So my love for the goth subculture was reinvigorated with a journey to a goth club with my darling fiance over the weekend, as well as my reading of Jane Eyre for class (that doesn’t start ’till next Tuesday mind you), and I’ve got to thinking about Goth in music and Lit as you do and how much it moves one if one can identify themselves in the lyrics, imagery, and themes.

For example, take Jane Eyre (as it’s right in front of me), it is, perhaps, one of the first romance novels, the brooding, strange nature of Mr. Rochester, the defiantly quiet nature of Jane, herself, it all lends itself to a rapturously well-written work of a woman’s journey to herself and ultimately, love.

That Mr. Rochester is at first a hard-to-like, described as not attractive by Jane, and is generally perceived as a right cad by everyone who knows him, the nature of his secrecy (as don’t all hard-worn men have secrets that must be discovered in these novels?) is revealed with confirmed in my mind the nature of this novel. How many romance novels have followed this trope, nay, have existed on the basis of this trope? The woman set in her ways for reasons, the man who must become compliant and understanding to reach the woman’s level.

The darkness of the novel, it’s tone, especially in the later chapters, post Jane’s education, exude what I describe as a gothic feel and this made Jane Eyre one of my favorite novels for all these things put together: the hard childhood faced by the heroine, the journey to self-discovery often alone and shunned by others, and the eventual return to the one frightening and rude and terrifying situation to see it in a new light–returning empowered to face what was once a threat.

As for music, my lovely fiance introduced me to Siouxie and the Banshees, their track “Cities in Dust,” repeating in my mind months after I’d first heard it. Listening to more of their music, I grew to recognize the tracks he’d play while on long drives as dark, long knowing them ‘goth’ in nature, but never going beyond that. Of course, I had already had my share of Android Lust and Anders Manga, but this music that he showed me embodied the subculture (as there are different subs in the subculture), and after dancing at a goth nightclub over the weekend, I understood what I had been missing.

Growing up, I grew an affinity for black and such, as I had a predisposition toward the darker things, being depressed, misunderstood, and all, and gravitated toward all those things as it made the most sense to me at the time. (We’re talking teenager, here.)

With this reemergence of all things ‘goth’ for me, especially after meeting my lovely fiance, I feel my understanding of the genre and subculture has grown and I look to explore this (even more) in my writing.

Speaking of, I am still writing despite not updating too much here (I swear I’ll try to when I have the time).

I have DRACULA all outlined out (in my head…and I have notes somewhere), and I’m steadily trodding on writing it up when I’m not working on my paper for class, and I’m happy for where it is taking me. I know I’ve said I’m eager for this series to be done–and I am–as I have so many other projects to write and I can’t wait to get to them and move up and on!

Also, if you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably seen my post about the character art I had made as a little introduction to the characters. There’s only two so far and I’ll have to see if I can get more made.

I had character art commissioned for my series like what last year I think? Anyway, I'm sharing them here bc they're dope. Gonna do prints for them again soon. Who wants one? Credit for art: @thenobleartist pic.twitter.com/1XKfZl8Mgo

— S.C. Parris is writing Book 6. (@writingvampires) August 28, 2018

But! I am printing them up for others to buy and get signed from me (if you can’t afford a book or can’t get a book to me to be signed, I can sign a poster and send it to you for cheap!). They’ll be up on my Etsy soon so keep an eye out!

---

Here, I leave you with VANDAL MOON – HURT:

Enjoy! 

With Blood and Love,

S.C. Parris