#the romantic agony

[chthonic-cassandra]

An anonymous individual asked @awildwickedslip for recommendations of literary criticism on the gothic, and she directed them to me, so I thought it was time I make a rec list on the topic.

I'm keep this to more general analyses, but of course have a lot of recommendations for more works on more specific texts (especially but not limited to Dracula).

I'm also including some things that are more properly about amatory or epistolary fiction, because I think an understanding of those genres will serve you well in contemplating the gothic.

Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony

Nina Auerbach, Our Vampires, Ourselves

Christy Desmet and Anne Williams (eds), Shakespearean Gothic

Kate Ferguson Ellis, The Contested Castle

David J. Skal, The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror

Devendra P. Varma, The Gothic Flame

Angela Carter, The Sadeian Woman

Roland Barthes, Sade, Fourier, Loyola

Elizabeth Cook, Epistolary Bodies

Jacqueline Howard, Readng Gothic Fiction: A Bakhtinian Approach

Toni Bowers, Force or Fraud: British Seduction Stories and the Problem of Resistance

Peter Cryle, The Telling of the Act: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France

Peter Cryle, Geometry in the Budoir: Configurations of French Erotic Narrative

Jalal Toufic, Vampire: An Uneasy Essay on the Undead in Film

Ruth Bernard Yeazell, Harems of the Mind: Passages of Western Art and Literature

Marianne Noble, The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature

Terry Castle, The Female Thermometer: Eighteenth Century Literature and the Invention of the Uncanny

[saintacephale]

Farida Khelfa in The Agony of Marguerite Gautier by Jean-Paul Goude, 1992

[thegirlthatcriesacademia]

Jane Austen was right when she said “I am half agony, half hope.”

[wordsinhaled]

Edwin holding both of Charles' hands in his and telling him, "You cannot hurt me in any way that matters."

"I have been hurt beyond imagining and you have witnessed it firsthand, Charles. Do you remember it, as I remember it—clear as day? That was the worst agony imaginable. Unspeakable. Insurmountable. And you were wounded tenfold at the sight of it. You cannot hurt me in a way I will ever hold against you. And moreover you will not. No—don't look at me like that—I know you will not. Because you would sooner destroy yourself than cause me an iota of intentional pain. Your soul revolts against the thought of hurting me, does it not? Just as mine riots against the thought of you in pain. You saved me from hell—and Charles, you must not consign yourself to one of your own for fear of hurting me. Not when I am here to love you. Our love is not without risk, Charles, but it is a risk that is worth the reward."

[normystical]

ATTENTION ALL ALASTOR SHIPPERS: 

uniromantic 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. PROCEED

[existingillusion]

[notverycreativeblog]

[simply-whump]

Dr Romantic 3 : Episode 10

>> Whump List

[robertwaltons]

behold: the doomed unrequited waltonstein manifesto courtesy of twitter user ustfile

[thelonelynindroid]

Trobed I drew through genuine tears while i had a 24 hr migraine and my good old pal dys for ya 👍

[chthonic-cassandra]

Journeys across unfamiliar countryside, spanning the hours of daylight and darkness, under the control of horsemen who know the dangers of the route are a staple of eighteenth-century Gothic. Jonathan Harker is progressively feminised whilst resident at the Count's castle, where he writes letters in the persona of a retiring damsel. This process of feminization, though, arguably begins much earlier than Simmons envisages. It is initiated during Harker's journey, where he experiences not merely a disorientation that parallels that of the abducted Gothic heroine, but much of her acute sensibility also. Dracula, in many respects, revives not merely the convention of powerless abduction but also the vigil of consciousness that characteristically accompanies it in earlier Gothic - the intensity of a gaze fixated upon sublime landscapes capable of offering up a pathetic fallacy to the elation or depression experienced by the perceiving, powerless self. The narrative of Harker's journey playfully balances his preferred (though occasionally shaky) identity as a dedicated, competent, modern professional with a more naive and curious selfhood that is frequently overawed by the novelty of his environment. If Harker is comically obsessive in his documentation of local peculiarities of cuisine and dress, he is less certain in his own personal comprehension both of an alien culture, the conventions of which he has to ascertain in imperfect English from his fellow travelers, and of a regional geography uncharted in word or image, for "I was not able to light upon any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula."

William Hughes, "Dracula's Debts to the Gothic Romance" in The Cambridge Companion to Dracula (Roger Luckhurst, ed).

[theinternationalmuseumofmyheart]

“If you must die, I envy even the earth that wraps around your body.”

- Albert Camus, state of siege

[some-pers0n]

Had my character say 1 comment about how the other was cute -500hp Had my characters partake in banter that kinda looks like flirting -250hp Had my characters say they love each other +20hp Realizing it will 100% be interpreted as romantic -5000hp

[skrunksthatwunk]

why the fuck did i write about birds this fucking sucks. i just found out birds only sleep for a few minutes at a time, hundreds of times a day. do you know what this is going to do to my structure? the logistics of their road trip? this is already like three days late and i've been fighting for my life to get A Plot Like Any Plot That Makes Sense out and now the birds fucking sleep for 5 minutes at a time.

[milquetoast-on-acid]

Threads is on! 😯 Jacob is telling Sam to go for it with Jack. Immediately afterwards Kerry is breaking up with Jack because she's like "oh hey...I can see that you're in love with someone else. You really should do something about it." Jacob is like ... Just go break those regs. Kerry is like you can have your cake and eat it too. 😉

So what I don't understand is why all this obvious set up, only for them to not have any kind of a "getting together scene"? 👀 It's only vaguely implied by the dialogue.

I love Sam and Jack but it's such a let down for such great build up only for us to not actually see a freaking conversation between the two of them regarding their relationship.

[fbfh]

Malcolm in the middle binge watch update: I'm about half way through season 1 episode 7 where Francis escapes military school for a girl. There is... so much to unpack. I'm having a lot of thoughts but primarily they're about what type of obsessive loser boyfriend he is. It's interesting bc Malcolm is a spiral constantly thinks you're going to break up with him obsessive, but Francis???? Francis is the overly idealistic flowery romantic waxing poetic obsessive. Francis is a Romeo. He dreams too big and genuinely believes you're going to be together for the rest of your lives with a dozen perfect children that are just like you in a storybook cottage in Canada. He truly believes in his heart and soul that he can be your knight in shining armor, that he can love away every terrible thing that's ever happened to you if you'll just let him.