#frontier gothic

[clovergrass00]

American/Midwestern Gothic and Alice Isn’t Dead

(*I wrote the following essay for a college class in April 2023, but in doing so discovered to my disappointment that there wasn’t much writing on Alice Isn’t Dead! So I'd like to contribute this.)

Tracing the Gothic to New Mediums & Subgenres – a case for Alice Isn’t Dead

The Proposal:

“America has weird things in it. It has so many miles, so much space to put the weirdness in.” - Alice Isn’t Dead, Part 1: Chapter 10

One of the strengths of [this course*] is in how it traces gothic tropes from its historic roots to contemporary variations, like Parasite being called “Neo-Gothic” or Get Out “Post-Racial Gothic”: in doing so, the course argues for the relevance and importance of the genre’s history, lineage, and permutations, which also facilitates a discussion of what factors contribute to such differences. I propose tracing yet another modern branch of the genre to that of “American gothic,” or specifically “midwestern gothic,” which would enable a focus on how the gothic genre was adapted to address regional-specific settings, histories, and anxieties, such as the different facets of the American experience. Allan Lloyd-Smith writes in American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction about how the “frontier experience, with its inherent solitude and potential violence” especially shaped the midwestern iteration of American gothic; this framework still holds for modern stories confronting endless flatness, nowhere towns, the destructive force of capitalism on communities (4). The medium of audio drama also provides new ways to think about framing, point of view, and immersive storytelling.

Synopsis:

Alice Isn’t Dead is an audio fiction podcast which follows a Black lesbian truck driver, Keisha, as she drives across America in search of her missing wife, Alice, whom she had long presumed dead. On her harrowing road trip, she deals with grief, anxiety, and depression, comments on aspects of American culture she encounters on his travels, and encounters supernatural phenomenon and larger conspiracies—such as regarding a group of dangerous creatures called the “Thistle Men,” a factory owner who ages a whole lifetime before her eyes, a day in which her straight drive passes through the same town over and over, and billboards that seem to speak to her directly, to name some examples from the first episodes.

The series, written by Joseph Fink and voice acted by Jasika Nicole, is composed of 30 episodes total of about 25 minutes each. The show’s format is that Keisha makes audio recordings on the road, either as a diary of her thoughts, speaking directly to Alice, recording live events, or recounting events after they happened.

(More) Key Terms:

The style often “intercuts” a longer, dramatic narrative of what has just happened to Keisha (more plot-focused sections) with shorter observations or memories she speaks aloud in the present (more thematic). Intercutting, or cross-cutting, is a narrative technique used in Alice Isn’t Dead to build tension by cutting between scenes with differing intensity levels or stakes, highlight connections between seemingly unrelated characters or events, or help maintain narrative momentum (Chen).

Liminal: “characterized by being on a boundary or threshold, esp. by being transitional or intermediate between two states, situations, etc.” (OED). We see liminality in Alice’s status between being “dead” and being “found,” in the road between towns, in the towns that themselves are only a bathroom stop on the way to the next destination, the destinations that themselves are only one of many stops.

Rationality and Irrationality: Although we also see Jonathan Harker’s attempts to rationalize events through his journals in Dracula, Lloyd-Smith writes in particular about the influence of Enlightenment era thinking on American literature in the idea of trying to rationalize the irrational, which is amplified by Keisha’s contemporary first-person narration in trying to comprehend the seemingly impossible things she witnesses (95). In episode 10, Keisha prefaces her story with: “I can’t drive while I tell this. Too much to say. I’m going to tell it all Alice. Even the parts you know. I’m going to describe the shape of the monster that is devouring me” (Fink).

Lloyd-Smith describes “frontier gothic” or “gothic nature” as “a terror of the land itself, its emptiness, its implacability; simply a sense of its vast, lonely, and possibly hostile space” (93). In the Part 1 finale, one of the Thistle Men says: “America. A country defined as much by distance as culture. America embraces its distances. Empty spaces and road trips, but there is always a price. We are that price. We are creatures of the road. We feed on distance, on road trips, on emptiness, bodies by the side of the highway” (Fink).

