So I've been thinking Goth thoughts this year's end. Not so much your pale and bitter sort of why-not-just-die thoughts as the I-wonder-why they think dressing in all black is gothic thoughts.
Mostly what bothers me about them is their monochromatic ideals seem to me a rather pathetic attempt to capture a very subtle feel. They paint with heavy brushes and sculpt with hammers. They don't really work at matching the true atmosphere in these stories so much as reflect a sooty image of them.
Now I'm not much into goth myself, or even gothic writing, but I've bounced around on the periphery of these sub-cultures a few times. Mostly they are pretty great people. Many are either into the fashion part of it or the bitter depression part. Mostly getting to act darker of soul than they really feel is good medicine for them and makes for fun friends and a nice little instant sub-culture to belong to. I don't begrudge them that.
What I find interesting is the need for many in these circles to deliberately exclude non-goth types. Huh? These people are outcasts both in character and often to an extent in real life. Where do get this attitude from? It hasn't traditionally been a part of most of the outcast cliques to be exclusionary. Mostly they will welcome anyone rejected by the main stream.
Yes, your badge of shame is a nametag of honor in the house of the trod-upon or buckled-under. Many of the rats in the wainscotting -- the "gays", the "geeks", the "disaffected", the "poor", and even the "desperate rich" -- find their way together. They have their own rituals and scisms internally but they never push anyone out. Being cast into the void was the defining moment for them, and they wish that on no one.
A lyric from Michael Penn from many years ago:
I love that bit.
My number one complaint with them is their need to exclude others, to vilify the cheerful and cast stones at those who dress different. There is an air of downward-nose-looking at anyone who dares find cheer in the world. You only get this the vibe from a few of them, except when large groups are together, then it sometimes seems to infect the whole of them.
Now even though the Goth often deny it, they mostly sprung up from the larger disaffected group. The "disaffected" are singularly un-sunny people. Most come from broken homes, have little or no money, little hope for the future and a strong sense that the world is out to get them. Most teens go through a period like this but for these people it is more than a life style choice it is a life. Some respond by sinking away into violence and hatred and wind up on the dark side of the "redneck" factions but many grab a bit of humor or dark style and find company in each other's misery. They are the catchall underground, with a thousand splinter groups.
I have seen times when the "punks", "gays", "goths", "geeks", and "non-nazi skinheads" all played togther. Fun times, there were some real personalities hidden down there, and people on the out have a real way of finding entertainment on the cheap. Getting kicked to the curb adds a odd zest for life that uplifts them all a little. Good/Bad movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show and 80's teen hits like Better Off Dead become social events.
Is "goths" the correct plural? Or is "goth" its own plural like "sheep"?
Hmm. Bad anology. I'm probably in enough trouble without the implication that seems to make. It isn't intended, really.
I think a lot of these more exclusionary goths don't really come from that base culture. Instead, as it has become "cooler" to be goth, we have seen an infux from the second tier of cliques that aren't allowed to play reindeer games with the "coolest". They have simply appropriated a rising culture, or integrated with it.
Like any sub-group, they look for a defining set of behaviors to identify themselves. If these behaviors are definite enough and the group is so inclined, the patterns of their sub-group can become a touchstone to exclude heretical non-believers. A number of these behaviors, in other groups, come from rejection of an ideal they perceive the main class as carrying. Thus the "butch" haircuts for many of the "lesbians", and the effiminate behavior in some gay men. Other traits seem to come out of nowhere like lisping in many gay cultures and punning in the geek culture.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a fabulous rip on these patterns. It gives a perfectly normal popular girl the main role, and makes her power decidedly non-glamorous. Killing vampires quickly becomes tedium for her and her brush with the dark side opens her eyes to be less exclusive. A lovely twist on a old pattern, and much wittier than most people give it credit for.
For goths, the source of their patterns is drawn from a class of literature called gothic. Gothic extends from the Mary Shelley Frankenstein style to modern dark fantasy and horror. Most of it seems to concern monsters or outcasts turning the tables on their oppresors. Most of the books are power fantasies where being excluded directly or indirectly leads to hidden powers, often with dark consequences for use, that the central chracter can use to right a few wrongs done them or plead their case to be included. Watch Carrie again sometime. Don't watch Carrie 2 though, it is just a raw power fantasy, with a sprinkle of moral fiber just to get it past the studio executives.
Obviously, this is tailor-made to appeal to the underclass. The goths have simply embraced it to the point of emulating what they see as the main character image. My real problem with them is their ignorance of the real themes of the gothic books. They seem to have only skimmed them and in fact I doubt most of them have really read more than one or two gothic stories.
In gothic books, the phrase is it is always darkest before the dawn. Many goths these days seem to have lost the last three words there. The key point in most gothic works is that the converse isn't true. It isn't always brightest before the darkness sets it.
If you read the books -- or even just pay close attention to the movies -- you will find that the chracters are followed on their rises and falls in and out of darkness. Little time is spent on their dwelling in darkness, except to throw the fight against such blackness into contrast. The key point is how they strive for and learn to truly immerse themselves in the little bits of light they can obtain. The characters that glory in their own darkness always fall, those that find power in their remaining humanity are the ones who triumph.
Wearing black all the time is fine with me, being pale all the time is ok too. Just hide a bit of color in there somewhere, pink underwear, butterfly tattoo, a bit of jewelery that doesn't have a skull on it, etc.
When it comes right down to it, what I dislike about the entire goth movement is that it has come to glory in the darkness. Somewhere along the way they forgot that darkness begets darkness, but the real power is in clawing your way into the light. They are playing the game they were supposed to learn not to play from these stories. The people who really get what it means to be goth see it not as a way to show the world their dark and tortured soul but celebrate their overlooked humanity.