As I once read on Tumblr: Fear is knowing that a werewolf is hunting you. Terror is when you see it and it charges at you. Horror is realizing that your feet are stuck to the floor. Lust is...
oh my GOD!!!!! HOUSE OF HELL? That unlocked ALL my memories, I remember owning that book, but I don't remember where it went. You're exactly my people, it seems.
Ah! You reminded me of Jane Austen’s use of The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey, how her fangirl of a heroine Catherine is *obsessed* with it, and also Austen’s defense of novels and women novelists suddenly taking over a whole chapter lol judging from that anonymous critique you read, I can definitely see where she was coming from…
Yes! It's interesting that sometimes people assume that, because of Northanger Abbey, Austen was anti-Gothic, but that's not quite the case - I think she took a lot of inspiration from Radcliffe
Just found this - so perfect for me. As a way-too-old adult I became a punk in NYC - sort of the same. I now teach art history and Fuseli's Nightmare is how I introduce Gothic(K) stuff. Your description of the Sublime was very good! I may poach it. And as the mother of three cats this is also a welcome incorporation. Cheers!
The terror versus horror distinction goes on even now. We call it "Suspense" or there's the "Thriller" genre which has some overlap between horror and suspense. One of those Gothic suspense novels along the lines of Radcliffe that I truly enjoyed from the mid 1800s was Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu.. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and read it. It's a slow burn but there are some passages that are just amazingly poetic and beautiful in their descriptions of terror. And as you pointed out, there is some hinting at the potential for supernatural here and there but nothing ever materializes and in the end it's all very natural.
Hi! I've seen and enjoyed a few of your videos. To come across the Pond and a little forward in time, I have always had questions about EA Poe's short story The Imp of the Perverse. The central concept is that part of our minds that momentarily impulse to do something ONLY because it's the wrong thing to do. Poe's protagonist becomes obsessed with it, that's what Poe characters do. But when I explain the impulse to anyone, they know exactly what I'm talking about. So it seems universal. Sometimes in a group it's like a dam bursting. The times and circumstances when they experienced the impulse. Fortunately, in most cases it goes away as quickly as it came. One doesn't really steer into incoming traffic, or jump from the height you're standing on. The closest to obeying the impulse I know of was from a man who, as a young teenager, was riding his bike under a highway underpass. Looking up he noticed that the struts underneath the bridge were about the same configuration as the hand over hand monkey bars in the school gyn. So he walked up the slope to the bridge's undercarriage and jumped up to reach the bars. He'd only gone a couple of more rungs, when he stopped. He wasn't afraid, he just realized he was more than strong enough to cross the road that way, and turned around. The idea just sort of fizzled. I'm in my 60s now and I read The Imp of the Perverse back when I was a teenager. I've never encountered another story or essay about it. I suppose Jung's Shadow personally is as close to the idea as anything else but seems waaaay too complex. With nothing out there to base it on, I wonder if it's the part of your brain that recognizes danger talking your imagination over form a moment, playing out the worst case scenario so vividly it breaks into your thoughts. Then it goes away . Thanks for reading this and if you have any guidance on the subject I'd love to hear it. 🧓🧠😼
Just found your channel and … brilliant! I’m in my 60s and have completely withdrawn over the past couple decades from the increasing gore and horror in modern literature and movies; I’m more captivated by the old B&W film noir and having discovered Radcliffe through you, ordered her books as they seem just my cuppa for the sublime and terror rather than “horror” (although I certainly wallowed in horror during my late 20s and early 30s. So, much gratitude!!!
I always liked that Karloff was rather repulsed by the term "horror movies", emphasizing instead that he made films about terror. ALIEN, isn't an SF-Horror movie, it's an SF-Terror tale. There is very little overt gore/horror, but sure a lot of terror-suspense. Terror stories/movies in which tension and release prevail, are cathartic for everyday stress release, and, like laugher, are tied in with the sexual response I (which, of course, is s the aspect that Corman so often explored in his Freudian approach to mis en scene, often quite effectively.) The release of stress created by the terror-built-tension, to me, results in deep calm and stillness, a re-assertion of balance. "Pleasure" is not a word I think of in this experience, but rather a sense of benign spiritual order. Any sense of pleasure comes from the wonders of an atmospheric setting, and the aesthetics of mood-supporting designs (in film) or description (In written works). Music is, of course, a huge factor in setting the tone, the emotional pace, abstract as it might be. The stories/films that hold the most interest for me in these general genres are those with a strong moral component that is unambiguous (though the moral component really only plays out with the human characters, not alien/sf-creatures in more "space travel" sf encounters). Terror tales strike me purely as hedonistic without the moral aspects. The best of the Gothics are those that are morality tales, though I suspect this is just considered old-fashioned ...Etc. Just some general reactions/thoughts/observations. Thanks for the video, but now I, er, gotha run!
You are amazing. Idk where the heck you came from but I’ve been binging all of your videos while taking care of my first newborn. I love it all, and I can feel myself wanting to read again. Thank you so much for giving me back that feeling. After a few years depression and learning to be a mother, a lot of you kind of gets lost. You’re reigniting a long lost passion and I can’t get enough!
