What is Gothic? The Historical and Philosophical Origins of Goth and Gothic Horror
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- The Gothic summons to mind ruined medieval structures, gloomy shadows, rolling fog, the distant howl of nocturnal animals, flickering illumination, a sense of the past immensely interjecting itself to doom the present. It's an aesthetic we all recognize...it's an aesthetic some of us live. But what are the origins of Goth and Gothic Horror? By exploring the early analysis of the Sublime, the sensation of beauty but born out of pain, and the rehabilitation of the historical Goths that very aesthetic emerges first as "Gloomth," captured in Walpole's 1764 The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story. Let's dive into the beautiful horror of the sublime and the haunted darkness at the origins of the Goth aesthetic and Gothic Horror as a genre.
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Recommended Readings:
Burke - A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of the Sublime and Beautiful - amzn.to/3ZPn9uK
Walpole - The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story - amzn.to/3zIb1ko
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Your comment about liking the silmarillion but can't make it through LOTR is me. So funny.
kaelan mikla mentioned!
What is your fav metal throat singing band called?
This has been the first time I’ve actually feel like understood what the sublime actually means.
A prime example to me of sublime gothic beauty is the cathedral in Köln - it is quite literally gothic in its style of architecture but is also “goth” in its deeper subjective impact. It’s so massive, so unapologetically maximalist; its countless spires give it a sharp and almost dangerous appearance despite it being a holy place. It’s also covered in centuries of soot stains and patina, making it seem almost as if it’s casting supernatural shadows upon itself even in bright sunlight. When I saw it in person I felt that amazing mixture of awe and slight terror that made my goth little heart sing!
Having been Goth for forty years I am very pleased with your analysis of gothic literature. I forgot just how much I love the word 'gloomth' so thanks for the reminder.
"Joy Division but with harpsichords". You're cracking me up.
I really want someone to make this now.
Hi Doc Sledge. I stayed up until 1 in the morning to tell you "Happy Teachers' Day"! Hope you have a good one and thank you for doing what you do.
This channel is more academic than many university programs. Amazing. Thank you so much.
The frequency with which you are dropping such thoughtful content is utterly remarkable. Keep it up! Thank you for exploring these topics.
Thanks!
Agree! Also totally didn't see this one coming. Amazing
i was a 'goth' many years ago. my earliest memories consists of listening to the band 'sisers of mercy', dressing in all black, and wearing black combat boots. thank you dr sledge for the good memories! (and for today, all the additional context...)
A discussion of gothic literature and the sublime? It's not my birthday, but it sure feels like it right now. 🖤
I'm a long time cinema geek. Murnau's Nosferatu is one of my favorite early movies, along with Dreyer's Vampyr.
I learned a lot from the video you've offered us here.
Cheers. ✌️
“history as horror”, what an excellent summation of the Gothic, such as it can be summarized. It’s a great jumping point, at least.
I love the path you take through this subject.
Gothic horror, like the perception of the sublime to the modern mind, is rooted in our sense of self but ultimately at odds with it. We need that modern sense of self to feel the loss inherent in gothic horror, because it is the rock we cling to as the waters of the sublime overtake us.
It’s deeply personal depersonalization.
I also think that it’s rooted in a peculiar, academic anxiety. The classic conception of a history is the book of knowledge. It is ancient, it is good, and it is good because it is ancient.
The story of the gothic is, in some ways, the story of the first modern historians. The edifices of material culture crumble, and we are left to dwell on what is lost: it dwarfs us. More so for the first modern historians, to truly understand that the content of a book may be as corrupted as the moldering pages upon which it was scrawled. It is to know not what the ancients knew but to know that the ancients might have known nothing.
Gothic horror is the horror of books.
You are hands down, the best educator that I have encountered. Granted, with only a bachelor's degree, I have a relatively small sample to have been impressed by, but still you are tops. Thank you for the content that you provide.
The fact that Justin can’t make it through a LOTR book is the most interesting fact I’ve learned from any of his videos. Absolutely insane, I can’t even assimilate that information.
DID NOT expect a reference to actual goth rock on my favorite esoteric literature channel‚ but i'm thrilled about it.
