Very enjoyable talk about a film and book I loved once upon a time. I can really see the levels you've pointed up and they imporove my memory of both works. Plus, Vincent Price *delicious shiver* Would love to see you wrestle GAYWYCK by "Vincent Virga" to the ground as well. Always assuming you haven't....
I reread the book recerntly - a fancy new hardback cover the library got in - and realised how much I adored the Seton novels as a kid. Never forgot about oleander poisoning, I tell you... Dean Koontz had a definition of gothic - he wrote some under a penname in a matter of days - but he stressed part of the formula was that the heroine was quite passive, and did not rescue herself. Something I note in the Mary Stewart ones; governesses that could not drive a car, say. It would all be over fast if she could just grab the kid and drive off!
Dean Koontz is quite dismissive of the genre and his own work in it. I do have an issue with all the 'formulas', as they never cover the breadth of the genre. There are plenty of more active heroines in Gothic and Gothic romance too :)
@@RomancingTheGothic I ran off to see if the Seton novels were in audible, and found a Bio of her in the Plus catalogue - dear god, she is sipping vodka before breakfast! HOW did she manage to write anything coherently??? I am SO going to write an Australian Gothic novel; it has all the creepy elements in spades.
