Locked in Tomorrow's Double Feature

HUMAN SKULLS parts 3 and 4! My ENCYCLOPEDIA of tutorials BOOKS is coming EXCLUSIVELY to KICKSTARTER on a SECRET DATE NEXT MONTH! The ONLY WAY to know when it launches it to STAY TUNED to this TUMBLR feed for the BIG LAUNCH DATE ANNOUNCEMENT coming SOON!

Let bad things happen to good people. Let your characters try and fail. And try again. And fail again. Let them be betrayed in the worst possible way. Let them betray others because they have no choice. Force them into situations that make them uncomfortable. Force them to argue or fight or bargain their way out. Drive them to the brink of insanity. Push them over the edge. Take everything away from them. Let them realize what they’ve lost.

Be kind to your characters.

Let faith and perseverance win out. Let love be enough. Let the Sun dry up the rain. Give them friends who will never leave. Let someone save them before the axe falls. Acquit them of false accusations. Give them the strength to stand up again. And again. When they’ve lost hope, give them something to believe in. Remind them there’s good in the world. Remind them there’s good in them, too. Surprise them. Make them laugh until they cry. Teach them that they can’t be broken.

Most importantly: balance.

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Sorry this took forever to answer! As is typical of me these days, I tend to answer my asks and empty out my drafts in big clumps around the time that breaks occur or semesters end (and guess whose semester just ended!). I also ended up puzzling over this question for longer than I thought, as I felt–given my blog’s general content–that there wasn’t much of a point in recommending Dracula and I wanted to avoid recommending any of the big titles in my field unless I was very personally attached to them (Don’t get me wrong, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and Dorian Gray are all great things and you should read them, but they aren’t as close to my heart as Wuthering Heights or Northhanger Abbey.)

In any event, have my top ten gothic lit recs, ranked in rough order of my enthusiasm about recommending them.

1. Wuthering Heights (1847, Emily Brontë): I unapologetically love this novel and all the irredeemably awful people in it who are not Nelly Dean. (I’ve managed to find a sympathetic side to the character, but I still just viscerally dislike her.) It’s definitely my favorite gothic piece that seems to get accorded high status in the canon, and I first truly fell in love with it reading it out loud in the autumn with somebody I love, which is really the perfect way to encounter it.

2. The Werewolf of Paris (1933, Guy Endore): This novel is almost unknown nowadays, and it’s a real shame, as it ought to have been the werewolf genre equivalent of Dracula in terms of fame and influence. It deals with some heavy stuff (abuse, rape, incest, cannibalism, torture, suicide, massacres), both as regards the murders committed by the “monster” and the atrocities committed by collective groups of people and human institutions, and I’m not sure if I would completely agree with all of the moral messages it attempts to impart were I to re-read it today. Still, it’s a wonderfully written novel that treats its monster of choice with a subtlety I’ve not seen elsewhere in werewolf fiction, and it really appeals to the part of me who enjoys consulting Wikipedia to fact check the author’s own historical research.

3. Rebecca (1936, Daphne du Maurier): I have never simultaneously wanted to be and wanted to marry a first person narrator this much. This novel is a wonderful iteration of Gothic novels of the “I married this dude and his giant mansion has a spooky secret” genre, and Du Maurier’s use of language is breathtakingly gorgeous.

4. The Great God Pan (1895, Arthur Machen): Arthur Machen writes some of the best horror I’ve ever read, and The Great God Pan is remarkable as one of the few stories to truly unnerve me in the days after I read it. (I’m typically not one to be very rattled by books.) It’s mad science meets decadent aesthetics and it’s also a clear forerunner to some of the cooler stuff Loveraft does.

5. Northanger Abbey (1817, Jane Austen): Catherine Morland makes my fillings hurt with her sweetness, and Henry Tilney is forever #1 Austen hunk in my book hands down. I admit that I’m not much of a fan of early Gothic and Ann Radcliffe endlessly telling me about picturesque trees, but I’m intensely into this early parody of the genre, and I recommend it to anyone who might find themselves generally unenchanted with either Radcliffe or with Austen (given how different it is from her other novels).

6. Carmilla (1872, J. S. Le Fanu): Dracula will forever be the #1 vampire novel of my heart, but Le Fanu honestly has a much more beautiful prose style than Stoker, and I think that the short, ghostly, ambiguous novella he writes is a lot more chilling than Bram’s sprawling magnum opus. While Uncle Silas isn’t on this list (because it honestly wasn’t that great…), I think Carmilla’s also utterly fascinating as an inversion of the dynamics of Le Fanu’s major novel in which young women find strength in their love for one another in the face of genuinely malevolent patriarchs and meddling French governesses.

7. The Woman in White (1859, Wilkie Collins): Technically it’s “sensaton fiction,” but if there is an ominous figure lurking about the heath clad in white, I think your novel automatically gets to go under the Gothic umbrella. In any event, Collins is a fun, witty writer who knows how to write an enticing mystery, his use of the epistolary format is foundational and fun, and both Count Fosco and Marian Halcombe are majestically crafted characters that deserve the abundance of praise they typically get.

8. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824, James Hogg): Imagine The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde only it was written earlier and is more confusing. Now imagine all of the early Gothic sensationalized Catholicism that would be typical of the era has been subbed out for early Gothic sensationalized Presbyterianism. That’s what this book is, and it holds the strange distinction of being one of the few stories to truly unnerve my Master’s thesis adviser in the days after he read it. It’s also a useful educational story to give to people who need clear examples of how to tell if their new best friend might be the devil.

