(no subject)

[lapsedmodernist]

Goths ruin everything for me. When I was in high school, I was sooo into Nine Inch Nails, and other vaguely Goth/Industrial groups. Goths ruined it for me. My wardrobe of choice is 90% black with 95% silver accessories. Guess what? I can still get away with it some of the time because I have olive, rather than pale skin, but people still think that I am signifying goth-ness, and worse at that, that I am a wannabe goth, forever doomed to second-class goth citizenship on account of lack of aforementioned snow-white complexion, and thus trying to overcompensate. The list goes on. I like really dark eyeliner and dark lipstick. But if I don that while walking down St. Mark's, between, oh, say, 2nd and 3rd avenues, goths out on a school night might try to mate with me. I can't geek on Frankenstein in peace. My obsession with vampires, which is by no means homologous with the goth-vampire-schtick, and which rather stems from their use as a metaphorical category, their role in the French revolution (see David Graeber's article called "Rebels Without a God" on the subject), and, of course, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the great metaphorical discourse that lies therein, is compromised by the goths' uninformed, unstructured, skin-deep affection for vampires.

Comments

[tomorrow-devil.livejournal.com]

Hippies (of which there are very few actual examples left, mostly a lot of urban/rustic anthro grad students, twenty year old privelaged-types who nasally slur their words on purpose) ruin my look, too. Likewise, their feeble fascination with drugs screwing me over in the eyes of da gangstas and such - suffice to say that when the chalice comes out I consistently administer sound respiratory beatings.

It's not even like I'm a hippie, but when people try to describe me . . . it's inevitable.

More often, I'm a "hipster," which brings up similar difficulties: Pop-saturated art students and their blind love of bad movies, inexplicable beyond, "This movie is terrible, you should watch it." Make me look bad for liking horror movies and cartoons.

You there: read Speaking with Vampires by Luise White. Vampire policemen and firemen in Africa, working for the British government! Eek!

[tomorrow-devil.livejournal.com]

And by drugs, I mean innocent stuff like cigarettes and alcohol. Obviously.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

that book sounds AMAZING. i will have to check it out. i have some thoughts in response to your recent posts, but my computer has been in the shop for the last couple of days, so my online-ness is limited to using my roommate's computer and a computer in the school library (i am not there that often; mostly i use the computer lab in my department, and i am pretty paranoid about leaving my LJ address in the browser there, cuz i don't want anyone from my department reading it; i prefer to remain an enigma)--so i will response at length later, but for now i will say that the whole "embedded journalist" thing went completely to hell in all these different ways.

guts.

[flynngrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree... I really liked dark lipstick and eyeliner in high school, and got such "you're such a wanna-be goth" for it that I gave it up. Well, mostly. I think a subverted version of my desire for make-up is what drove me into theater.

Real goths are scary. People who like dark clothes and eyeliner and the theoretical implications of vampire folk stories are cool. It's being able to tell the one from the other that's a skill...

...and if you like folk stories and subverted vampire narratives, you *must* read the Bloody Chamber (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/014017821X/102-6981859-4170515?vi=glance) by Angela Carter. It's a collection of short stories, most of which are based off fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast or Red Riding Hood. The prose is so deliciously thick when you sink your teeth into it they won't meet in the middle, and yet it flows so beautifully. The stories are also available in Burning Your Boats, which is a collection of hers.

Re: guts.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

yeah, i've read "the bloody chamber"
i love angela carter
have you ever read any of the Datlow/Windling edited books?
like Snow White, Blood Red or Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, etc.? They are collections of retellings of fairy tales by modern writers, mostly sci-fi writers but not all (there is a fantastic story "The Crossing" in one of them by Joyce Carol Oates that takes off from Sleeping Beauty, there is Little Red Riding Hood that has a Lolita thing going, there is a great story by Neil Gaiman, etc.) I highly recomment the whole series. Each book has a couple of weaker ones, a few amazing ones, and the rest is solid good reading.

Re: guts.

[flynngrrl.livejournal.com]

I'll have to give that a go... I don't think I'd ever heard of them. I was a huge fan of the... was it called the 'Blue Fairy Cook'? ... in middle school.

Thanks for the rec.

[mysteryfood.livejournal.com]

Hi,
I am under the impression that most goths are acne prone and fat and only associate themselves with the sub-culture to wear all that white face paste and lots of black, not realizing that a) lace is not slimming (even in black) and b) that all that freaking make up only helps the bacteria to build fortresses on a poor, depressed goth's face.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

yeah, those are St. Marks-type-goths. In Chicago they used to hang out near/in The Alley or next to the Dunkin Donuts on Belmont and Clark, at least back when I was in high school. They are creepy but mostly plateau out after realizing that The Cure is now vintage, rather than angst-of-the-moment (I feel that the goth cosmology does not do well with retro) and a few standard forays into "secret cutting." Then there are creepy secret goths. Like, this time I was going to go on a date with this guy maybe, but then the Shelley poetry came out, followed by his *own* poetry, INSPIRED by Shelley poetry. Lots of gloom and death and Lovecraft (and not in the way that Tomorrow_Devil treats him on his lj, vis-a-vis a narrative of modernism). needless to say, no. just no.

[mysteryfood.livejournal.com]

I don't so much mind what you refer to as St. Marks-type-goths. It is still enjoyable to make fun of them and revel in my own delusional superiority, but now I look at them with the eyes clouded with nostalgia for early 90s and late 80s.
They are lovable in the same way that hearing WHAM no longer makes me vomit all over myself. Oh fuck, who am I kidding, I fucking loved that band.
Shelly inspired poets most often turn out to be latent homosexuals or just criminally sad saps and unless with age and inability to cope with their ultra sensitivity they morph into serial killers, they are generally none dangerous.
It is that new breed of angry, and "diseased" kids with poor fashion sense that troubles me. They look as if though someone shoved Marilyn Manson, a Dungeons & Dragons nerd, a biker, a slack-jawed yokel, and a trailer park beauty queen into Seth Brundle's TelePod machine. They are ugly and make too much commotion on the bus.

goths

[remsaverem.livejournal.com]

and lord knows you have tons of goths up in new york. in my case i don't even need the dark clothes to get labeled as a goth... my pale as shit skin attracts such comments (and maybe the fact that i listen to industrial music). if i'm wearing something *very* ungoth, then i get called a hippy. if i put on make-up, it is back to goth (depending on how successful i am with the application). i'm going to check the used bookstores tomorrow for bloody chamber.

Re: goths

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

that's funny that you get hailed into a goth/hippie binary. it's a pretty weird binary. my friend shannon believes that everyone is either a hippie or a punk which sometimes works and sometimes does not, but the goth or hippie is way weirder. you do have very pale skin, and like me you tend to wear a lot of black, plus you have dark hair and light eyes, so i can totally see how you get labeled goth, but actually i think you have more of a "victorian" look, which, i think is overlaps with our cultural imaginary for "goth". and "victorian" look is cool. man, when the time machine becomes available, we should go hang out in the 19th century.