Back in 2015, my first freelance article in many years was commissioned by and published on a site called Ratter. Long story, but the site was seized and closed as part of Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker. Scary stuff!

I’m posting this article again as a PDF, and it’s also saved on the Wayback Machine. My starting point was: Why do so many Halloween decorations cute? Where did some of the central kitschy themes come from?

When we deck our houses with dancing skeletons, ghoulish faces, and bats with glowing eyes, we are—knowingly or not—carrying on a long tradition of venerating ancestors and preparing to survive winter.

Give it a read: Archive.org | PDF