Uncanny refers to an unsettling kind of strange or mysterious, which is a perfect way to describe the revulsion one feels from the odd behavior of the Thistle Men, even without directly witnessing their acts of violence. “Every one of them was like the Thistle man. All of them. Loose skinned, odd movements…none of them spoke, although sometimes one would laugh, long and loud, and then return to monastic silence” (Fink). Getting at the German root of the word, “unheimlich,” Lloyd-Smith elaborates: “it can be understood as equivalent to the ‘domestic terror’ which so aptly describes much of the work of American Gothicists… The house, not the castle, becomes the site of trauma” (75). When Keisha temporarily gives up on her journey, overwhelmed by all she has been through, the Thistle Men follow her home and cause intense paranoia, which ultimately drives her to flee her house and take to the road again.

Works Cited

Chen, Jeff. “Intercut: Everything You Need to Know.” NFI, 14 Mar. 2021, https://www.nfi.edu/intercut/.

Fink, Joseph. Alice Isn’t Dead.

"liminal, adj." OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108471. Accessed 19 April 2023.

Lloyd Smith, Allan. American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction. Continuum, 2004.

[newmexicophotographer]

near dixon, nm

[federationgothic]

Star Trek V really said "give me a turboshaft but give it the aesthetic of a 1989 mall.

[taoofshigeru]

Sage: Father, can I ask you something?

Dr. Eggman: Yes, Sage, what?

Sage: You said you still don't want me to simulate any contingencies where you team up with Sonic? Because you would 'never, ever, absolutely under no circumstances' team up with him again?

Dr. Eggman: Of course.

Sage: And you're still too busy to hand-sew me that dress with all the bows and roses that I wanted?

Dr. Eggman: Don't have the time. Got a big evil plan in the works.

Sage: And you're absolutely certain you can fully control The Embodiment of Darkness Itself, which we are currently sailing towards?

Dr. Eggman: Naturally.

Sage: I see.

Sage: Shall we make a bet, for fun?

… …… ………

Sonic: Yo, Sage. Nice to be saving the world with you again. Cool dress, by the way.

Sage, doing a little twirl: Thank you. Father made it for me.

[sammehshark]

in between my commissions i’ve been working on redesigning another sonic oc! meet Rosy-Barbs! she is a shy vampire squid who lives in the Sol dimension. she suffers from imposter syndrome.

[lettherightrobin]

frontier cabin, british columbia

[un-pearable]

hey ninjago fans give me quotes to calligraphy? :]

[unofficialchronicle]

Johnny Cash reading Robert Service’s poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” the American Frontier’s “Tell Tale Heart” story. (5:33 min recording)

Link to the poem as well: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee

The Cremation of Sam McGeeBY 

ROBERT W. SERVICE

There are strange things done in the midnight sun      By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales      That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,      But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge      I cremated Sam McGee. Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows. He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell; Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell." On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail. Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail. If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see; It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee. And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow, And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe, He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess; And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request." Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan: "It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone. Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains; So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains." A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail; And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale. He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee; And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee. There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven, With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given; It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains, But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains." Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code. In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load. In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring, Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing. And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow; And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low; The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in; And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin. Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May." And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum; Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum." Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire; Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher; The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see; And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee. Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so; And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow. It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why; And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky. I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear; But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near; I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside. I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide. And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar; And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door. It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm— Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm." There are strange things done in the midnight sun      By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales      That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,      But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge      I cremated Sam McGee.

[socialistexan]

One of the most common complaints I hear from Doctor Who "fans" recently besides - or usually in conjunction with - "It's Too Woke" (nevermind that the show always had been progressively-minded) is that, "well this new Doctor Who don't feel like Doctor Who"

And, like, it's such an absurd statement to make. How can a show that has been so drastically different over the course of 60 years

Like, the 3rd Doctor era felt completely than the 1st and 2nd Doctor, it was a distinctly different show even beyond being in color. The 4th Doctor arguably 3-4 distinct different eras within his own run. 7's last two seasons were so different in look and feel and pacing, so much so that it fits in better with the 2005 revival than it does something made even the year before with the same actors. 11 was a huge stylistic break from 9 and 10, and even 12 felt different.

