On Gothic Literature

The word goth has come to mean many things in our Post Industrial complex world: the Modernists have painted its name with black; the Post Modernists have draped it in the strange scrim of subculture anthropology and music; and the everyday scoffs at the word as if it holds little more meaning. The Goths were a tribe of Germany who hollered at the Romans, shaking spears and shields—they were the barbarians. And so the modern usage of the word goth still retains some of its old meaning: the gothic is that which is barbaric, viscerally atmospheric—truthful of the sublime but horrible depths of the unkempt mind.

When I say Goth, most people will have fluttering thoughts of bands such as The Crüxshadows, Marilyn Manson, and Type O Negative; of black clad individuals wearing dark eye shadow over bleak and pale faces; of vampires, werewolves, and all manner of horrible monsters from the night—but all of these things owe the origins of the atmosphere they so vainly stretch for from the annals of gothic literature.

Often gothic literature will pedestal things such as mystery, ghost stories, strange and archaic architecture, sleepy villages, family secrets, and castles. The striking prose of these novels often follows a hero who is of rarified constitution and often flawed beyond repair being swept up into circumstances designed of his own curiosity. Gothic literature has run a great gamut of authors from Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley – and have grown through that great tradition to the modern times through the work of H.P. Lovecraft and other weird horror writers.

A great deal of the focus of gothic literature is less on the fleeting inequities of life, human drama, or anything so trite; but usually rests in the subconscious fear and revulsion of things outside of perception and steeped in superstition and mystery. The unexplained, weird behaviors and customs of local townsfolk of quiet, pastoral towns, the fading memories of ancient and near-forgotten lore—all of these things make the delirious draw of gothic literature what it is.

The term gothic has taken a great deal of abuse over the years, mostly from the ignorant and wanting who think they are lashing out at juvenile subcultures; but it has a vaster, deeper, and more magnificently unfathomable history to it than all those modern-day pretenders. To any writer who wants to join into this grand tradition I say: go back to the roots first. Even a tremendous tree must be grown from a seed and a great deal of cultural unconscious exists in every writer and piece from Walpole to Lovecraft. The essence of things that have scared people have existed in the same nascent jots since the origins of the mind.

Know your literary grandparents and do not fear their influence; as much as they knew what they were doing for the eras in which they wrote their knowledge and craft may give you the buoy needed to place your own writing within the reach of all those would-be fans who are trembling somewhere in the darkness, a flashlight in one hand, a book in the other—and waiting for the next terrible truth to raise the hairs on the back of their neck.

Bram Stoker revitalized ancient mythologies and strange architectures with Dracula, keying into the latent worries of surrounding British peoples about the risen dead, returned to feast on the blood of the living. Frakenstein reflected terrific dreams brought on about electrical galvanism bringing dead flesh back to life, and the horrible ostracism and mistreatment of parents and children. Edgar Allen Poe walked the treacherous and twisted hallways of the disintegrating mind and the murderous impulse; flaying them out and shining that brutal attentive light through them.

The desire and want to be scared and terrified makes up the best bookworm’s adrenaline draw, and there are few things more terrifying than the truly weird—elements such as ancient and decrepit castles from bygone gothick eras, decaying over strange aeons under their weight of their own mold-cracked stones, and housing deep, lost-recollected secrets. They are all there, somewhere in the low rumble of the prose of many the classic gothic novel author and twinkling in the eyes of the new. Every family has a dark past somewhere, every white-picket fence and stately house has a ghost story in their neighborhood—and for each one, there is a reader: waiting, ready, and willing to be chilled to the bone by the bizarre truth of it.

A suggested bibliography:

· The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole (Full text at Project Gutenberg)

· Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley (Full text at Wikisource)

· The Vampyre; a Tale (1819) by John William Polidori (Full text at Project Gutenberg)

· The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe (Full text at Wikisource)

· Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker (Full text at Wikisource)

· The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (1997)

Vampires, vampires everywhere but not a drop of blood

I just came across this little web gem of an article on boston.com: Vampire rumors spur alert at Boston Latin School.

"The headmaster believes that the outrageous rumors had reached a point where she had to say something to families to ensure that all students felt safe and respected," said Chris Horan, School Department spokesman.

While the episode sounds like something out of "Twilight," last year's hit film about a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire, it may be closer to the movie "Mean Girls."

Two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the incident said a group of girls at the school had been bullying at least one other student who likes to dress in Goth-style, a vampirish look popularized by musician Marilyn Manson. The officials said the girls began spreading a rumor that the student was a vampire who had cut someone's neck and sucked the blood.

As a Goth—and oft mistaken or asked if I’m a vampire—I’d like to assure everyone that this is actually a rare event. I haven’t met any vampires in the supernatural sense, even if I do write about them; but I have met sanginarians. It’s a fetish where couples drink each other’s blood. Certainly this girl could have been exploring being a sanguinarian, but I find it highly doubtful.

High school, like most other venues, is full of blatant stupid. There are multiple power struggles and total disconnects happening within the student body itself and even moreso the rift between the students and the faculty. High schools are a sociologist’s nightmare. We’ve become a society of overactive cowards who don’t spend a moment to examine the hysteria over high-damage, extremely-low occurrence events.

OMG vampires! So much less likely than Oh My Goth.

So cheers to all us black-clads out there, don’t forget to smile in the rain. I hope the girl in question bears her reputation as the vampire-rumor-center as a blood red badge of courage.

Sanguis est vim!

Have a Merry Vexing Christmas and a Sprightly Yule all

Mill Avenue Vexations Have a Merry Vexing Christmas everyone.

This little title was released almost two years ago now, for Christmas. It is one of the very first tribute stories that we ever wrote.

If you haven’t read it before you might as well catch up.

I even have a black Santa cap like Vex is wearing on the cover now. For those who haven't had the fortune of reading this yet (get to it!) it summarizes a little bit like a cabdriver Dicken’s story, as Vex tries to unravel the lives of various fares. Three exactly. Each of whom have a little bit of trouble in their past, present, or future.

I hope everyone enjoys.

Merry Christmas and a Sprightly Yule to all.

Link to Mill Avenue Vexations.

Woman accused of piercing kittens to make them “gothic”

From all of the gothic community: Just don’t do this.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Humane officers said a Pennsylvania woman marketed “gothic kittens” with ear, neck and tail piercings over the Internet. Officers with the SPCA of Luzerne County removed three kittens and a cat from a home outside Wilkes-Barre.

Officer Carol Morrison said the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals raided the home on Wednesday after getting a tip that the woman was selling the pierced kittens on eBay.

“It’s unbelievable anybody would do this to kittens,” Morrison said.

There are various gears of ethics when it comes to the treatment of animals in our culture. By in large we try to be as humane as possible when we impinge on their lives to produce our food, fur, and—in the case of domesticated pets—companionship. Kittens cannot consent to piercing or tail docking and any sort of invasive body modification should really be done by a veterinarian for health reasons.

This may not be the worst example of animal cruelty, especially to domesticated pets whom look to us for protection and care, but it’s still a lapse of judgment that should not be condoned especially by the goth community because it is bearing our banner by proxy.

If thou, or know someone, who has witnessed animal cruelty thou can visit the Pets911.com Animal Cruelty search to find contacts in the area.

“If thou’d like to help pressure the District Attorney to prosecute this case, please contact Jackie Musto-Carol at the Wilkes-Barre Courthouse at info@jackiemustocarroll.com or call 570-825-1674 and urge her to press this case to the fullest extent of the law, including jail time for this sick individual.”

Link, via GOTH Magazine.