Welcome to the Gothic: Mystery, Exploration, and the Supernatural Science

Though I'm not big on announcing what my personal pet projects are at any given moment, I do want to give some context of my recent dive into the Gothic genre. I have spent the last few months writing Gothic style poetry. I currently have 15 poems with more likely on the way.

What will I do with this collection?

My hope to is publish it at some point. I might even include some illustrations or maybe a few performance videos. I haven't really decided. I don't know if I'll try to go the traditional route of publishing or self publish through Amazon. 

What I do know is that I like writing within the Gothic genre and there's a good possibility I might try to do similar themed collections in the future.

As I wrote last week, the Gothic genre is littered with the dark, tragic, and macabre. The stuff I'm writing isn't exactly happy. It's brooding, a little gory, a touch cliche (for good reason), and often "messed up" as one person put it. I think the poems would fit in well with the Addams Family or Beetlejuice.

Even Harry Potter had a touch of the Gothic

A few nights ago, I shared a few of the poems with my sister. Her first response was to ask if I "was doing okay?". Which is a fair question (especially since it's not a secret that I suffer from depression). 

The thing is, I wrote a lot of these poems while in a really good mood. I just happen to like the Gothic aesthetic and find it appealing regardless of my emotional state at the time. I mean, there's a reason I enjoy reading creepy fiction in general.

So what makes the Gothic genre appealing, or at least why do I find it attractive? Is it just the darkness and gore that I like? 

Not entirely. For the record I don't enjoy gore at all. I prefer atmospheric and psychological horror to slasher any day of the week. Don't get me wrong, though, I do enjoy the fine line of darkness, madness, and macabre the Gothic genre treads.

However, these aren't the traits I want to look at today.

I think it comes down to one major story device that I am attracted to in the stories I consume: a good mystery that is inevitably resolved.

Humans have this uncanny need for resolution. We, as a species, like things to make sense. It's why we try to explain the explainable. Religion, science, philosophy, and stories all have deep ties to this need. 

Going along with that need to resolve any mystery placed before us, we also feel really good when we're the ones solving that mystery. I know I feel extraordinarily special when I've solved a uniquely challenging puzzle that my peers continue to be stumped by. It feels even better if that solution has to be kept a secret, like I'm part of some elite club for figuring it out and not sharing it.

Gothic literature is full of this type of mystery and resolution. As soon as the protagonist is dumped into the plot, the questions begin and you can't have a mystery without questions. Layer by layer the protagonist is spoon fed answers, while being bombarded with more questions until everything starts to fit together like the internal structure of a clock. 

The mystery solving process often leads to fulfilling another human need: exploring and confronting the unknown. 

Have you ever wanted to explore a secret passage in an old house? Or find a map that leads to a lost treasure? Maybe crawl through a cave you never knew existed near your house?

Humans love to explore. The Gothic genre often includes exploring old castles full of forgotten rooms, manors with the occasional secret passageway, or dark forests with overgrown paths. The exploration is exhilarating and exciting. Plus reading about exploring is a lot safer than actually doing it ourselves.

Finally, one of the biggest reasons I am drawn to Gothic literature, is how the genre balances natural science with the supernatural. There are a lot of fairy tale qualities while incorporating early modern science in Gothic literature. Dracula mixes vampire folklore with the (at the time) new science of blood fusion. Phantom of the Opera shows how easy it can be to take advantage of the superstitious using optical illusions and stage magic.

What makes me feel that the supernatural so much more real in the Gothic genre is how alien that culture is to me. I don't know anyone who lived during the Victorian or Edwardian era. I can only try to piece together the culture based on what I've seen in the media, researched in old newspapers, or learned from other researchers. It seems perfectly plausible to meet a ghost or ghoul in 1890 England, but not so much in 2018 New York. The heyday of the Gothic genre seems much more fantastical and unreal than my modern world.

That's not to say that the supernatural doesn't still have a presence in modern times.

Though it could be due to overactive imaginations or fraudulent trickery, the supernatural continues to fascinate and captivate those drawn to the mysteriously unexplainable. People will try to explain or rationalize away supernatural activity, but occasionally the explanation given isn't satisfying. I mean the early 2000s saw a huge uptick in the Reality Ghost Hunting TV genre.

Since I live in a world with even more advanced scientific knowledge and technology, the science in these stories feels outdated and at times ancient. A Pepper's Ghost illusion, such as the one used in the ballroom dancing scene at most of the Disney Haunted Mansions, seems even less real now that holograms and virtual reality technologies are slowly being incorporated into our entertainment. Though it scares the characters in the stories, if I saw it I don't think I'd be scared.

An example of Pepper's Ghost

Then again, some of the early science used can be truly terrifying. The blood transfusions disregarding blood types in Dracula is super cringe worthy to read today.

There are a lot of reasons to enjoy the Gothic genre that have nothing to do with darkness and gore. Mystery solving, exploration, and confronting the unknown are a part of the human experience, one that the Gothic genre excels at.

However, I do still want to address the dark elements in the Gothic genre. How does that sound for next week?

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week!