Hell, this is a show where there is a tradition of having stories that are essentially "Doctor Who Does Frankenstein" (Brain of Morbius) or "Doctor Who Through the Looking Glass" (Warriors' Gate)

Should it feel like a Hinchcliffe gothic story like Pyramids of Mars? Or a Hulke-penned space opera like Frontier in Space? How about a goofy, campy scifi romp like The Chase? Maybe a heavy political allegory like The Green Death or Day of the Daleks? Or a supernatural surrealist story like Ghost Light or the Daemons?

So which one is the "correct" Doctor Who Feel. There isn't one. There's a spirit to the show, sure, but the look, feel, and style of the show changes with the times.

Really the only times where it "doesn't feel like Doctor Who" is when the show isn't being progressive or staying true to it's anti-fascist, enviomentalist, and frankly anti-capitalist roots.

If you don't like the show anymore, you don't like the show, that's fine, but the show is what it always has been.

[transmutationisms]

Thoughts on Ethel Cain?

i like her, i think sometimes on here her stuff gets caught up in the backlash against aesthetic repurposing of christian theology but unlike a lot of sort of vague post-cath-gothic type posting i read the ethel cain character as linking the ideology of the north american frontier + manifest destiny + the patriarchal familial form's manifestation of abuse and incest---which is to say, i think the fact that ethel has that 'trad' background, and the farm americana aesthetics and so on, is actually a linchpin in hayden anhedonia's work to the point she's making about the 'conquering' of the land as the narrative setting for rape. sonically i would love to see her get a bit more weird with it but i like her stuff esp where some of the stylistic influences are drawing from eg gregorian chant. i think that's fun

[obeetlebeetle]

obviously the big critique of gothic horror in yellowjackets is the use of madness to blur lines between the horror of lottie being medicated as a child/institutionalized post-rescue and the horror of being trapped within the wilderness which manifests a 'supernatural entity' -- i think that this is hard to parse in s1 since it's just not a complete story -- but i also think that there is another thread to pull here, which is that american wilderness gothic is a specifically colonialist fantasy. the vast 'untamed' wilderness as a permissive and/or evil space, that is allowing 'true' human nature to evolve into violence and/or acting on humans in order to 'corrupt' or 'infect' them with violent desires -- see: all of doomcoming, prompted by both lottie's interpretation of reality and the consumption of mushrooms from the wilderness -- is an idea conceived by writers like brockden brown who were attempting to restage gothic horror through the 'frontier' presented within the american landscape. i dont have anywhere to take this thought yet (have to revisit some ideas from my thesis + read more ecogothic) but i do want to highlight it since we are so close to s2

[angievaldezart]

Marker practice with Sage from the upcoming Sonic Frontiers game!

I admit I was a little unimpressed with her design at 1st glance, but then I realized we now have an antagonist that looks like they’re well-fit for gothic lolita fashion so now I like her a lot more lol 

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

The 100 songs that changed metal (by Metal Hammer)

74. Within Temptation – Ice Queen (Mother Earth, 2000)

In the 90s, symphonic metal was more a glittering garnish than a scene in itself, something bands from Therion to Celtic Frost would sprinkle on their music to make it sparkle. And while the genre would start coming together into something more tangible towards the end of the decade, it wasn’t until a few years later that a song would emerge to put symphonic metal on the map.

That song was Within Temptation’s Ice Queen. A complete volte-face from the gothic doom of the Dutch metallers’ 1997 debut, Enter, it appeared on the follow-up, Mother Earth, in a flurry of lavish arrangements and fairytale histrionics. Buoyed by vocalist Sharon den Adel’s crystalline voice, it pushed metal towards a new frontier, quickly whipping up a buzz in mainland Europe. Ice Queen can take credit for being symphonic metal’s first major hit, pushing women to the forefront and influencing a brand new generation of bands.

