Behind the Hause Von Traumentur

Behind "The Hause Von TraumenTur"

Since my brother's death I've heard multiple reports and urban legends based on the appearance of his horrid book. Stories and rumor of how it kills its readers and haunts the dreams of those who have read its pages.

With my advanced age I believe it is time to set the record straight about whom wrote it and where it came from.

As children our family moved multiple times. It was my brother who became stressed from this and in his youth rebelled by fixating on the morbid and macabre. That was the first clue that things were going downhill with him.

For many years afterwards he shifted his fanaticisms from one horrid avenue to another. Racism, drugs, alcoholism, cults, they were all too familiar to him but like a moth to a flame they were destructive. Eventually he made a mistake and did good jail time. Rehabilitation for him was accomplished through psychology and he came out a changed man for the better.

By that time he had become a vile person to every surviving member of our family and It was I who felt compassion to take him in. Although his job kept him busy he was still struggling with his personal life. I suggested a hobby and suggested he write a book. Nothing enormous or complex, a light novel.

By then he had shifted into his childhood fascination of horror and I used this to force him to think about the media only as stories. To force him to deconstruct and analyze them objectively. In essence to teach him the simple basis behind story writing. He had chosen his topic, a haunted house story, and as a second twist, a parody of what was then popular. Those branching "Choose your own adventure" books.

At first he had fun an then began the never ending revisions. His first draft was completely unreadable and his dice rolling rules were overly complex. He simplified an existing game for the dice rules and began to rework it from the ground up. The second draft was an extreme improvement but he had randomly plugged in so many elements that there was little background story.

The third draft was the beginning of the end. The doctors had proclaimed that his failing health was due to a spreading cancer. Also that it was his physical inactivity that had prevented it from spreading faster. Literally it was his writing that was keeping him alive.

He was determined to get the book completed. We worked together, hired proofreaders and game players to test out the book. The final rewrite was the best ever seen though still filled with errors. In truth it needed another revision but by then life had left him.

I knew he wanted it published and after it had been printed I felt that his dying wish was fulfilled. Or so I had thought. A religious group crusaded to have it banned. They burned whatever copies they found and even the publisher recalled what was left. When the publisher went bankrupt, that was the end of that.

Then the rumors began. Mostly from those religious nut jobs. It seems that both children and adults had died while they owned and were reading the book. The claims of insanity and suicide were attributed to the books contents and its “depraved” author. Even if these rumors were extreme exaggerations I knew the one claim of suicide was true.

It disappoints me to know that my brothers dream, literally his life’s work, is the barge of death.

When the family grave yard was moved someone broke into the coffins. Along with a variety of pre WW2 jewelry, my brothers personal copy of his book was stolen. The printed copy and now the original draft are the stuff of urban legends.

If anyone ever finds draft, please return it to its eternal owner. He suffered enough in life, please don’t let him suffer in death.