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Gothic - Four hundred years of excess, horror, evil and ruin by Richard Davenport-Hines Forth Estate, London 1998, ISBN 1-84115-079-7 This is definitely one of my favourite books, although the last chapter is very disappointing (more on that later). It is all about gothic horror, for the full fat 438 pages. However, it does nowhere define gothic in an exact way, so a lot of themes come up in the book, from the barbaric goths in the Roman Empire to the gothic churches of mediaeval times, to gothic architecture, gardening, paintings of all kind, psychoanalytical themes, literature, and life itself. All is spiced up with very tasty quotes. Gothic starts in the late 18th century, according to the writer. From there, he continues his 11 chapter-journey through all things gothic until the late 20th century. Only the last two chapters are about the 20th century, which gives the ones who are interested in 19th century (gothic) all other chapters. The books gives great insight in the life and society of the late 18th and all of the 19th century, the life that is mostly kept hidden for mass consumption under a veil of Victorian tradition. This hidden life is all about power and fear, about madness and oppressed needs. It explores the psychic gears that make imagination and fear work in the cultural backdrop of the (mostly) Victorian Age. It also has short biographies of many people you might have heard of, but never have had expected to have such twisted lives, and how very well that fits into the society of their time. After reading, I really had to change my ideas about the 19th century. It was much more gloomy, dark, and doomed, yes, more gothic, than I ever had imagined. For the last chapter: it runs through the gothic movement of the 80's and 90's of the 20th century without much criticism or relation to the earlier goths and chapters, as if the author rushes towards the end where he finally can admire Poppy Z. Bright and Robert Smith. The view of the gothic movement in the 20th century is American, and that is not the complete picture, because both British and German goths have a very strong movement that is -in my opinion- very different from that of the Americans. Robert Smith of The Cure being described as being truly goth is something most Europeans won't understand; and I can remember reading about Marilyn Manson that he thought it strange that only Europeans understood his act was more like a joke. Anyway. Modern Gothic has lost it's imaginary power. By describing the full horror, such as splashpunk, but also other details in the lives of movie- and novel characters, the reader does not have to have imagination to see what happens. And with that, the fear of the unknown is lost in gore. And I don't understand why this aspect was left out of the last chapters - the relation with the previous chapters is not made clear. However, to steampunkers and goths, the book is highly recommendable. © Yaghish 2003 |
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