In reference to The Lord of the Rings, E.L. Doctrow wrote an essay for the NY Times series Writers on Writing where he postulated that older Novels like The Lord of the Rings don't read so well anymore because the style of writing has changed due to the influence of movies. He sites The Maltese Falcon as a turning point. John Houston used Dashill Hammett's novel as his shooting script. The incredibly sparse style Hammett employed became the norm. Doctrow postulates that modern novels are written to be movie scripts. He points out that Stendhal's The Red and the Black has an opening chapter that just describe in detail entering the town. Hammett had a lot of influence on movies. Akira Kurosawa used Hammett 's Red Harvest and Glass Key as a basis for his classic Yojimbo - which Serjio Leone later based his Fistful of Dollars on.
Thank you for the distinction of sublime and delight,food for thought.
I shall now 𝕲𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖙𝖍 my way through Burke and the Castle Of Otranto. (And yes, I have read The Silmarillion. 😁)
I love the Silmarillion but God, it's such a slog 😂 truly like reading a complex religious text imho
Great opener for spooky season!
This was incredible! You were on fire. So poetic and informative.
🔥🖤🔥
Glad you thought so - thanks!
All your videos are fun and interesting, but this one was even a few notches more fascinating than usual. Sublimity as you explained it sounds like that which inspires awe, which is another word that has taken on an altogether different meaning than it originally held.
As I learn more about history I've frequently wondered how we got from the Goths who sacked Rome to "Gothic" architecture to our modern "Goth" aesthetic, and here you are to give that exact explanation!
Let me just pause Siouxsie and the Banshees. Let me tab out of Vampire the Masquerade bloodlines. You have my attention
Thank you for the great video! I really like Rudolf Otto's use of the Sublime in his "The Idea of the Holy" (1917, orig. "Das Heilige"). According to him, numinous feelings have two aspects at the same time: The "mysterium tremendum", that which inspires fear, and the "mysterium fascinans", that which draws one near to it. The work was very influencial in the new field of religious studies and the German theology of that time.
The Caspar David Friedrich stuck out to me in an instant, such haunting and beautiful works
There was a novel about 2 years before "The Castle of Otranto" that arguably distilled the Gothic ideal before Walpole. It was called "Longsword Earl of Salisbury" by Thomas Leland. It's loosely based on the life of William Longespée, half brother of Richard I. It influenced Walpole .
Interesting. I have often heard the claim of Walpole’s creation of the gothic, but this is the first time that I have heard anyone posit an alternative. I will be looking into it. Thank you.
Oh, yeah. I actually read the original edition, so unfortunately my impression of it isn't really "Gothic" because of all the f-shaped s letters. See, when you read the flowing prose but keep getting caught on words that look like fhore, fands, courtefy, and such, it kinda has the feel of listening to someone with a speech impediment trying his best. It reads pretty damn funny to me. If anyone ever wants to read this novel, get the modern 1990s version.
To me, this book shall forever be "Longfword, Earl of Falisbury".
dr justin really made a 30 minute video just for his goth baddy subscribers mad respect. fantastic video as always!
Exceptional work on this one is... I was literally thinking that your rhythm and delivery is coming across as delightfully Lovecraftian, when you said..."You're getting those Lovecraft vibes yet." (We are on the same page).
Amazing timing, wordplay, and tone.
You have a gift for descriptive language that is delightful!
Many thanks!
I went to prep school in England, a big Gothic/Victorian Mansion. Our elderly french teacher complete with paunch, Edwardian suit, pocket watch and monacle, read us a horror story every Christmas, the last lesson before the break.
Dr. Sledge, I'm a relatively new subscriber who has been absolutely loving your content. I actually ended up here originally because your first video on the Demiurge was linked on a video I was watching about the horror ttrpg Kult: Divinity Lost, which is HEAVILY based in Gnostic lore. Anyway, I'm also goth, so this video is checking all the boxes! Thank you so much for what you do. It's incredible.
I think it's awesome that you did this episode. Take a look at the philosophical underpinnings of the Gothic in your academic style, is. . . refreshing. . . Invigorating. . . An unexpectedly good deed in a weary world.
