>>Isn't the whole point of being a goth to experience persecution? If people treated you like a normal part of the group, wouldn't you have to find some more extreme appearance change to separate yourself from that group and make people treat you like an outcast again? Or is there something to it beyond being "nonconformist"?
Was that a serious question? Iâve met a few inexperienced teenagers with victim complexes, but I know of no group of people whose sole reason for being is to seek persecution from the others around them. Youâre posting under the (outrageous and unfounded, IMHO) preconceived notion that I identify with a philosophy simply to shock people, and feel bad about myself. Neither is the case â itâs akin to saying that the point of being a Christian is to get yourself nailed to a cross.
What there âis to itâ (the goth scene) depends on who you ask. Since itâs a social subculture, everyone derives something different from it.
I would broadly split the main mentalities into club goths and literary ones. The clubbers build their scene around music and fashion, with lots of shared âdarkâ interests (cinema, performance art, photography, etc.). The literary focus mainly on the Gothic philosophy, derived from the 18th-century fiction movement and the 19th- & 21st-century revivals. (Extensive subject, but basically itâs focused on sensitivity to the possibility of the supernatural and an obsession with human mortality and the passing of time.)
A very quick summary of the elements of the literary Gothic can be found here:
http://www.virtualsalt.com/gothic.htm
Some people feel that these two mentalities are mutually exclusive, but Iâve found that most goths embody both, and itâs only the proportion that differs.
Thatâs not the extent of my personal philosophy, but given the temperature in these forums itâs likely the furthest Iâm willing to share of my own beliefs. You see? Iâm not seeking persecution, Iâm actually quite interested in avoiding it. Been there, done that, and all.
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Was that a serious question? Iâve met a few inexperienced teenagers with victim complexes, but I know of no group of people whose sole reason for being is to seek persecution from the others around them. Youâre posting under the (outrageous and unfounded, IMHO) preconceived notion that I identify with a philosophy simply to shock people, and feel bad about myself. Neither is the case â itâs akin to saying that the point of being a Christian is to get yourself nailed to a cross.
What there âis to itâ (the goth scene) depends on who you ask. Since itâs a social subculture, everyone derives something different from it.
I would broadly split the main mentalities into club goths and literary ones. The clubbers build their scene around music and fashion, with lots of shared âdarkâ interests (cinema, performance art, photography, etc.). The literary focus mainly on the Gothic philosophy, derived from the 18th-century fiction movement and the 19th- & 21st-century revivals. (Extensive subject, but basically itâs focused on sensitivity to the possibility of the supernatural and an obsession with human mortality and the passing of time.)
A very quick summary of the elements of the literary Gothic can be found here:
http://www.virtualsalt.com/gothic.htm
Some people feel that these two mentalities are mutually exclusive, but Iâve found that most goths embody both, and itâs only the proportion that differs.
Thatâs not the extent of my personal philosophy, but given the temperature in these forums itâs likely the furthest Iâm willing to share of my own beliefs. You see? Iâm not seeking persecution, Iâm actually quite interested in avoiding it. Been there, done that, and all.
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