Gothic Literature, etc.

[prydain]

I was just wondering if anyone here likes either gothic-type literature or gothic-type shows and movies. Not goth like the people who wear black or anything...:D

Most of my friends are really surprised when they find out the type of stuff I read and watch. I don't look like the type who likes horror/ghost story type stuff, but I certainly am. I love moody creepy stories...I recently started reading "Interview With the Vampire" and I love it so far...and I like shows like "Dark Shadows", which is probably widely considered the ultimate gothic television series.

Now that I think about it, in a way "Angel" is very gothic in tone...so I guess that means pretty much everyone here likes it to a CERTAIN extent. :D

Sorry that post was kinda all over the place...I just didn't really know how to say what I was trying to ask. lol

[goldenboy]

I dig it. Haven’t read much goth stuff lately, but I like. Victorian ghost story collections (Henry James and Ambrose Bierce are amazing), Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anne Rice, Ray Bradbury. Dickens, Daphne du Maurier....Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson. I like Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling’s “year’s best fantasy and horror” collections they come out with. I like the gothic ‘cause it’s mostly about mood and disquiet and sometimes suspense and of course, the supernatural angle, the spiritual aspect. Never have cared for blood and guts, slasher stuff...

[prydain]

Whoa I totally forgot about this thread.

No one reads, huh? ;) lol

[goldenboy]

Actually, you'd get a large response about books (gothic or otherwise) over at the Buffyboards...

[prydain]

lol. Okay...I'll probably just copy and paste it later.

[Vilandra]

I feel like I've responded to this thread already...weird.

I read the pre-religiosity Anne Rice novels. And I love the remake version of Dark Shadows...I have a difficult time pigeonholing "Gothic" as a genre though.

[goldenboy]

Gothic is pretty vague as a genre. Wikipedia has a really cool attempt at a history of gothic literature, very interesting. Haven't actually read much Rice since the early 90s, but I liked the early Lestat books, the Mayfair witches. The thing about gothic is getting a mood right. Intricate plotting isn't even very important (to me, anyway).

[prydain]

I'm hoping that show "Scarlett" will get the gothic-feel right...I'm hoping it won't be lame. :)

[goldenboy]

OK, this is sorta related. I was watching the pilot of Supernatural again and it reminded me of a book I loved when I was in high school—some of you guys might like.

You’ll recall that Sam and Dean were tracking that avenging ghost, the woman in white along roadside...that premise is just like some of the stories in “Haunted Heartland”. It’s basically a huge collection of “real” ghost stories, collected by these two writers from Madison, WI. They did tons of historical research in all the midwestern states—finding old local folktales and also interviewing all kinds of people who supposedly witnessed ghosts, hauntings, exorcisms, psychics, etc. in their towns. Most of the accounts are just a few pages long each, but they add up. Some are actually really disturbing. Most are just interesting. Really cool...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446357251/qid=1136383257/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0942479-0699819?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

[dashboardprophet]

I do sometimes get confused about what constitutes "Gothic Literature". For example, I would put 'Bleak House' in this category but I don't think it is usually considered as such.

Anyway, I really like the ghost stories of M R James and when I was younger I read a lot of Wilkie Collins ('The Woman in White' being the obvious example - the 1948 film version with Sydney Greenstreet is a brilliant piece of gothic melodrama, by the way).

[goldenboy]

I do sometimes get confused about what constitutes "Gothic Literature". For example, I would put 'Bleak House' in this category but I don't think it is usually considered as such.

Never read Bleak House, but Dickens feels very gothic to me. I've read that he was a fan of gothic novels as a teen. I do like his short ghost story "The Signalman".

I think a lot of what makes gothic effective is the idea of the pre-modern, superstitious world intruding on the modern. A fear that we can't escape our past, or something...or a fascination with an imagined romantic past.

[prydain]

Well I do believe that "gothic" can be its own genre. In English class it had its own section and definition. Plus Wikipedia has an article on it.

It's a little broad - they're usually melodramatic, with spooky surroundings, etc. So a lot of times "Buffy" and "Angel" could be considered gothic, especially the latter, since it was a dark show, which took place mainly at night, and could be melodramatic, along with a bunch of other gothic elements that I'm too lazy to mention. :)

[goldenboy]

That Wiki piece is good. And here's a good resource:

http://www.litgothic.com/index_fl.html

[prydain]

Ah, cool. Thanks for that. :)

[goldenboy]

I'm not exactly a Masterpiece Theatre kinda guy, but I'm gonna check this out. I like Dickens, and I really like Gillian Anderson. She was good in that other period piece "The House of Mirth" too.

Charles Dickens' Bleak House
PBS, Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT
* * * * out of four

'Bleak House' is as intriguing as the Dickens

By Dennis Moore, USA TODAY

Memories of high school required-reading lists and English class essays have put some people off Charles Dickens for good. X Files alum Gillian Anderson plays the mysterious Lady Dedlock in the PBS adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House. But seeing just a few minutes of this adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House might change their minds.

Published as a serial in the 1850s, Bleak House is among Dickens' sharpest indictments of the inequities in Victorian-era society, starting with the complex and tortuous British judicial system.

Sucked into the legal black hole of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, a dispute over an estate that has been argued in court for generations, are the young Ada Clare and Richard, possible heirs to the fortune, and Ada's companion Esther, whose unknown parentage sparks much speculation.

Of course, the intrigue spreads far beyond them to a roster of engaging innocents and villains, stalwarts and eccentrics. In fact, there are 80 speaking parts in the series.

The actor that mainstream American audiences are most likely to recognize is Gillian Anderson, late of The X-Files.

She is subtle yet arresting as the mysterious Lady Dedlock, another claimant in the case who recognizes the handwriting on a legal document, setting off a frenzied investigation into her past.

Then again, almost all of the characters have some mystery about them, and all of them are impeccably performed.

While a quintessential Masterpiece Theatre production, Bleak House doesn't indulge in the languid pacing and preciousness that weigh down some other PBS period pieces.

It speeds though the convoluted plot and subplots — even if it does play out over eight hours airing in six parts — and it's graphic, most vividly when Krook the drunken junkman spontaneously combusts.

The production is gorgeous with unstinting detail, with this caveat: Even though the filthy streets and ghastly poorhouses are by no means whitewashed, they are so artfully photographed that their strange beauty rivals that of the aristocrats' manor houses.

Who better to wrestle Dickens' epic story onto the screen than Andrew Davies, who adapted the wicked House of Cards and charming Pride and Prejudice for television and the delightful Bridget Jones's Diary for the movies.

Such a pedigree brightens Bleak House's appeal and might even persuade the reluctant among us to give Dickens another try.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-01-19-bleak-house_x.htm