Textual Poaching: On Goth Culture and the Other Goth Culture

“Cursed, cursed creator! Why do I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish that spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.

“When night came I quitted my retreat and wandered into the coven; and now, no longer retained by the fear of bright colors, I gave vent to my anguish in fearful howlings to the Master Antichrist. I was like a wild beast that had broken the bonds, destroying the leather restraints that obstructed me and raging through the coven with a vampire like swiftness. Oh! What a gloriously miserable night I passed! The cold stars shone in mockery, and the bare trees waved their branches above me; now and then the sweet voice of a ghost burst forth amidst the universal stillness. All other Satanists, save I, were at rest or in disturbing enjoyment; I, like the arch-fiend I was, bore all hell within me, and finding myself unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, curse and damn the trees and the cottages and the people, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.”

Many people, I find, don’t believe me when I bring up my gothic interests. I don’t know why, you’d think after a few good conversations something like that wouldn’t come as a surprise, but that is neither here nor there. 

The point is that I consider myself to be a Goth. Such a harsh but ambiguous term brings to mind a lot of things, I’m sure, and honestly, while many of them are valid for other people elsewhere, what you’re likely thinking of is not the variation of gothicism that I subscribe to. (Today’s version of “goth” is the type that hit its mark in the eighties and onward.)

A Classic Goth, such as myself, has little to no interest in things like leather and studs, platform shoes, unintelligible screaming music or an anarchist’s attitude. Classically, to be gothic means to  find interests in things that are elegant and mysterious; in large part, it is enjoying the beauties in life that people have forgotten. And as a large point, classic goths are most certainly and pointedly not Satan-worshippers.

Above I’ve taken a passage from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Volume II Chapter VIII. It was a novel included in the first wave of gothic literature and is a recognizable classic story, regardless of whether one identifies with the culture. I’ve taken liberties with the text, rewriting it in such a way to include incorrect and frankly boring stereotypes surrounding the term “Goth.” Some are more subtle than others, as it is in life, when someone makes a comment or an assumption that is a little off. Then of course there are the bigger issues, dealing with the stereotypes that are more ridiculous and horribly generalizing (those would be the references to Satan; I hope by this point that would be easy to guess). 

I would say, however, that while there are some incorrect assumptions about the classic goth culture, sometimes the underlying ambiguity of it all has people confused in their own correctness. Reading the modified passage I am hopeful that, even if not familiar with the text, one would be able to pick out a number of errors; but where do the errors end? Frankenstein itself is quite a dark book, riddled with angst and horror and revenge—just the sort of thing we like. I actually changed very little, honestly. Some of the changes I made are minuscule. 

Because the fact of it is that we are dark, and we often brood and spend time in our own heads. We don’t fit in with society, and frankly it’s very near the bottom of the list of priorities. But we are not against society. Stand-off-ish, maybe, but not sinister. Dark, but not evil. 

Living as a goth is similar to living as a Mormon, as funny as that sounds. There’s a lot of assumptions, judgements, and oppositions, and one sort of just has to take it all for what it’s worth. People outside looking in will tell you what they think they know about your culture and the purists will get on your case for not doing enough. 

It’s a matter of integrity, just like most things are. You can read my passage if you think it’s more fitting, or, like me, you can appreciate the beauty of the original.

Medium Specificity: Of Layering and the Persistance of Flavor

Above is a series of images, each depicting a stage in the process of creating a digital art piece. They are presented with the finished product first, as that is generally the sort of thing that most people see; and ended with the beginning sketch. Each image represents one added, separate layer to the piece. 

Visual art itself is a wonder, with the ability to portray the world around us in a way that adheres to the laws of nature and reality or abstracting in such a way the meaning, while present, is sometimes unidentifiable. Digital art, though often misused and abused (and written off because of it) is one such medium for presenting the world. Digital art has many unique attributes, but the singular one I’ve decided to present is that of layers. 

When I paint in the physical plane in which I exist, thing are permanent—sure, I can do back and cover up my mistakes as much as I please but they're still there. “Painting” digitally offers the opportunity to add layer upon layer of work onto one piece, allowing for the artist to mess up and experiment without the fear of messing up. I can add a layer, decide later that it’s garbage and click a button that excludes it entirely from the final product. I can color correct, by layer, if I decide that I chose the wrong hue with which to shadow. Perhaps use of the  “undo” button is cheating. Perhaps digital paintings will never belong in an art museum. Perhaps they shouldn’t, even in my own opinion. But it makes experimentation and expression accessible. Painting is scary and expensive and stressful. “Painting” on a tablet of some sort seems much more forgiving, doesn’t it?

Our visiting speaker, Ms. Frahm, spoke a lot about process and finding meaning in what you do as you do it. The process of creating a digital art piece such as I have here is something more architectural, perhaps, than processes possible with some other forms of media. I find beauty in this sort of step-by-step, line-upon-line way of doing things. The meaning, for me, differs from piece to piece, but within the concept of layering I find benefit in productivity and accessibility.