9. The Beetle (1897, Richard Marsh): This novel is terrible in a lot of great ways and great in a lot of terrible ways. (It’s also just terrible in a lot of terrible ways, like it’s portrayal of sickeningly orientalist murder orgy cults as directed by gender ambiguous insect people.) One of its peak terriblegreat features, though, is my fave, Sidney Atherton, a mad scientist whom nobody seems to notice is a mad scientist, even though he’s monologuing about making an unstoppable death gas and killing his romantic rival’s cat.

Nope!

Basics:

1. What is their gender? 

2. What is their sexuality?

3. What is the meaning behind their name? Do they have any nicknames?

4. Do they have any siblings? How many? Are they older or younger?  Which sibling are they the closest with? 

5. What’s their relationship with their parents like? What about other relatives?

6. What would they give their life for?

7. Are they in a romantic relationship? With who? How did they meet?

8. What do they believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

9. What is their favorite color? Favorite animal?

10. What are some of their talents/skills? 

11. If they could make a mark on history, what would they like it to be? 

12. How old are they? When is their birthday?

13. What do they do for fun?

14. What is their favorite food? How often do they get to eat it?

15. What was something their parents taught them?

16. Are they religious?

17. Where were they born? 

18. What languages can they speak? Where did they learn these languages? 

19. What is their occupation?

20. Do they have any titles? How did they earn them? 

Personality:

21. What is their favorite thing about their personality?

22. What is their least favorite thing about their personality?

23. Do they get lonely easily?

24. Do you know their MBTI type?

25. What is their biggest flaw?

26. Are they aware of their flaws?

27. What is their biggest strength? 

28. Are they aware of their strengths?

29. How would they describe their own personality?

30. When frightened, will they resort to “fight” or “flight”?

31. Does this character ever put somebody else’s needs before their own? Who do they do this for? How often do they do this?

32. What is their self esteem like?

33. What is their biggest fear? How would they react to having to face it?

34. How easily do they trust others with their secrets? With their lives? 

35. What is the easiest way to annoy them?

36. What is their sense of humor like? Give an example of a joke they would find humorous.

37. How easy is it for them to say “I love you”? Do they say it without meaning it?

38. What do others admire most about their personality?

39. What does their happily ever after look like?

40. Who do they trust most? Is that trust mutual?

Physical Profile:

41. What does their laugh sound like? Do they snort when they laugh? How often do they laugh? 

42. What is their favorite thing about their physical appearance?

43. What is their least favorite thing about their physical appearance?

44. Do they have any scars? If so, what are the stories behind those scars?

45. How would they describe their own appearance?

46. How easily can they express emotions? How easily can they hide emotions?

47.  What’s their pain tolerance like?

48. Do they have any tattoos? What are the stories behind those tattoos?

49. Do they have any piercings?

50. How would you describe their style of clothing? How would they describe their style of clothing?

51. What is their height? Weight?

52. What is their body type? Are they muscular, chubby, skinny, etc?

53. What is their hair color? Eye color? Skin tone?

54. What is their current hairstyle? What have been some of their past hairstyles? Which was their favorite hairstyle?

55. What is their alcohol tolerance like? What kind of drunk are they? How bad are their hangovers?

56. What do they smell like? Why do they smell like this? (Is it the things they’re around or a perfume they wear?)

57. How do they feel about sex? Are they a virgin?

58. What is their most noticeable physical attribute?

59. What does their resting face look like? Do they have RBF?

60. Describe the way they sleep. 

Environment: 

61. Which season is their favorite season?

62. Have they ever been betrayed? How did it affect their ability to trust others?

63. What is always guaranteed to make them smile?

64. Do they get cold easily? Do they get overheated easily?

65. What’s their immune system like? Do they get sick often? How do they react to getting sick?

66. Where do they live? Do they like it there?

67. Is their bedroom messy? What about their bathroom? Kitchen? Living room?

68. How did their environment growing up affect their personality?

69. How did the people in their environment growing up affect their personality?

70. How do they feel about animals? Do they have any pets?

71. How are they with children? Do they have any? Do they want any?

72.  Would they rather have stability or comfort?

73. Do they prefer the indoors or outdoors?

74. What weather is their favorite? Do they like storms? 

75. If given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?

76. How organized are they?

77. What is their most prized possession?

78. Who do they consider to be their best friend? 

79. What is their economic situation?

80. Are they a morning person or a night owl?

Miscellaneous:

81. Are they bothered by the sight of blood?

82. What is their handwriting like?

83. Can they swim? How well? Do they like to swim?

84. Which deadly sin do they represent best?

85. Do they believe in ghosts?

86. How do they celebrate holidays? How do they celebrate birthdays?

87. What is something they regret?

88. Do they have an accent?

89. What is their D&D alignment?

90. Are they right or left handed?

91. If they were a tweet, what tweet would they be?

92. Describe them as a John Mulaney gif.

And here she and the statue are in a more formal setting (museum or art show, I can’t tell):

Ms. Luo Lirong graduated from China Central Academy Of Fine Arts. She’s a very talented artist. More of her works:

Elexus Jionde faces barrage of harassment after tweeting about 9/11 and black history

Jionde’s tweetstorm on black history prompted a largely positive response. However, it also triggered an onslaught of harassment, including racist comments and death threats.

“I’ve received death threats, racist jokes, and a lot of tweets regarding my future children having cancer. That [first] tweet has since gone viral, and without the 40+ tweets accompanying it, there are people in my mentions telling me that I’m a disgrace to my race and country for saying 9/11 only killed white people, when that isn’t what I said at all.”

Jionde believes that her thread being disabled was “no accident,” and she has accused Twitter of deliberately removing the thread.

“I believe Twitter deliberately unconnected the thread to deprive people of context. Some will say that it was some sort of system glitch or whatever, but I personally believe they disabled my thread because someone in the office was offended over the first tweet.”

Twitter outrightly denies this, suggesting that the problem could be the result of a bug.