To those who don’t follow along on Instagram and have been wondering where I’ve been, I will quickly catch you up. So far this year, I have:danced with Lolly and the devil,escaped the lab with Algernon,picnicked at Hanging Rock, witnessed Bloody torture in unending Chambers,followed Snowman seeking Crake across a desolate wasteland,heard the Crawdads Sing,felt… Read More Raising Ghosts: ‘The Haunting of Hill House’
With summer somewhere between full swing and distant memory depending on where you were on the globe, in August we retreated from the sunshine of the Southern Gothic to the dimly lit cityscapes and natural wilds of 19th century Europe. As you may have read here, August was all about monsters and the monstrosity of… Read More Duality: ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’
It seems rather apt that the sun is absent today, as the Southern Spell fades and a new season is welcomed in. This month is Of Monsters and Men – it is an exploration of the monstrous in gothic fictions and realities. Before I reveal The Seven Gothic Signs you can use to easily identify… Read More Identifying the Gothic: The Seven Gothic Signs
The Gothic has always been an inclusive space, with room for voices from all sorts of marginalised spaces. Deciding who to celebrate (belatedly) this World Pride Day, I was happily spoilt for choice. As founding father and author of the earliest Gothic novel, Horace Walpole (who is commonly believed to have been gay) paved the… Read More Paris Was a Woman, Bristol her Admirer
As the world’s population becomes increasingly locked away indoors, many of us are feeling panic or anxiety in the face of change and uncertainty. Whilst we all strive to maintain our collective physical well-being, it’s important not to let our mental health slip. The Bookstagram community thrives on indoor activity and online connection, but it’s… Read More Generally Gothic Book Club Readalong: ‘The Masque of the Red Death’
With Jane Eyre on my mind, I picked Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) up on a whim at the library. I opened it one evening. I was hooked. I paused to sleep. Awoke. Opened it again. And was done. This is easily a one-sitting read if you have the time, or don’t favour sleep… Read More Everything was Brightness, or Dark: ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’
Born in Yorkshire, England, on the 21st of April, 1816, Charlotte Brontë was the third of six Brontë children, and the longest surviving. Along with her younger sisters Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849), Charlotte remains a popular author to this day. She completed four novels in her lifetime, three of which she saw published (the… Read More An Unutterable Wretchedness of the Mind: ‘Jane Eyre’
“In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is strange – not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. But she has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When Circe’s gift threatens the gods, she is banished… Read More Generally Gothic Book Club Readalong: ‘Circe’
Welcome to the very second Generally Gothic Book Club read-along, and thank you for your patience as this week’s read-along turned into this fortnight‘s read-along… As explained over on Instagram, November, dubbed ‘Nature is Gothic’, has been dedicated to exploring the – you guessed it – gothic within our natural world. Whilst many of us are… Read More Into that Eden of Poisonous Flowers: ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’ Readalong
Describing himself as “a fetishist for reflections, saturated colors, details and religious icons,” Seigar is a photographer, a high school teacher, and an English philologist. His ‘Plastic People’ series is “a study on anthropology and sociology that focuses on the humanisation of the mannequins he finds in the shop windows all over the world.” There… Read More The Uncanny as we Picture it: Freud and the Photographer
Season 1 Analysis, Part 2 True Detective is an HBO anthology series made up, currently, of 3 seasons. The initial eight-part mini-series (now known as season 1), which aired in 2014, is set in Louisiana, USA. Season 1 follows a pair of homicide detectives, Rustin Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson), as they… Read More ‘True Detective’: The Eternality of the Gothic
Season 1 Analysis, Part 1 True Detective is an HBO anthology series made up, currently, of 3 seasons. Each season chronicles different crimes, start to finish, with an alternate cast of actors portraying entirely new characters in new settings. The initial eight-part mini-series (now known as season 1), which aired in 2014, is set in… Read More ‘True Detective’: Time is a Flat Circle.
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