GOTHIC

What is Goth?

Goth unashamedly celebrates the dark recesses of the human psyche. Put the back of your hand on your forehead, and you're there: dark sensuality, sweeping sadness, forbidden love, the beauty of enduring pain; you get the picture, heh. Many people lead unhappy, unachieved lives. And that's sad doh!. Goth makes imagination and inner depression a lifestyle choice, and that's art.

Goth Types

The notion of "goth type" is more of an internal joke than a reality. It does reveal, however, the constellation of themes that collectively define the subculture. Very few goths are as polarlised as this listing implies - most are a combination of types.

Moral: don't believe in generalizations about goths, not even the ones you read here. it just an article of knowledge.

ROMANTIC GOTH

Picture a blur of velvet, candle-lit baths, rainy afternoons, a locket of hair: Romantic goths are denizens of the intuitive sensual world. Every moment is tragic in its passing, every kiss unique and lost in time. Only love overcomes the senselessness of existence. Romantic goths are notorious for having disasterous relationships because of their fantastic expectations. However, when two of them fall in love with each other, the result is a powerful and sometimes fatal relationship that inspires even normal people. Its not similar as usual experimental of love.

MOPEY GOTH

Mopey goths brood a lot. They're very shy. Life is a little too bright, too loud, too hot. They tend to be morbid and artistic. You can see in their art the beauty of doom, futility, and mortality. Mopes are easy to spot in club:

You can find them crumpled up against a wall somewhere looking forlorn, sometimes drawing or writing, sometimes watching quietly. They're dreamy love ones and an illusinated lifeform dancing and bring smiles and full fill they`re expectation.

FETISH GOTH

Fetish goths don't come in many friendly flavours. They wear leather, PVC (which is a type of plastic), rubber, chains, bolts, buckles, and spikes. While seemingly prepared for a post-apocalyptic "Road Warrior" existence, their costumes are quite revealing, suggesting an interest in strange sex. Sometimes they bring whips or riding crops to club so they can smack each other. Their accessories either hint at or facilitate bondage play.Industrial music, while dark, differs from gothic music in its high-energy and harshness, and in the malevolence of the lyrics. My speculation is that where we love to dramatize emotional pain, the fetish crowd just take it one step further into the physical. Haven't quite figured out what's so spooky about a spanking tho... It has been suggested that fetish goths aren't goths at all; they're just BDSMers who show up at goth clubs when the underground scene isn't big enough to support separate clubs. That can't be completely accurate; fetish goths do turn up at goth events outside of dance clubs like coffee klatches and cemetary picnics. They are manifestly part of the culture as well as the scene. The fact that you can find mopes wearing spiked collars is a testament to their influence.

PERKY GOTH

Who are these people? How can you be perky and a goth at the same time? Well, don't bother asking, because you will just get a flip answer. PerkyGoths are never serious! Maybe they are in denial. Maybe they are bipolar.. One thing for sure is that they know how to have a good time.PerkyGoths are the glue in goth culture because they meet everyone and introduce people to each other. If the whole scene were full of mopey goths, no one would ever talk! PerkyGoths, never go away.

VAMPIRE GOTH

There appears to be two sets of vampire goths. The first is composed of passive consumers of vampire lore. They are like any other kind of goth, but they have vampires on the brain, muahahah iyaghhs ;) . When they choose, they distinguish themselves with elegant evening wear, sometimes modern, sometimes 19th century.

The second group is quite flamboyant in comparison. These are people who refer to themselves as "vampyres," spelled with a 'y' to distinguish themselves from the mythological characters. They can be seen sometimes wearing fangs and capes. The fangs are usually expensive orthodontic devices that are custom-made. The fangs sometimes get used in consensual play. Vampyres form cliques inside the goth world based loosly on the clans in the role-playing game sort of like Dungeons and Dragons and telnet " the hidden grotto", except for vampyres. It's a pretty serious hobby; there are even conventions for this game.

