For extra credit, let's determine the music, literature, film, and fashion someone who considers him/herself goth might indulge in. Here are some ideas.
In your explanation (pictures are encouraged), try to explain what makes your subject "goth" and how we can connect this subculture to the gothic elements of the literature that we've been reading.
Music: Joy Division, Bauhaus, the Cure, Souixsie and the Banshees, the Damned, the Birthday Party, the Cramps
Literature: H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, Washington Irving, Baudelaire, E.T.A Hoffman
Film: Lost Boys, The Crow, Edward Scissorhands, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Nosferatu
Fashion: Victorian, Haute goth, steampunk, Theda Bara, macabre
Movie: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber on Fleet Street
ReplyDeleteA very gothic movie containing a dark setting of a barber shop. It may not sound as dark, but taking into account that many beheading of patients takes place within the barber shop, one may notice that it is not your average "barber shop." It has an affiliation with a meat pie store, made by a delicious and mysterious "meat". There are moments of suspense and anxiety as Sweeney Todd cuts the hair of his clueless victims. In the movie, we are shown that his wife and daughter are victims to Judge Turpin who falsely accuses Johnny Sexy Depp of committing a crime. Johnny Depp is sent to prison and his wife is taken away by the sexual predator Judge Turpin; later she commits suicide. We are able to analyze that she is over-powered by the Judge and given two choices, to stay as his concubine or to take her own life. She is unable to fight back, and helpless due to the imprisonment of Johnny Depp. There is a lot of emotion as Johnny Depp seeks to have revenge upon the Judge throughout the entire movie because he was torn away from his loved ones. Gothic elements surround this movie and it's name of a Demonic Barber is very eerie. It's one of the best gothic modern movies, with great actors. (Johnny Depp)
^ word. There a few films with gothic elements that I'd like to add on to that. One of them Being Corpse Bride also starring Johnny Depp (and directed by Tim Burton). From what I've seen it has a very dark and dreary atmosphere, but the part that gets me the most is that the main character accidentally marries a dead person. Throughout the movie both Victoria (the woman he was supposed to marry) and Emily (the dead woman he marries) are in distress. Emily thinks that he loves Victoria because she is alive, and Victoria doesnt know what to think becuase its supernatural and unusual that something like this would happen. In the end the conflict is resolved with the main character dying to be with Emily. Another movie that would have a small degree of gothic elements would be Coraline, but it doens't have too many elements. The only ones i can think of is a woman in distress and Omens/warnings directly from the cat and supernatural circumstances.
ReplyDeleteTo add onto Charles' analysis of Gothic movies, I would say that Goths would have really enjoyed watching Edward Scissorhands (also starring Johnny Depp). One main point in goth culture is a dark and mysterious mood, which is based off one of the aspects of Gothic literature. Edward Scissorhands, an unfinished humanoid with scissors for hands, encounters many dark moments throughout the film. To begin with, he is left alone and incomplete in a Gothic castle (another aspect borrowed from Gothic literature). Then even after being welcome into a loving suburban home, he is introduced to the dark nature of the neighbors who refuse to accept him for who he is. He is considered an outcast and a danger to society. Another part of Gothic subculture would be the defiance of the social norm. Goths are generally socially radical, however I think they do not have political messages as the hippies had in the 60s. An example of social defiance is also inherent in Edward Scissorhands. Edward falls in love with Kim, a girl who is the definition of a generic suburban highschooler. She is in a relationship with a jock. However as the movie progresses, we find that Edward and Kim slowly develop a romantic relationship despite what the rest of society had against Edward. I really liked watching Edward Scissorhands :D
ReplyDeleteAndrew Xie
^ Oh I hope I didn't spoil too much of the movie!