You Rock.
Fabulous episode this week. I really enjoyed listening and learning all about the history of the gothic.
Regarding The Castle of Otranto, yes indeed, it is a bit difficult to read. For me it’s all the wacky names. There are soooo many names and after page 15 it gets really confusing. I lose track of who’s who and who’s chasing after which character and why. I even lose where they’re doing all this stuff, which room or tunnel or tower or dungeon.
However you have given me renewed strength. I will once again pick up this tiny tempting tome and do my best to power through it and make it to the end. Perhaps I’ll make a spreadsheet of all the characters and their relationships to one another 😅 That way I’ll have a kind of reference chart 📊 to look to when I loose the plot 😅 Wish me luck 👍
Esotericism, philosophy, Kælan Mikla, gothic literature and æstethics and safe words.
This video really has everything!
Great work as always Dr Sledge! 🌒🦇🌹🍷🧛♂️
i was just having a binge of your videos as this popped up! always a treat to listen to your research and insights! essentially as the nights get darker and the vail gets thinner! 👻
Hahaha..! The Intro & The Exit; both are almost Shakespearein with comedy!..😂 The content between was revealing, inspiring and insightfully deep.🤔 Thank you.. This was Cool..👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾💕🖖🏾
Thank you for your hard work and generosity, Dr. Sledge!
I appreciate your humor as much as your erudition.
You know. As someone who has truely, very truely been at the mercy of nature, had skin rend from my tendon and muscle, seen my firstborn buried, bears scars from gun knife and claw.
Sublime is a delightful word for the sorrows, pain, uncertianity, and truely horrific and awe filled, one might say awful beauties hidden there in.
The blood, is actually beautiful.
The pain washes over at first. Second large injury it hits
and afterwards a grimice takes control of your face, twisting your lips into a pained smile of terror and anger.
The sounds of hungry, rabid cat breaking a missed branch as its about to lunge is as exciting, no more exciting then anything any man of sport can know.
The sound of gunfire leads to an odd addiction heart racing over every loud crack, vision narrowed but when you hear the guncotton blow life dissapears, the thrall, the thrill, the anger and spite, and fear takes hold walking towards every disaster.
And the oddest.. almost fear of missing out when disasters strike too far for you to respond, to be on the front line helping. Manifest in some.. twisted sorrow, not just for the lives lost.
But because you did not stare the horseman on his pale horse and declare she will not take you to those deeper waters today.
On your dinner date.
Almost as if.. married to a mistress and she only wants your demise.
I think if more people understood this, knew this feeling of sublime awe. Perhaps we would share more faith in humanity, as a collective whole.
And more distrust in any bigotry, for its aims are laid bare in the light of the sublime beauty.
Always great to see you flexing that Philosophy muscles! And the theme couldn't be better for the time of the year (and for my personal preferences).
Let's be real, all of Esoterica has been leading up to this episode.
19:43 I think this is the most elegant way i've ever seen someone contextualise this, honestly, little pet peave of mine.
This episode was absolutely excellent! Thank you, Doctor!
Dear Dr Sledge, you managed to explain to me my own love history since my adolescence in half and hour. Gloomth is definitely the word I bear on my arms and on my brow (which is sublime, for sure).
This was great I enjoyed this very much. I have never heard a summary of the beginnings of the gothic genre before and I had no idea the Warpole family had so much to do with it. Thank you so much.
Excellent presentation Dr.
I enjoyed this immensely.
OK, I need to listen to that all again and it sounds like The Castle of Otranto could make a cool D&D adventure. I am finally doing Ravenloft this Halloween. I have been waiting 41 years.
In essence: gothic, it's just vibes... Love this video!
When you were describing the sublime, it was very poetic... beautiful. I was enthralled. Captivated.
...As far as summaries on the internet, I find that they get me excited to get the books. ...Aside from my ever growing library, you should see my list of books to buy. To which I've added Burke's Enquiry. Thanks :)
What a wonderful way to start the spooky season! 🦇🍂🎃
Perfect timing on this video. Thanks.