I use digital art for art that I plan on sharing in various virtual forms. I can make things fast and exactly how I want them and there is always merit in traditional artwork, of course, but is it realistic in reading out to people, and starting conversations? I can produce easily one digital piece a day, if I so choose. Can I realistically do that with paint or any comparable medium, my budget and schedule? 

As for the cherries: I was drinking cherry coke, and it was tasty. Some things just are. 

Historical Story: Lizzie Borden had an Axe...er, a Hatchet

Historical stories are tricky things.There is no solid way to avoid touchy subjects, or potentially offending someone. We as humans, share a history and therefore any portrayal of that history automatically speaks of the author’s views and opinions, and often implies many things about their character and situation. When I and my partner, Jase, were working on this script, we were aware that it was a risk to adopt actual people into these characters, especially concerning such a topic. We decided, however, that in this particular case we were willing to do so—it is to be read as something of a speculation on what could have happened. Lizzie Borden was acquitted, but most agree that she was the one to commit the murders. Likewise, both Emma and Bridget have also been considered suspect, even if no trial was held for either of them. If this were to be made into anything larger-scale than a three page script assignment, then yes, perhaps we’d have avoided incriminating legally innocent people. But it is a short assignment, so we took the risk.

The script we came up with was largely imagined; Emma wasn’t even around at the time the murders took place (although there is no solid account of where she actually was) and Bridget left shortly after, with little records we could find saying much about her. The details—the burned dress and the hatchet head—were all we had to go on, and even there we took artistic liberties. 

I read The Veil after writing this, for the most part, and it made me wonder how I’d write something like this in first-person. I could figure it out if I were writing a short story, but a script in first-person seems like an endeavor at which I’d fall short; I’d probably make the character sound like a crazy person. It was an artful way to tell such a story though, very personalized and human. The pictures sure lent a hand to the telling of both The Veil and After the Deluge, although I think that their particular sort of storytelling called for it. In a script, the action lines more or less stand in for the pictures I suppose, so nothing is lost either way. 

Our short script turned out rather like a psychological narrative/typicality and process story we’ve actually just recently discussed in TMA 114. Having most of the focus on the little blood-soaked details, rather than the murder or the murderess, gave more insight into the characters directly presented. I personally also think that it would be easy for one to read between the lines and come out or it with something unique, different than what others glean from it. At least, that’s what it does to the best of our abilities. 

"Famous Trials: The Trial of Lizzie Borden." UMCK, n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

"Borden Parents Found Dead." History. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.

Process Piece

Heather and Grace's Process Piece      

        We focused on a process of elimination, exploring the cognitive happenings of people (us) as the decision was made as to where we should go to eat. Even though things like this are widely known as “processes” it is not often pondered as it happens. This sort of casual, friendly and non-spectacular conversation is the sort that anyone would overlook; nothing big happens, we don’t, by the end of the conversation, come out with anything tangible. It is, however, a definite clear process—and one that is really quite elementary. Interactions with other humans tend to all be processes in their own right, this is simply one form they can take. 

        

        The process itself seemed, at first, a little worrying to us. We thought that the presence of the phone that was recording, the knowledge that we were having a conversation, would somehow impede our subconscious willingness to be normal in this situation. However, it became very clear very quickly that there was nothing special to this. There was no reason to worry about being insincere; it was very natural. The product, while not immediately tangible, was a decision made mutually through the collaboration of two people in civilized, friendly conversation. It highlights how familiar we all are with processes in a general sense. It is likely a natural thing for an artist to hear “find a process” and assume that it’s a hard thing to do, because we’re all artists and since when is anything easy? But in reality, most everything we do is some sort of process, even if the product is just a decision about pizza places.

        

        Though we didn’t necessarily have in mind the videos that were the preparation for this assignment, the product turned out to be much like Dean’s little video.  Each process wasn’t fantastical in nature, nothing overtly special, but very simple and a phenomenon that occurs often in everyday life for people.  Whether it’s the struggle of having to gather a family together to read the scriptures or the struggle of making the decision of where to eat.  There are always factors involved that can halt the process, one person can derail the whole event by disagreeing, but in so doing it adds to the process, making it a part of life. 

         When we had the completed product, we both discovered a mutual appreciation for the web series Good Mythical Morning.  What the hosts do on this daily Youtube show is have a conversation about a plethora of subjects, improvising the entirety of what they say like unto what we did.  These internetainers opening is always “Let’s talk about that”, leading into this process of a conversation that can have many disagreements, or they’ll even be debating over a final decision like what the world’s ugliest animal is.  In this sense, we saw that our process was of the same fruition as the daily episodes of this show.