Southern Gothic

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What are some good examples of this aesthetic?

Do you have to be Southern to make Southern Gothic?

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:16 (twenty years ago)

It definitely helps. Tennessee Williams plays and William Faulkner's novels are probably the archtypical examples though.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:39 (twenty years ago)

Not as much southern goth as southern spooky, loud garage goodness:

LOST SOUNDS from Memphis.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Flannery O'Connor, esp. Wiseblood

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:44 (twenty years ago)

Cormac McCarthy, at times.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:50 (twenty years ago)

to add to the list of scribes:

flannery o'connor

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:54 (twenty years ago)

maybe katherine anne porter and sherwood anderson as well.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:55 (twenty years ago)

'A Rose for Emily' by Faulkner.

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:55 (twenty years ago)

I love Winesburg, Ohio!

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Kyle told me to read Faulkner but I didn't know where to start.

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:56 (twenty years ago)

The Boo Radley subplot of To Kill a Mockingbird is a little Gothic.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:58 (twenty years ago)

The Sound and the Fury has sit on my bookshelf for years -- way too intimidating -- but As I Lay Dying wasn't that difficult.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 22:59 (twenty years ago)

Start with Absalom! Absalom!, Adam. It may not be his best or most readable book, but it's definitely the most gothic and it lays out all his major themes. As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, A Light in August, Go Down Moses and Sanctuary are all incredible.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:01 (twenty years ago)

7 years of faulkner (1929-1936):

the sound and the fury
as i lay dying
sanctuary
light in august
pylon
absalom absalom

have at it.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:02 (twenty years ago)

Faulkner is one of those authors who is probably best read in a classroom setting. His books are so dense that it really helps to be sitting around talking about them and having someone there who has read them many times to sort of guide you through some of the prose.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:03 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's where I read As I Lay Dying, and I liked it so much that I picked up The Sound and the Fury, but even the Norton Annotated edition isn't much help.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:04 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that is PROBABLY the greatest stretch of writing in the history of english literature (esp. when you consider how many AMAZING stories he was churning out around that time.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:04 (twenty years ago)

"Equine Gothic: The Dead Mule as Generic Signifier in Southern Literature of the Twentieth Century"
SLJ, 29 (Fall 1996), 2-17.

Subject: GENERAL
Author(s): Jerry Leath Mills

“ . . . the presence of one or more specimens of Equus caballus x asinius (defunctus) constitutes the truly catalytic element, the straw that stirs the strong and heady julep of literary tradition in the American South.” Writers who furnish examples: Hubert J. Davis, Larry Brown, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Robert Morgan, Clyde Edgerton, Jack Farris, Richard Wright, J. W. Corrington, Tony Early, Truman Capote, Kaye Gibbons, Doris Betts, Reynolds Price, Arna Bontemps, Erskine Caldwell, Allan Gurganus, Z. N. Hurston, Jesse Hill Ford, William Humphrey, James Street, Thomas Wolfe, Margaret Skinner, Marianne Gingher, Charles Portis, Ferrol Sams, Joseph Mitchell, Henry Taylor. There are also comments on Louis Rubin and Marion Montgomery.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:06 (twenty years ago)

Also Adam if you haven't read it, I wholeheartedly recommend Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel (even though it's probably a better book when you are 17-18 than when you are in your later twenties.) It's ridiculously long though.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Haha, the first 2 Three Mile Pilot EPs are pretty southern gothic then.
(xpost: @ equine gothic).

churchill downs >>>>goth>>>> new orleans

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:09 (twenty years ago)

I've never really considered Wolfe a Southern writer.. he's more American Gothic if anything.

― andy, Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:20 (twenty years ago)

Charles Portis
I wouldn't call Charles Portis a Gothic writer. Nevertheless, I would read Norwood or The Dog of the South. But do avoid Masters of Atlantis.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:24 (twenty years ago)

"I've never really considered Wolfe a Southern writer"

The Carolinas are still the South. And he was an alcoholic to boot.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:26 (twenty years ago)

lost sounds are awesome!

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:32 (twenty years ago)

It is primarily a tendency in literature?

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 23:34 (twenty years ago)

Literature and drama, for sure.

― andy, Wednesday, 22 December 2004 00:04 (twenty years ago)

No painting?

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 00:08 (twenty years ago)

For some reason, Ivan Albright's paintings always strike me as having elements of Southern gothic -- that grotesque, warts-and-all, dark loneliness -- but he's from Chicago.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:13 (twenty years ago)

American Gothic is fine too.

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:15 (twenty years ago)

harry crews. i hate him, but he's definitely southern gothic.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Echo

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:19 (twenty years ago)

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=Thomas+Hart+Benton/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=11p0eg4hj/*-http%3A//raven.cc.ku.edu/~sma/online/kansas/benton.jpg

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:20 (twenty years ago)

film version of "Baby Doll"
clues: dilapidated mansions, sexual perversion

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:21 (twenty years ago)

night of the iguana.

(south/central american gothic)

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:23 (twenty years ago)

Isn't there something of the Southern gothic in Dickens' Miss Havisham?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:23 (twenty years ago)

Southern Gothic video game.

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:23 (twenty years ago)

'Night of the Hunter'

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:29 (twenty years ago)

I bought The Colonel's Bequest before realizing that it was the first Sierra game that was VGA-only, and so it appeared on my crappy monitor as totally monochrome. So I returned it to my local Egghead Software store.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:32 (twenty years ago)

aw a thread about craig!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/kenjuggle2/craigeiffel.jpg

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:33 (twenty years ago)

The Colonel's Bequest is GREAT! I believe that LAURA of the noise board is quite a fan as well.

― Dial Rat For Terror (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:34 (twenty years ago)

'Night of the Hunter'
OTM.

TS Southern Gothic vs Southern Gothic II
(It's like Amon Düül!)

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 16:36 (twenty years ago)

Jandek?

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 17:55 (twenty years ago)

Tav Falco?

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 17:58 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

there's a one-woman show about katherine anne porter happening at my alma mater this weekend. my interest in KAP notwithstanding i've had seriously bad experiences at one-person shows.

go or no?

― Nanobots: HOOSTEEND (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 11 November 2009 19:13 (fifteen years ago)

Go.

― Hey Jude, Thursday, 12 November 2009 15:59 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

So Hoos, how did you like it?

― excitebikable boy (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 22 May 2011 14:02 (fourteen years ago)

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