scholars yet remains a mystery to many observers.

What makes legend trips so intriguing is their ability to reflect the modern world, revealing both its problems and its virtues. In society as well as in legend tripping, there exists ambiguity, conflict, a crisis of meaning, and a substitution of debate for social consensus. At the same time, both emphasize individual agency and values, even in spiritual matters. While people still seek meaningful and transformative experiences, authoritative, traditional institutions are less capable of providing them. Instead, legend trippers voluntarily embark on their quests, seeking out individually meaningful experiences and actively participating in shaping and interpreting those experiences for themselves.

Through his book, Debies-Carl invites readers to explore the world of legend tripping and to consider its implications for our understanding of culture, society, and the human experience. He challenges us to think beyond the boundaries of traditional authority and to embrace the power of individual agency and personal interpretation. Whether you are a seasoned explorer or a curious newcomer, If You Should Go at Midnight: Legends and Legend Tripping in America offers a thought-provoking and immersive journey into the world of the extraordinary and the unknown.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496844118