81. Evanescence – Bring Me To Life (Fallen, 2003)

Evanescence’s debut single, Bring Me To Life, turned vocalist Amy Lee into a megastar. Arriving in 2003, when mainstream music was dominated by hyper-masculine men and overly sexualised pop stars, with her billowing long skirts, corset tops, arm socks and steely self-confidence, Amy redefined what a female artist could be, becoming a role model for millions of misfits and dreamers everywhere.

Despite its crunchy guitars and a rapped verse, courtesy of 12 Stones’ Paul McCoy – which Amy has since said she was forced to add by their label – Bring Me To Life’s cobwebby, goth fragility also brought something fresh to nu metal’s dick-swinging party, extending the mainstream’s flirtation with the genre for a little longer – as of 2019, it’s sold more than 3 million copies and has passed more than a billion streams on YouTube and Spotify.

82. Arch Enemy – We Will Rise (Anthems Of Rebellion, 2003)

We Will Rise was a huge song, not only for Arch Enemy but for the new generation of 21st-century melodic death metal they spearheaded. Guitarist Michael Amott had already laid down the melodeath blueprints with Carcass, while Arch Enemy themselves had already made three albums with singer Johan Liiva, but neither they nor anyone else had made an anthem quite like this.

As well as propelling the genre as a whole to greater heights and popularity, it provided a bigger platform for Angela Gossow – a hugely influential figure and one of the first prominent female vocalists to not only try but absolutely nail an extreme metal style. “Her emergence as a metal vocalist was, without hyperbole, revolutionary,” Svalbard’s Serena Cherry told us recently, and we’re not arguing.

84. Nightwish – Nemo (Once, 2004)

Nightwish didn’t invent symphonic metal, but alongside peers Within Temptation and Epica, they popularised it and packaged it to the masses. By 2004, the Finns had already established themselves as a major player in Europe, but with the sumptuous Nemo, they broke through on an unprecedented level.

No longer a niche concern in the geeky corners of the metal world, symphonic metal, in all its lavish, overwrought glory revelled under a global spotlight. Nemo’s fantastical magic, sparkling piano refrain and stirring melody has endured – it’s still the band’s best-known song – but its lasting image comes via its gothic music video, and then-singer Tarja Turunen singing in the snow in a blood-red coat. Nemo showed metal at its most fragile and beautiful.

95. Babymetal – Gimme Chocolate!! (Babymetal, 2014)

If elitists were tearing their hair out at the likes of Ghost, Bring Me The Horizon and Limp Bizkit being considered ‘metal’, then they might as well have just reached for the clippers for this one. The sight of three young Japanese girls rocking choreographed moves and singing sugary-sweet, J-pop-infused choruses about chocolate over heavy metal riffs was as shocking as it was delightful.

Babymetal hadn’t just broken the mould for metal, either; they’d given the West a fuller glimpse into the uniquely Japanese phenomenon of idol culture, and given the cutesy world of Kawaii a bigger global platform than ever. Overseen by band mastermind and producer extraordinaire, Key ‘Kobametal’ Kobayashi, Babymetal were unlike anything our world had seen before: equal parts hyper-polished girl band and full-on heavy metal experience, with their mysterious Kami Band backing musicians as formidable as any ‘proper’ metal band you could name.

Cynics moaned, but with the likes of Rob Halford, Metallica and Corey Taylor throwing in their support, the trio quickly transcended their ‘gimmick’ tag to become a legitimate force in the modern metal landscape.

99. Spiritbox – Holy Roller (Eternal Blue, 2022)

Spiritbox were already firmly established as Ones To Watch by the time Holy Roller, the first single from Eternal Blue, exploded like a hand grenade in the summer of 2020. Once those first, colossal riffs rang out, however, it was clear that the Canadian troupe hadn’t just levelled up considerably – they had successfully repositioned themselves as one of the most exciting and vital bands of their generation.

