[PREV - SYMPATHY]    [TOP]

UNIVERSAL_GOTH

                                                  January 3, 2002
Every now and then, I get                         March  25, 2003
provoked to answer a question                     August 28, 2006
like "what is goth" or "why                Rev:   May    29, 2008
are you a goth".


A collection of some answers:
                                             GOTHIC
I grew up surrounded by dark images,
classic horror films, noir mysteries,
"Dark Shadows"....

One of the earliest dreams I
can remember (from when I was
less than five years old)         I've always really
involved my family being          enjoyed my "nightmares".
chased around a western town
by an oversized Tyranosaurus          Probably the weirdest thing
Rex.                                  about this dream is that
                                      I'd imagined this western
                                      town as having dirt roads,
                                      but with concrete curbs.
                                      Growing up in Brooklyn, I
                                      couldn't imagine a street
My favorite outfit at that            without curbs...
age was solid black, save
for a white logo in the
center of the chest.  I         The white logo was a football in
pretended I was a superhero     flight, but I tried to ignore
named "Blackjet".               that.  I may have been only
                                five, but I already understood
                                that sports were uncool.

   There's nothing odd                    TOADKEEPER
   about any of this, the                 VILLON
   entire culture was
   drenched in this stuff,
   and still is: the odd
   thing is that so many
   people can't face that
   it's there inside them,
   and have no good way of
   dealing with the           (E.g. most people you'll find on
   inevitable                 alt.gothic are clearly "white-hat
   contradictions.            goths".  Does that seem weird?
                              Yeah, okay.  So what?).


                                                 (March 25, 2003)
  Necrotrash dropped by alt.gothic:

     "The goth thing however, I can't relate to
      or wrap my mind around.  I've talked to
      several goths, and I even befriended a
      few, but none of them seem to be able to
      explain to me what they are about."

  Oh okay, well then I'll tell you.  Being a
  goth is about growing up drenched in images
  of horror and romance to the point where
  the monstrous seems friendly and you see a
  joy in darkness, a humor in disaster.  It's
  about a morbidly fanatical engagement with
  life and denials that you're serious about     DECADENCE
  anything.  It's about raising a shallow
  style to the level of substance, conforming
  to a uniform of non-conformity to wave a
  flag of resistance to blandness.  And sexxy
  death chicks.

                              CLUBBED


                                               (August 28, 2006)

  Panurge of alt.gothic once wrote:

  "Is it possible for it not to be 'ironic' on some level?
  To be aware of Goth is to be aware of the (potential for)
  irony.  To be unaware is to court the irony
  unintentionally.  (People keep trying to be unironic and
  Goth, but it seems to work out so seldom, y'know?)"


      Let me make myself perfectly clear.

      I think the irony component of goth is so
      bleeding obvious that there can't possibly
      be anything clever about being an "ironic
      goth", so that all goths with more than
      two brain cells are authentically relaxed
      about their inauthentic aspects, they are
      sincerely affirming their right to be
      seriously silly: they have passed through
      absurdity into the sublime.



            We are all goths, some of us
            are aware of it, some not.



--------
[NEXT - SUSPECT_BELOW]