more gothstuff

Morgan303's 'I am not a goth' post got me thinking last night and this morning, and i've decided to repost my reply here for future reference, as it contains a couple of relevant thoughts to do with where i'm at now, subculturally speaking.

What she wrote sounds a lot like thoughts i've had from time to time, to the effect that while i'm still into more or less the same things i was ten or fifteen years ago, things that at the time i considered 'goth' to be the best generic word to describe, that these things no longer correspond to what the word seems to mean today.  I still waver between feelings of "well, if that's what goth means now, then i'm not part of it" and an obstinant "sorry, but what the fuck has that got to do with goth?".  Most of the time i tend to lean towards the latter, even if i lay even less claim to the term myself than i have in the past.

It's funny, i never really understood the Not-a-Goth thing - it always seemed odd for people to be refusing to be labelled with a word while going out of their way to conform to the image in every other way possible.  While i'm sure some were just having a laugh, there did also seem to be a trend of genuine resistance to the word (i suspect maybe it was a sort of "yes, we're all individuals!" denial, at best guess).  For myself, while i was quite happy to admit to conscious subcultural conformism, i did usually edge uncomfortably around describing myself as 'a goth', though recently i've realised that was probably more to do with not really looking the part than anything else.  On the other hand, i did always think the idea of describing someone as 'a goth' sounded somehow odd, as opposed to describing a thing or idea as 'gothic'.

That's something else i'm leaning more towards now - to use 'goth' or, better still, 'gothic' as an adjective to describe a style, mood, idea, look etc, and to avoid getting into the question of whether someone is 'a goth' or not (i've always been somewhat uneasy about that, as it lends itself to a sort of exclusivist criteria of who does or doesn't 'make the grade' to qualify for the title).  That way, i can happily argue about whether this, that or the other could be described as gothic without it being necessary to question or undermine someone else's self-image or subcultural identification.

The other good thing about that, which i've only just realised this morning, is that it's also a lot more comfortable at this stage of life for me to consider 'goth' as one of my interests and tastes, rather than a tag for who i am.  Of course, i still have a social need to identify with other people and signify that in how i dress, where i go, what i do etc, but i've just noticed i no longer feel the same need to see myself as 'a goth', 'a punk' etc, but rather just a guy who happens to have a certain range of tastes, interests and attitudes, and likes to associate with likeminded people.  That's always been the case, more or less, but what's different is that i no longer need to match all that up against a name for what i am.  (Took me long enough).

And of course, that doesn't make me any less passionate about these things either - as evidenced by the amount of time i've spent thinking about and writing this reply (not to mention violating my no el-jay in worktime rule - mustn't let that slide).

Oh, and thanks to morgan303 for putting a finger on just what it is about Emily Strange. I have to admit that in recent years i've actually come to have an appreciation for things like the Living Dead Dolls etc, a side effect of a newfound taste for the more cartoonish, b-grade or trashy kitsch side of things, but something's always bugged me about Emily.  Now i know what it is - that beyond all the cute cats and Wednesday Addams creepiness, the character is just an obnoxious, rude little brat, like a snotty Kelly Osbourne wannabe in black.  That, and a particularly contrived and fake version of the "i myself am dark and unusual" goth posturing.  Somehow i think the line between taking the piss out of yourself and becoming an unwitting joke lies somewhere thereabouts.

PS - i think i've realised another reason for the Not-a-Goth thing - that having cliched 'goth' tastes seems a lot less cliched if you don't admit to tagging yourself as goth.

"I'm not a goth, but i do like coffins, bats, red velvet, black lace, Victorian dresses, romantic poets, vampire novels, graveyards, ruined abbeys, dark swirly music and candles" - vs - "I'm a goth: i like coffins, bats, red velvet, black lace, Victorian dresses, romantic poets, vampire novels, graveyards, ruined abbeys, dark swirly music and candles".

Don't know why i didn't see that before.