ReplyDeleteI did a little research on Theda Bara. I must say if there were ever a person that would just plain out be tagged as gothic it would be her. Everything about her is just gothic. First off the eyes are like piercing. I looked at her one of her pictures and I felt like she was looking through me, quite creepy. The black eyeliner she wore also added significantly to this affect. She played the female fatale role in the movies that she was portrayed in which I disagree. I really believe she should have played a more protagonist role. Also she was listed under the fashion section so I will discuss a little about how she dressed. Obviously anyone wearing her type of clothing in this time would look like a fool but I believe it really worked in her time. She would wear a lot of long dresses that were heavily ornamented and this added to the sense of mystery and they were very shear. Her clothing was banned later on because of how revealing they were. This plays well into the role of female fatale with this whole symbolism of sex and one sex protecting the other. She was also later incorporated into many songs.
ReplyDeleteMOHAMMED ISMAIL
30 Days of Night starring Josh Hartnett.
ReplyDeleteI would consider this very Gothic because when I think Gothic, I think of black and supernatural. They either like dressing up as a goth or simply acting like one. They like mysterious and scary things such as vampires. In the film, it has the hackneyed plot of vampires trying to take over. There is a lot of violence and death. This is similar to the Gothic element of supernatural forces since vampires clearly don't exist. Also, at the end of the movie, there is an unusual death; the movie ends with the protagonist is burning into ashes.
oh & somewhat irrelevant, but I really couldn't stand Sweeney Todd. I mean, you're singing happily while throwing someone into an oven or chopping someone's head off; everything is so ridiculous. But admittedly, I do agree that it's the epitome of something a "Goth" would watch.
I'm going to just jump in and say the obvious Marilyn Manson who dresses like a vampire, took the name "Manson" from serial killer Charlie Manson, and got sued for sexual misconduct+death threats against his parents.
ReplyDeleteAlso the lyrics of his song "sweet dreams"
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused!
I wanna use you and abuse you
I wanna know what's inside you
Enough said~
Literature/film:
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a movie "The legend of sleepy hollow" by Washington Irving. This movie has supernatural events, a gloomy setting, and a lot of suspense.
I also watched a short film "rip van winkle" a while ago. I dont remember much about this movie since i was very young but i do remember that it took place mainly at night in the mountains i believe.
Im sure people today still watch these movies since theyre deemed pretty famous.
Today's goth culture, or more accurately the goth culture of the 90's, was based around anti-conformity. While dressing in all black clothing, bondage paraphernalia, and heavy makeup was not necessarily a required staple of that wave of anti-conformity, it quickly spread as a rebellion from the 90's fashion trends mainly consisting of bright colors, and almost intentionally clashing patterns and tones (such as 90's icons: The Spice Girls, and Saved By The Bell). Similarly, Gothic literature was much a rebellion from the widespread form of literature at the time of the rise (or resurgence of it, noting previous 'gothic' movements, especially in visual media), which was Victorian. Victorian literature generally consists of examples of difficult lives, usually domestically, in which the hard-working, loving, and virtuous are the ultimate benefactors in the end, while the cruel and wrongdoing are punished. This form of literature usually aimed to teach a central moral lesson. Gothic literature rebels from this in a few specific ways. While both do tend to present a difficult life (a substantial plot would be hard without one) in gothic literature the hard-worker and smart-thinker does not always win out in the end, such as in The Masque of The Red Death. Furthermore, it's not always the cruel who are punished, as seen in The Cask one cruel party is punishing a second, neither of which seem virtuous or worthy of a punishment. The most significant difference between Victorian Era lit and Gothic Era is setting and tone. In Victorian the setting is usually in a 'quaint' quiet average location, while Gothic literature is often set in a dark, mysterious, most-certainly-not-average place (unless you're into that kinda stuff?) such as catacombs or dark castles. The difference in the tone of the two styles follow similarly, Victorian being very sweet and flowery, while Gothic tends to be sour, and dark. This resembles the modern Goth movement as it was essentially formed the same way as and currently resembles Gothic Literature, being a rebellion from the bright, sweet, flowery, and It-will-all-be-alright mentality. Likewise both Gothic Lit and the Goth movement explore the darker side of the human mind and morbid mood.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite aspects of the Goth subculture which seems to be directly influenced by the Gothic Lit movement is the perversion of Victorian style, in the Goth sense specifically fashion (great example: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Viona_Ielegems_at_the_victorian_picnic_2009.jpg). A modern day work that I would describe as a gorgeous exemplification of this is the 2010 movie "The Black Swan." The movie centers around two ballerinas: a slightly older more traditional dancer, as well as a young mischievous one (a simile to the progression of Victorian to Gothic literature in itself). Ballet has always had the facade of being very dainty and aesthetically appealing, however, the movie twists it to create a dark, twisted, morbid, psychologically chilling mood to the entire movie only increasing in power as the movie goes on. This is powerfully shown in the cinematography, characterized with gorgeous panning shots of dance as well as dark close ups of bleeding fingers and toes as well as other dark elements, the bright red tones and sharp blacks of the latter creating a strong contrast and juxtaposition to the light pastels of the former, as well as a thrilling scene (with the help of designer drugs) as well as a reality/paranoia blending climax at the end of the movie, to add to the overall mystery, suspense and dark mood of the entire movie, originally based on such a virgin art as Ballet.
