The aesthetic of gothic literature.

"We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight."
H.P Lovecraft.

"The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination."
H.P Lovecraft.


"Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly."
Ambrose Bierce.


Now I am personally not a dark, unhappy person but I do love gothic literature and weird fiction; Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, John Polidori and so on. This sort of fiction presents things to the public that no other form of literature can, a part of the human psyche that not everybody likes to visit.
In these stories are creatures that were spawned from the most primal, animalistic part of us that have been used as archetypes for our fears and secret desires. In the Cthulhu Mythos of Lovecraft are wide varieties of creatures and gods; such as the Outer Gods Azathoth, Yog-sothoth and their messager Nyarlathotep...and of course the High Priest of the Old Ones, the terrible Cthulhu himself. All of these beings were used in order to make a reader feel that humanity is small and insignificant in the great scheme of the universe and that there are forces out there that are beyond our wildest imaginings, that we cannot hope to stand against and survive...Lovecraft loved to take away human vanity. The ideas that Lovecraft were trying to put across in his writing were not very comforting...but that was the whole point. It made you feel something powerful, greater than most other types of fiction.
I think that Frankenstein is incredibly interesting. In the book Frankenstein’s monster is a terrible creature, a being who kills, who causes suffering on mankind...why should anyone like this monster? Well think again, casual observer. The reason that Frankenstein’s monster was evil was because humanity and his creator rejected him and showed him no love; it is why he turned to horrible acts on mankind. There is then the obvious question...Who is the real monster of the story? Is it mankind whose rejection of the creature turned it to commit bad acts or is it the monster?



Now I turn to the most popular monster of stage, film and book...the vampire. We are currently in an age in which this creature has been toned down so much that they may as well be called human. Popular culture has moulded it into an unimpressive, non passionate fairy. There are no more vampires out there that have the fearsomeness that I loved...they are not even the beasts of the devil that they should be. Old legends and myths of the vampire that have been around for thousands of years have been made all 'Hollywood' and feeble.
I think that the best revival of the old vampires has it's origins in the comic book industry with the publication of thirty days of night written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. Here is a quote from the man who Steve Niles pitched too,
"Steve gave me the pitch: a small town above the Arctic Circle in Alaska experiences 30 days of complete darkness each year, but this year something new happens. The vampires come out and very, very bad things happen to the inhabitants of this town called Barrow.
The pitch grabbed me and when I finally opened the portfolio and saw the art from the then unknown Ben Templesmith, I was blown away. These weren't the vampires I remembered from books and films. These creatures were nasty, rabid things that were the product of nightmares, not the debonair creatures of the night I was used to."
I have read the comic graphic novel and think that this is the way that vampires should be. If vampires existed in real life I would imagine them to be the vamps of 30 days of night; blood lusting, emotionally indifferent to their prey, fast and scary looking. It was made into a film which was equally good.
Below is a picture of one of the vampires of the film...and yes I would like to see Edward Cullen have a fighting match with him...because it is obvious to me who would actually win.


I like to think that gothic literature is a parody of humanity, it strips away delusions of grandeur, it is used as a commentary on society and to me I find it strangely alluring. Anything that people fear, try to repress or don't want to know about are things that I want to read and watch.



Over and Out.
ED