Thanks Justin, this went so much further than I would have initially geussed. Took me back to my own studies in Art Theory and Philosopgy of Mind.
Totally worth crawling out of my crypt for! Many thanks!
My favorite part of the era of English Lit you've discussed was the Fall of the House of Usher and the others :)
The very weird semi-comedic Castle of Ontronto short film is very good, and is more in love with the framing device than Walpole was, and is also pretty influential in its own way.
Shakespeare got a lot of how he wrote very psychological and modern-feeling characters from Euripides, which we know he studied as a schoolboy in the original Greek. The Ancient Greeks would've LOVED gothic fiction, I think!
You peak my interest every upload. I love some of the gothic stuff. The architecture, the objects, the philosophy and so on. Not that i live by all of it but i dig it. Cheers
Is it just me or anyone wish this episode would’ve been filmed by camp fire and Dr.Sledge holding a flashlight under his chin? The delivery is sooo darkly great! 😈
Or, better yet, by walking by lantern-light at night through dark moors, cemeteries, ruins, and catacombs, with the sound of night insects and other creatures of the shadows in the background....
“A tale, however, that’s considered unreadable by most today.”
Challenge accepted! It’s downloading on my books app right now.
This reminds me of a song we made titled: “My Joy Division has The Cure for my Depressed Mode why I be playing War Tapes while BoWie feeling Low at Murphy’s Bauhaus”. lol. Awesome episode yet again Prof. Sledge.
Wow that was amazing! Not what I expected
"why are they still walking in the Shire?" - my thoughts about LotR books exactly! lol
An excellent installment. I appreciate your engaging work very much Doctor Sledge.
You made a shrewd distinction about the sublime that i hadn't considered, that it springs from horror. Mortification, suspended, and gone in a flood of relief. Ecstasy.
I also think today we are more immune to the sublime in our cynical world, less capable of being greatly moved either way.
I regularly experience the sublime because angels can guide our impulses. When the body is compelled/commanded to bathe in full glory its a matter of how faithful the expression mirrors the divine exuberance of raw nature. I find this on walks around my local river. Certain places where the beauty of a moment can't truly be appreciated in clothing.
There is always an underlying horror of never knowing the divine humour, timing, or what lesson the laughing ancestors might have coming around the corner. It's not an unexpected dread but you can't face or chase anyone down shouting "let me explain!'...no, I don't think my God would call that worship. I can almost imagine the mirth of his gaze as I'm writing!
I'm beyond nakedness, who knows if I'm drawn to a full immersion or a barefoot grounding? I always think it better to begin with a blank slate. I think there's something in the psychology of adding, rather than taking anything away. A bit more modesty here, a little more care round there. There are times it goes the other way, embarrassment must be faced and modest pretentions be damned. That's the drama queen end of devotion.
The other end of the spectrum is reading Paradise Lost and coming to an uncomfortable and squirmy awareness that, lost in the emotions and the narrative I've just been inspired by a speech the devil made to his demonic audience. That is especially perplexing if the devils lettuce has played a part in the reading. Back in 1667 when John Milton first published his epic, sympathy for the devil must have been quite an exquisite anguish to find.
Looking forward to the next horror show thank you Justin. Enjoy your (¿holiday) weekend.
Thank you for sharing with us😊
loved this!! i'm somewhat new to esotericism but a huge fan of gothic horror, thanks for such wonderful insight :D
You’re my favorite teacher. The coolest.
The beast’s heavy steps, echo in dread,
I tremble in fear, wish I were dead.
I trip in the dark, struggling to flee
Only to realise, the monster is ME!!👹
Lol😅. Thank you.✌🏻🧡
not funny-this the conceit of movie Forbidden Planet!...😉
Mark Fisher’s dissertation “Flatline Constricts: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction” is worth the read. Takes the gothic well understood here to a contemporary moment, both for better and for worse.