hmmm.... sorry for being lengthy.... i really love analyzing pop culture and don't voice it at the rate i conjure it.
-David Flomenbaum
Let's call our subject Eric.
ReplyDeleteEric was born in 1970 in a small town on the outskirts of Manchester. He was in high school when the "goth" subculture took England by storm. Eric, like millions of other Englishmen, fell prey to the its powerful jaws. He moved into the castle near his house and raised the drawbridge; he convinced his friends in the occult club to hold meetings in the castle basement to interpret the cryptic writings on the wall and practice their skills. Soon, he began to have dreams of his loved ones being killed in the most horrendous ways imaginable. The environment he had created for himself, although disturbing, still granted him an odd, extreme sense of satisfaction. He suffered desires to live out his dreams; in a crazed passion, he would leave his castle, procure a fine maiden, and leave her for the basement creatures to devour, or perhaps for the occultists to have a little fun with first.
He began listening to music like this:
(warning: explicit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw-m4jEY-Ns
and reading the works of writers like Stoker and Poe, acting out their tales as realistically as he could. In 1993, he was the first to get a ticket to see The Nightmare Before Christmas. He even started the first Hot Topic:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Hot_Topic%2C_Universal_CityWalk_Hollywood.JPG
Eric is clearly Gothic. His life contains every element of Gothic literature we have discussed. He is one kool kat.
Movie: The Dark Knight
ReplyDeleteThis award-winning film contains many elements of Goth. The setting takes place in castle-like areas such as Bruce Wayne’s mansion, the Bat Cave, and Police Headquarters. The atmosphere of the settings in the movie is very dark and takes place mostly at night time. The woman in the movie is threatened by the villain in two separate occasions. The first time, she was held hostage, but was saved by Batman. The second time, Joker had strapped her to a chair with a time bomb, and she had died. Metonymy of horror is used in several occasions when the Joker is laughing crazily, or when the bomb goes off and the building blows up. The music in the film give off a sense of suspense.
H.P. Lovecraft was a writer of a subgenre that he pioneered call “weird fiction”. This genre (because of the use of the supernatural) was clearly written as Gothic Literature. The influence in Lovecraft’s writings is revealed when he wrote the Cthulhu Mythos; Lovecraft first wrote of the devastatingly destructive creature, Cthulhu, in his short story The “Call of Cthulhu”. Humans worshiped this creature as it destroyed cities. This supernatural characteristic seen in Lovecraft’s stories is an element of Gothic Literature.
ReplyDeleteLovecraft’s focus on horror and fear is also a clear example of Gothic Literature. Frequently writing horror stories, Lovecraft wrote suspenseful and fear driven plots because he felt that fear was important to a story. In his essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature” he states that fear is “the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind.” His writing directly reflects gothic literature.
The Cure is a gothic band. In their music video, Boys Don't Cry, they are dressed up in all black and they all have makeup on. Also, during the song, their shadow began to movie around by itself, which shows gives the band a supernatural feel.
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