The Dark Wonders of Goth
Why the dark and deathly themes of Gothic Art can paradoxically make us happier, more creative human beings.
The spirit-world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense
A vital breath of more ethereal air- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Feeling
Last week while driving to my chiropractor, I listened to a post-punk industrial Goth band from the 1980s called Sisters of Mercy. Their thumping base-lines, gloomy lyrics, and haunting tones pulled me into a piston-pumping factory of feeling that sent writing ideas flying into my head.
As each one landed, I voice-recorded the idea onto my phone. When my chiropractor finally began treating me, the ideas just wouldn’t stop, so I stopped him, hopped off the table, and spouted the ideas into my phone. When I finally finished, he began his shock therapy (on my hip).
There’s something about dark sounds, settings, and moods that open rusty doors inside me. And when they open, all I want to do is feel and write.
The dark prince himself, Lord Byron, once wrote, “The great object in life is sensation, to feel that we exist.” Paradoxically, no genre of art fills me with more feeling than the decay, doom, and death of Gothic art. So today…