The Gothic novel that I am tempted to read is not "The Castle of Otranto" but William Beckford's "Vathek" - a story set in the Abbasid caliphate during the Islamic Golden Age. Written originally in French however and then translated. The sheer exoticism of the story is what compels me and apparently very well written and highly influential on many writers like Lovecraft and Borges. Otranto and its castle is of course a real place on the extreme south east of the heel of Italy and the castle is probably where the defeated princes of the Hohenstaufen dynasty were imprisoned -figures like Manfred who inspired Lord Byron -now that figure opens up a whole new chapter (both Manfred and Byron)
@@kaloarepo288 I started reading 'Vathek' recently and, although it's too early for me to say whether I'd recommend it, I am enjoying it so far. I find William Beckford to be a fascinating person and I'm sure he would have been familiar with the literary works of both Burke and Walpole. His 'gothic' sensibilities (and mass wealth) led him to commission the building of Fonthill Abbey, which came to be known as 'Beckford's Folly' as the central tower was built much higher than was safe, subsequently collapsed, and had to be rebuilt at much expense. The fact that the building now only exists in paintings and sketches from the period only adds to the mystique in my opinion.
Oh I’m so seated for this 🖤
Keep up ths great work, Dr Sledge 👏⚒️
Castle of Otranto is available at Project Gutenberg (just as many other texts that have entered public domain). Downloadable in epub-format for those of us that use our digital e-ink books. For us swedes I can also recommend Dr. Mattias Fyhrs book "De mörka labyrinterna. Gotiken i litteratur, film, musik och rollspel".
So beautiful your point on finding these writers our spiritual gothic ancestors, in it I see how they were the bearers of this spirit I know as my own and comune with them in this revelation of Awe that is Art
Thank you Dr. Justin
Honestly, I tried reading The Castle of Otranto just last week. Emphasis on tried. I am one of those people nowadays who deem it unreadable. Thanks to a summary online, I do know how it ends though. I'm glad I didn't have to finish it on my own. But I love this video! Thank you! :)
Great video as usual and an excellent analysis. I have read Castle of Otranto a few times now and while I had no trouble, I can see why modern readers would struggle with it. Fun fact, though: Walpole wrote the dialogue in burlesque fashion and it is deliberately over the top. I still need to read Burke’s book.
One thing that I would like to point out is that Count Orlock’s appearance does not qualify as uncanny valley. The term refers to things that are supposed to look human but fail, an unintentional distortion, if you will. Orlock’s appearance is deliberately distorted into something monstrous. Also an unsuccessful attempt at avoiding copyright issues with the film.
Orlock perhaps draws from the tradition of the grotesque, which perhaps deserves a conversation of its own somewhere!
I think I can see the argument that he doesn't qualify as "uncanny valley", but I'm not so sure: he never really undergoes any sort of transformation, he keeps in the same makeup and all, but there are many scenes of him almost - but not quite - passing for a human being before we start seeing some of the more famous scenes where his more unearthly qualities are played for maximum shock and horror effect (especially by the time he gets on the ship!) I think that the animalistic and corpse-like features do fall into Uncanny Valley territory, especially given the relatively primitive and minimalistic state of stage makeup at the time, which meant that the makeup artists got a lot of mileage out of some relatively simple makup effects and "Max Schreck's" human(?) face. Whether intentional or not (and I'm sure it was intentional), Orlock falls well into Uncanny Valley territory even on a meta level (there's a reason that Murneau and the others deliberately played with the idea that the anonymous actor himself might not have been entirely human, and the idea stuck enough that at least one modern vampire movie was made based on the conceit that "Max Schreck" was a monster pretending to be a human actor playing a monster!)
Most excellent! Thank You.
@0:16 already commenting and liking. This is icebreaker intellectualism right here,
“Oh you want to see if shipping and fishing are good over there?” Captain Sledge said as he careered The Esoterica towards the white plains north of the choppy waters that comprised the Mystic Seas.
I'm so happy you dig Black Sabbath. This channel gives me hope for the future of rizz in academia.
