M Tatterscratch- you are not the only one with cemetary love! I love you comments, and I agree-, I think some people are just born with a love of the beauty of decay- or at least the dark romanticism of it all-M Tatterscratch said:Well, I'm not a Gothic historian, mind you, but it seems to me that there's always been a long thread running through Western culture to the Gothic movement. What we think of as Goth, though, got rolling in the late 70's and very early 80's in England, with bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Southern Death Cult, Joy Division, The Cure, and so on. The New Musical Express was the magazine that coined the term "Gothic", I believe, and the style eventually spread beyond the borders of England to the world.
The original style was wonderful - Elegant but funereal, but Industrial and other styles have entered the scene and changed it into something more circusy to my eye. To be fair, Goth was pretty moribund by the mid-late 80s, and might have died off (heh) if not for the fresh infusion of kids. It all comes down to what you want, a pure corpse or a living stranger. Gee, that question is a better summary than anything else I've written here...
It seems natural that it started with England - All the ingredients were historically in place; the Romantic poets, iffy weather, a repression of overt sexuality and it's corresponding secret nurture of furtive perversions, class division, tradition, and so on. England, this is meant as a compliment - Don't hit me, please?
Basically, though, I imagine there have always been people with what I call "The Goth Gene", people who are more in love with the splendour of decay than the beauty of rebirth. I saw a news article yesterday that stated in incredulous and half-mocking tones that certain cities in England are in the process of promoting their large old cemeteries as recreational areas. When I heard it, I thought, "Now why didn't someone do that EARLIER?!? I spent much of my twenties sneaking into Richmond's ancient Hollywood Cemetery at risk of life, limb, and clean police blotter, just to spend an evening in the place I considered (and still do consider) among the most beautiful and peaceful on earth, and now they INVITE people in!
Call it strange, but it's an attractive and very real thing, and will probably continue to be. In fact, a lady friend and I recently crawled into the supposedly-haunted cemetery near Chicago known as "Monks Castle" one night after the opera, squirming under the gates in evening clothes and opera gown, just to walk and watch the moon.
For a lot of people it's a pose or fad or phase, but as the charming Ms. Fernande (loved your story, Madame) so cannily points out, if you've really got the Goth Gene, it's with you for life, and then some.
Blah blah blah! Never mind me - I'm really thrilled that all of you have piped up so far! I was rather concerned that all I would hear upon asking this question was the chirping of crickets. I really hope we'll hear more stories, particularly from some of the folks who made me wonder about this in the first place. So I'll do a rare thing and pipe down, fold my hands, and see who comes out and admits they still wear black on the inside.
T.
You know its funny- but I still have several goth-y hobbies that I keep up.
I collect Victorian Funeralia.
I'm also into absinthe- especially Swiss!
I have several analog synthesizers (for those days that I want to pretend I'm Peter Murphy)
Still have an alarming amount of velvet cloaks and victorian mourning capes for a single person. heh
. One of my fondest memories of one of the first days people were allowed back into the city, I wondered around St Louis #1 cemetary, and remarked internally- in the total blackness and lit by only moonlight (there was no electricity in the whole city) I was seeing the city as though it might have looked in the 18th century. It was quite beautiful. then I had to high tail it outta there- wasn't safe!
oooooooh how goth of me !
Lolita- somehow I knew under that platinum gorgeousness there was a GOTH girl!
I have RADAR! heh.
Camille: I figure if you were into EBM and Swedish you probably were into Covenant? Eskil is an old chum of mine- are they still doing music? I loved to dance to their tunes--man, that was a long time ago!