PAGAN GOTH

attitude: The occult and/or celtic religions are cool.
Goth culture is largely indifferent to religion. Most types of religions are represented, but the largest number of goths are uninvolved in any way other than their jewelry. However, a greater percentage of goths are into Celtic religions than the mainstream can claim. Goths who practice these religions often consider such them to be a part of their gothic identities.Wicca is the descendant of a druidic type of religion and is the strongest descendent in modern times. It is a nature-oriented religion with sacred rites held on the solstices and the equinoxes. Wiccans practice their religion alone or in small cells, but may meet in groups as large as two hundred for major observances. The basic tenant of the religion is "An it bring harm to none, do what ye will," which is a belief that is also central to gothic culture. In the first millenium, the Catholic church hunted down Wiccans and burned them as witches. The most interesting thing of pagan goths is that they often refer to the Burning Time just as young Jews might refer to the Holocaust. Most pagan goths have developed custom religions, and only draw on Wicca or other aspects of the occult. Many are also interested in shamanism from non-Celtic cultures. It's worthwhile mentioning interest in different mythologies, such as Norse and Egyptian. Another group interested in the occult are satanists. This seems more common in the industrial and heavy metal scenes, but goths are often labeled as satanists.Contrary to popular lore, satanists do not actually worship the devil or believe in an after-life. I guess I'd categorise them as occult hedonists, and maybe just hedonists.Satanists stress self-reliance and the principle that might makes right. In fact, they might have become a viable political party. Nietszche appears to have influenced their philosophy heavily, although by far the greatest influence comes from Anton LeVay, author of The Satanic Bible. Nevertheless, most of the people seem to make up their own version of the religion as they go.

FAIRE GOTH

WHAT IS GOTHIC LITERATURE

The Gothic novel dominated English literature from its conception in 1764 with the publication of The Castle of Ortanto by Horace Walpole has been continually criticized by numerous critics for its sensationalism, melodramatic qualities, and its play on the supernatural. The genre drew many of its intense images from the graveyard poets Gray and Thompson, intermingling a landscape of vast dark forest with vegetation that bordered on excessive, concealed ruins with horrific rooms, monasteries and a forlorn character who excels at the melancholy. A fabled spectre or perhaps a bleeding Nun were images often sought after by those who fell victim to the supernatural influences of these books. Gothic literature as a movement was a disappointment to the idealistic romantic poets for the sentimental character idealized by Ann Radcliffe could not transcend into reality. Although the Gothic novel influenced many of the emerging genres, the outpouring of Gothic novels started to ease by 1815 and with the publication of Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer the genre began to fade. The Gothic novel had come full circle, from rebellion to the Age of Reasons order, to its encompassing and incorporation of Reason as derived from terror. The influence of the Gothic novel is felt today in the portrayal of the alluring antagonist, whose evil characteristics appeal to ones sense of awe, or the melodramatic aspects of romance, or more specifically in the Gothic motif of a persecuted maiden forced apart from a true love. The Gothic genre today has remained an elusive minor literary upheaval that has had immense influence on genres today. Literary critics though, have been slow to accept Gothic literature as a valuable genre. The first critics to examine the Gothic, approached it reverently with historical interest. They tried to rescue it, to revive the dead and obscure genre. These critics looked at the presence of the text by examining it within a historical context. The original critical approach of historical interpretation allowed the text to validate the text, as it was a reaction to the age of reason, order, and politics of Eighteenth century England. The development of the Gothic Novel from the melancholy overtures of sentimental literature to the rise of the sublime in the graveyard poets had a profound impact on the budding Romantic movement from Wordsworth to Shelley. The astounding features and use of the sublime and the overt use of the supernatural, profoundly influenced the style and material of the emerging romantics.

Gothic Novels such as

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias, Smollett, Longsword, Earl of Salisbury by Thomas Leland, The Old English Baron: A Gothic Story by Clara Reeve and Vathek: An Arabian Tale by William Beckford led Coleridge to write a Gothic drama, Shelley to write two Gothic Novels and Byron to write Manfred. The effects of the Gothic still reverberate though modern literature from Joyce Carol Oats to Ann Rice. The literary motifs set forth by Horace Walpole can be found scattered throughout all forms of literature, yet the Gothic Novel has been left to molder in libraries in obscurity and except in rare instances, the novel has all but vanished from the canon of western literature