When you said Bridgerton vibes I felt true horror.
thank you as always
Omg, so ready for this! Been at band practice, so not been able to watch it til now, but the candles are lit, the drapes are closed, let's goooo 🖤
Brilliant! I could have listened to another hour of you explaining "gloomth", referencing gothic literature and waxing lyrical about the Sublime 🙌 I've spent much time in nature, on the bleak, dark moors and in the petrichor-scented forests of Northern England, rejoicing in the delicate interplay play of life and death, the power of nature. And before that spent my childhood escaping dark experiences in dark fantasy novels by the likes of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, then delving into gothic tomes such as Gormenghast and Dracula and the works of Tanith Lee. There are many angles on "Gothic" in the modern age, but you've truly brought the roots of how it was encapsulated, and how it coalesced, into the light, as it were, and reanimated the joy of the macabre, the beauty in the paradox of all thing Goth and even existence itself. Fantastic work!
Sweden took that historical Gothic revisionism to the extreme with the southern part of Sweden proper being deemed Götaland or Gothland when Gustav Vasa was forging a unique Swedish national identity as distinct from the Danes. Gustavus Adolphus also used this Gothic identity to push the protestant cause in the thirty years war.
Did not expect a Kaelan Mikla reference in an ESOTERICA video! Interesting crossover.
They're great
I cannot believe more people aren't commenting on the sneaky Bauhaus reference at 22:12 Undead Undead Undead
Alone in a darkened room . . . The count.
Thanks for introducing me to your fav metal throat singing band!!
One of my favourite ever! I love it. Terrible things are terrible. Horrible things are horrible. Every thing is awful all the time. Awfulness is filled with awe. I love it. Dr Justin = xo
"As the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!" Sublime comes alive in Comte Lautreamont's Maldoror.
NES Classic Castlevania! 0:55 🤘❤🤘
Just me internally playing the Ken walking away and yelling "Sublime" every time it comes up like a psychic soundboard
Speak of tough reads to get through that was The Pilgrims Progress for the first few chapters I kept having to double back a few pages to make sure I read that right.
Anyone who has done a night movement in military service under a clear night sky should know what sublime feels like. Horrifying beauty. Shining stars, deep shadow, perfect, unassailable wilderness all around... And the silence of noise and light discipline. If there is a rest during such a journey, it is easy to lose oneself in the disorienting interplay of light, shadow and uncertainty.
But, on a more important note! I have learned this year that Glenfiddich has released a 12 year old Amontillado Sherry cask finished single malt scotch whiskey. I have convinced (read: softly bullied) my family into participating in sipping on that bottle with me during a read of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" tonight in honor of the season. Wish us luck!
@@bordenfleetwood5773 good luck!
Thinking about how Kants rending of the sublime from the beautiful does a tremendous disservice to the entire project of platonism
@25:25 Agree! We read for ourselves! More of the world should do that
Speaking of Lovecraft, a fine supplement to this video is Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature", easily found in the public domain with a simple websearch, where one of the titans of American Gothic literature give an amazingly thorough review of the horror literature written up to his day - the man might have missed a few obscurities here and there, and perhaps misses the mark here and their in his assessment of authors that perhaps only Lovecraft could have appreciated, but on the whole the essay is a remarkable resource for anyone interested in tracking the development of Gothic literature from its obscure beginnings into the weird pulps of the 1920s....
And if you like that, then track down also Lovecraft's "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction", where the old man does his best to describe plain how his gothic/weird fiction sausage was made.
I'm drinking a tall can of "Fat Tug" IPA while watching this. The art on the can depicts a boat swept in mighty, mountainous waves. I feel delight, but long for the sublime.
Was surprised by how much I learned from the history lesson in this one. Didn't realize how deep the roots went for what we now call gothic "vibes" 😅
Awesome book! Definitely worth reading. Yeah, it's old and wonky, but if you can read the Silmarillion (which I could not) you can do it.
You had me at Castlevania
Joy division on the harpsichord, lol, I used to work in a huge neo gothic building by Alfred Waterhouse
Thank you Doctor. Want to play D&D with us?
Wonderful video, but unfortunately I had to dislike for the Tom Bombadil slander.
All jokes aside, as someone with a partner very much into the gothic aesthetic, I am more than amazed at just how in depth this was! I don't think I coughed have guessed it goes as far back as the Enlightenment and beyond!