Aw thank you, I’m so pleased to hear that 😊 my friend had something similar happen when she had her first baby, it can be a struggle to keep up momentum with reading when you’re so preoccupied! Glad to have helped - Rosie
SUBSCRIBED TODAY...I STUDIED AMERICAN LIT, AND SEMINAR ON POE. MA in History. BA in American Literature. I TAUGHT HISTORY AND LITERATURE FOCUSING ON 19th and Early 20th century. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I just found your channel two hours ago and I can’t stop watching. Thank you soooo much for these videos! You are amazing and your voice is just MWAH 🤌🏼
Woohoo! Enjoying your channel and like many previous comments the lovely and passionate and fairly presented way you introduce us (or reintroduce) to literature gothic or modern folk/horror (using my modern history definition so from late 1700 onwards) 🎊
I love Burke's essay on the sublime. Thank you for mentioning it, and the concept of the sublime. But Edmund Burke isn't the inventor of the concept - although he revived it. Please excuse my mansplaining. Don't read on if you don't like it. The first author writing about the sublime was Pseudo-Longinos in antiquity. He wrote »Peri Hypsous«, a treaty on how to stir this feeling in the reader. Although he wrote in Greek the literary stile he was refering to was known as the »genus sublime« in the latin world. Hence our describing said feeling as sublime. Thank you however for the interesting insights into Ann Radcliffe.
It's somehow comforting that "ugh teen girls today just read trashy nonsense instead of good, morally upright novels which teach common sense, like they did back in MY day" has been a criticism attempting (and failing) to snub popular literature since at least 1797
20:57 I can't figure out what is being silently mouthed at the very end? Does anyone know? Well, anyway... Just found this channel recently and I've really been loving it! Keep up the good work! ^^
Looks like the RU-vid editor feature didn’t work correctly there 😅 I’ll try and fix it. From memory, she says ‘or if the video isn’t out yet, subscribe by clicking here’. So glad to hear you’re been enjoying our videos 😊 we’ll keep it up! - Matty
I wonder how poor old Sublime feels about losing its original, darker, even spooky, meaning? While listening intently, I did slide out for a quick Google...and although 3 uses were mentioned under Sublime's definition: Burke's most excellent description has been lost. Sadly...
The only visual representation of tge Mysteries of Udolfo that I've ever seen are from the 1980s adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. I know a lot of people dislike that adaptation, but I was raised on it and have always loved it.
ALWAYS LOVE BOOKS ON ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EXTRAORDINARY SITUATIONS OR PLACES. THE UNEXPECTED, PLEASURABLE HORROR, EMOTIONAL EXTREMES ARE AN ART IN THEMSELVES.❤❤❤👍👍👍👍😲😲😲😲
My first video of yours and I’m enjoying it so much! I subscribed like “where’s SHE been hiding?” and then I saw that your subscriber number IS CRIMINAL. You’re great at this! Enjoying your subject matter, the production value, and the passionate way you’re explaining everything. So I’m “commenting before your channel blows up” as the kids say. 😆🫶🏼 I really hope the algorithm picks you up soon!
That makes you our 325th subscriber for the record haha. So glad you enjoyed the video! We’re super proud of the Gothic mini-series. Hope the rest of the videos are as good 😊 and hopefully the algorithm will pick us up soon, we’re working hard on it 😄 - Matty
It's very much about vicarious experiences/ways of of experiencing dangerous situations in a purely mental way, aka body not directly -involved. "Horror" is really a cheap word and doesn't describe the experience very smartly"Horror" really is about the gore, the visually (usually visually) repulsive which doesn't have a lot to do with the sublime, or terror per se. Maybe "disturbing" is a more applicable word when it comes to the modern "horror" film. There really is no terror as such in goreIt's the easiest thing to put on a screen or describe in written form and has become so over-used as the now be more ridiculous than affecting. The ease by which slasher-type gore can be produced is why it is so common. Like pornography, it is easy to generate, if one is so inclined. The Sublime is a challenging thing to generate, which is why it appears so rarely on the screen. The most intense type of terror is not some goofy character running around with a big knife, or some guy in a cape who likes to bite necks but the idea that a CME, asteroid or GRB (Gamma Ray Burst) could either wipe out all life on Earth or cause immense physical and mental harm across the vast majority of the planet's population and its infrastructures. That's more in line with the idea of Cosmic Terror, and ya, its not all that much fun. The old idea /description of The Sublime if much more welcomed on this end
Interesting you should say that, because there are some critics who suggest that 1790s Gothic writing was a bit of a precursor to detective fiction! And Poe really blurred those boundaries - Rosie
@books_ncats and then after Poe was th3 like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Willie Collins, all the way to Agatha Christie. But yes you made a good poin Rosie. Love your videos ang your kitty in the them too. I have a six year old female calico tabby cat named Paige. -Ryan Hoffman, mystery author.
My favourite Gothic books so far are, In a Glass Darkly, The Monk, Melmoth the Wanderer, and Nightmares of an Ether Drinker. I just started reading The Italian.
