Literary notes about spook (AI summary)
The word “spook” in literature assumes a variety of intriguing roles, oscillating between supernatural mystery and covert authority. In some narratives, it embodies eerie, ghost-like entities—figures that vanish into darkness or are linked to inexplicable disturbances, as when a “piping spook” is connected with a troubled chimney or when spectral figures inspire both wonder and dread [1, 2, 3]. In other contexts, it designates a mysterious figure endowed with the power to command and manipulate, issuing imperatives that leave others with little choice but to obey, as when someone is referred to simply as “the Spook” who dictates orders and controls outcomes [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, the term even plays with the reader’s expectations, sometimes being used in a playful, ironic sense to both unsettle and entertain, as when an individual is “spooked” into divulging secrets or reacting unexpectedly [7, 8].
- After eliminating all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be related to the disorder in the chimney.
— from The Siege of the Seven Suitors by Meredith Nicholson - The spook vanishes in darkness while the Buddha under the Bodhi tree alone remains visible in a halo of light.
— from The Buddha: A Drama in Five Acts and Four Interludes by Paul Carus - Fiction shows us various ghosts with half faces, and at least one notable spook that comes in half.
— from Famous Modern Ghost Stories - Moïse translated it to the Commandant, and read it himself, by order of the Spook. 26 .
— from The Road to En-DorBeing an Account of How Two Prisoners of War at Yozgad in Turkey Won Their Way to Freedom by E. H. (Elias Henry) Jones - The Spook ordered you to do nothing without instructions from me.”
— from The Road to En-DorBeing an Account of How Two Prisoners of War at Yozgad in Turkey Won Their Way to Freedom by E. H. (Elias Henry) Jones - There is no doubt we could have obtained anything the Spook ordered, short of freedom.
— from The Road to En-DorBeing an Account of How Two Prisoners of War at Yozgad in Turkey Won Their Way to Freedom by E. H. (Elias Henry) Jones - The spook just spooked it, that's all," he declared convincingly.
— from The Pony Rider Boys in the Grand Canyon; Or, The Mystery of Bright Angel Gulch by Frank Gee Patchin - I figured he'd heard some unverified gossip and hoped to spook me into confirming it.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
