Dear Readers,


I now consider this blog to be my Juvenelia. Have fun perusing the archives, and find me at my new haunt, here.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy All Saint's Day....

Happy Halloween! I've always loved Halloween because of the camp, the costumes, the creepiness, the CANDY!... it's my favorite pagan-inspired holiday, by far. My home-made costume consists of one part black turtleneck, one part faux-leather jacket, beret, sunglasses, nude lipstick and 'do. Not one penny spent. Not one shred of originality either. But hey, you can't have it all, can you?

Halloween is a great day for Egalitarian Bookworms around the globe, because it celebrates that ever-popular genre, the Gothic, which combines high and low exquisitely. From the Anne Radcliffe/Matthew Lewis days in the shock-ready eighteenth-century, through the "Sensation" novel of the Victorian Era, to American gothic weirdness with Wiliam Faulkner and Flan O'Conner...to Stephen King and slasher films today, creepy art moves us in droves...
It moves us to snuggle under the covers, turn on the lights, and palpably shiver. Goth acts upon our physical selves, as any good Lit professor will tell you, and it moves us to purchase, purchase, purchase, as any teacher of teens will also say... evidenced when a new blood-and-gore fest hits the screen and every single under 18-year old in the country immediately buys a ticket.
So reader, treat thyself, and go buy a big, creepy, Gothic novel... any will do. Just don't turn out the lights.

2 comments:

  1. OMG, I thought I was the only other person who'd actually read Alcott's "A Long Fatal Love Chase"!!

    Actually, I vastly preferred "Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott." It's collection of short stories, which are a bit easier to digest. I think both books were used bookstore finds - I previously had no idea she wrote Gothics!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I also read "Behind a Mask' and it was wonderfully creepy. MY favorite story ended with the words "you have conquered; I am here!" when the heroine returns (from beyond the grave?) to the hero. It's been stuck in my head for years.

    ReplyDelete