Persephone's (Gothic) Insights
The horror blog about metal, videogames, and sex.

My Thesis Volume Is Out!

 

 

Volume Zero/the thesis volume for my book, Sex Positivity, is officially live! Go to my website's 1-page promo and pick up a copy for free (it's non-profit)! While you're there, you can also learn about the other three volumes, project history and logo design. The rest of the volumes are planned to release between the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024. In the meantime, give Volume Zero a look. It is easily the hardest thing I’ve ever written, and I’m very excited to share it with you all; if you like it, please share it with your friends and let me know what you think!

Update, 4/9/2025: I just completed "Make It Real" for Volume One's 2025 promotion rollout, followed by releasing the second edition of the volume, itself. The entirety of its changes are contained in "A 2025 Foreword: On Volume One's New Edition Focusing on Ludo-Gothic BDSM (and Cuwu)." Alongside it, I also released new editions for Volume Zero (small changes) and the modules to Volume Two: "Redirected the hyperlinks for quotes from Volumes Zero and One to the online book promotions: 'The Total Codex' and 'Make It Real.' Updated the abstract, acknowledgments and glossaries." This means all my book volumes are available in PDF format, as well as post-by-post in a blog-style format (except for Volume Three, which isn't out yet)! Give 'em a look!
 
Update, 3/24/2025: After years of no issues, Blogger/Google is starting to censor my already censored image covers. To prevent blocks on my pages (which force people to log into Blogger to access them), I'm swapping out anything that could be deemed as "inappropriate" by Google's AI system. It sucks, but if you want to see the book covers (and any other images dedicated to my work), follow the links above!
 

Update, 1/4/2025: I've decided to release the entirety of my work on Metroidvania in one single place: "From Master's to PhD (and Beyond): My Entire Work on Metroidvania" (2025). This includes my master's thesis and early postgraduate work (re: "Mazes and Labyrinths"), my PhD (released in 2023), further essays released after my postgraduate work in my larger book series, Sex Positivity. You can also ask me questions about Metroidvania on the r/Metroidvania subreddit: "From Master's to PhD (and Beyond): My Entire Work on Metroidvania" (2025).

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My name's Persephone van der Waard; I have my MA in Gothic English literature and independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing partially on Metroidvania), and I am the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity vs Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being Bay Ryan). A rape survivor/granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and Dutch Resistance member—and someone anti-war (as a business), anti-Zionist and anti-racist/anti-white-supremacist who specializes in tokenism (e.g., TERFs, SWERFs, and fascist feminism)—I'm a MtF trans woman, Tolkien and Amazon enthusiast, former YouTuber, anti-fascist, loud critic of Marxist-Leninism/state vampirism, atheist and Satanist, poly/pan kinkster with multiple partners, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist; i.e., under my brand of Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism as a holistic, intersectional discipline: one devised in 2022-2023, and which my friends and I currently achieve together. / Originally this blog explored my love of movies when I was cis-het; now I use it to write about the Gothic—horror, but also sex, heavy metal, and videogames in a queer way (especially Metroidvania).

I take donations for my work (which goes towards helping sex workers, trans people and other minorities). I currently take payment on PayPal, Patreon, and CashApp, etc; all links are available on my Linktr.ee. Every bit helps!

Regarding Formatting Issues for Blogposts (Older than October 2025): Recently Josey Howarth helped transfer my old blog from Blogger to WordPress, which—while vital for security reasons—altered their formatting. On a phone screen, the posts are mostly readable, but look slightly "jank" on computer screens. Many also contain outdated "About the Author" sections—meaning inside the posts-in-question, alongside the blog website "footer" (as added by Josey after the transfer). Such things are temporary. Eventually we plan to overhaul their visual design, remodeling my blog and website (thus fixing the issues in the question)!

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