Backed by a memorable video inspired by Ari Aster’s disturbing Midsommar movie, Holy Roller was the perfect crystallisation of the last decade-plus of evolution in metal, packing djent, metalcore, nu metal and more into a massively crushing (but seriously catchy!) three minutes. “This song was never intended to be a single,” explained vocalist Courtney LaPlante later. “Our mission statement was, ‘Let’s make the most ridiculous song that we can.’”

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Proposing new names for some places in the Grishaverse

East Ravka: Gothic Imperial Russia

West Ravka: Gothic Revolutionary Russia

Novyi Zem: The More Chill Place (… but also is there some kind of frontier fighting going on?)

Fjerda: Racist Scandinavia

Ketterdam: Capitalism Land

[mllebleue]

It is in my hands! Officially out July 1st from McFarland but on order now. 16 essays on Star Trek novels and their authors.

Table of content:

Introduction: Into the Vastness of the Novelverse

­Caroline-Isabelle Caron and Kristin Noone 1

Official, but Not Canon: The ­Tie-In Writer’s Dilemma

David Mack 19

Feinting Forward, Barging Backward: Philosophical Analysis of Spock, Messiah!

Anne Collins Smith and Owen M. Smith 37

Growing Up with Deep Space Nine: Recruiting New Fans and Teaching Ideology Through YA Literature

Judith Clemens-Smucker 52

“300 ­full-color action scenes”: The Star Trek Fotonovels, Multimodal Storytelling as Paper Television?

Caroline-Isabelle Caron 69

Putting the Romance Back into Space Opera

Valerie Estelle Frankel 90

“The dream of stars”: Judith and Garfield ­Reeves-Stevens and the Star Trek Epic

Geoffrey Reiter 107

Imzadi, (Almost) Happily Ever After and the Female Gothic Tradition

Carey Millsap-Spears 124

The ­Tie-In Novels of History: Adaptation and Expansion in Diane Carey’s Star Trek Fiction

Kristin Noone 141

“What’s in a life?” Grappling with Genre, Gender, and Liberal Humanism in The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway

Mareike Spychala 159

Wind-Riders, Divers, and Merry Whales: Vonda N. McIntyre’s Star Trek Novels

Una McCormack 174

“The sheer unpredictability of the insane, demented galaxy”: Peter David’s New Frontier Novels

Val Nolan 192

The Hurt and the Comfort in J.M. Dillard’s Mindshadow: ­Tie-In Novels and/as Fanfiction

Agnieszka Urbańczyk 209

Surviving the Borg? Exploring Vengeance and Humanity in Peter David’s Vendetta

Brian de Ruiter 226

Contaminated Community in Jean Lorrah’s The IDIC Epidemic

Leah Faye Norris 243

Kira Nerys: Bajor and Beyond

Sherry Ginn 255

A Coda on Coda

Caroline-Isabelle Caron 266

[cat-a-holic]

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Watch Party

Do you love vampires? Do you love vampire hunters? Do you love the Frontier? Do you love scifi? Do you love fantasy? Do you love better love stories than Twilight???? Are you a sucker for amazing animation like me? Do you like motorcycle rides in the woods at sunset? Do you love deviantart OCs from the 80s'? Do you love sand manta rays?

Move aside giant worms, giant sand manta rays are so in right now.

Do you love gothic horror? Do you love old churches in the wild west? Do you love iron horses? Do you love the idea of space travel? Do you love talking to the hand? Did you read all these questions? Do you love watching movies with friendly strangers??? Do you love watching vampire movies in October?

If you answered yes to any of those question then I have the movie watch party for you!!! On Cat's Movie Bunker discord server we will be doing an annual rewatch of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a gorgeous animated version of the novel Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase. A vampire has kidnapped a young lady, Charlotte, and D (the child of a vampire & human) has been hired to rescue her dead or alive. But D has some competition from the Marcus Brothers, a group of vampire-hunters. Can D rescue Charlotte before she is turned or killed? Will D collect the bounty before the Marcus Brothers?

Please reach out to me (replies or DM) if you would like to join the discord server to help decide on a time to watch! Otherwise watch out for the guest watch link coming later.