Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

This interview is for "Hailing Hellions," a Q&A series where I interview sex workers (or ex-sex workers) who have modeled for me and my  Sex Positivity*  book project. Today's guest is Goddess Asterin ! This is the SFW version;  click here  for the SFW-version interview compendium! *The longer title being  Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Work under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art  (2023). Part of an overarching movement that connects sex positivity to what I call "Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism,"  Sex Positivity  essentially provides a hybrid; i.e., one established between academic (Gothic, queer, game and Marxist) theories, and wherein  applied  theory towards  universal  liberation is achieved by challenging Capitalist Realism (the inability to imagine a world beyond Capitalism) at a grassroots level. To it, Gothic Communism specifically occurs through direct mutual worker actio...

This essay, "X Marks the Spot," was written in response to Metaquarium's X-Fusion romhack (2025). A hybrid of my 2025 Metroidvania Corpus (which holds it) and Sex Positivity series (which develops similar themes in a book-style format), "X" hybridizes the former's historical-material approach with the latter's essay-driven angle; i.e., belonging to a disparate body of work that falls under the same basic umbrella , one that considers how best to reverse abjection mid-cryptonymy through the Amazon aesthetic (and confusion) that Metroidvania excel at. Note: First, the X-Fusion romhack is officially out (with Metaquarius taking their WordPress back online to announce the debut [on 8/3/2025] after having said site down for nearly two weeks). There's also a Discord server for X-Fusion —one where you can go and talk directly with Meta/give feedback on the game—and  the hack is also available on MetroidConstruction.com ; i.e., where you can read diff...