Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

Update, 1/11/2021: The podcast has been on hiatus for four months, but my partner Lindsay and I are making content again. However, the podcast has a new name, Dreadful Discourse , and will have better production values: a new credits intro, custom background art drawn by me, music, and better-sounding audio. Also, more Lindsay and less me flapping my goddamn gums. Yay!  The whole YouTube playlist is available, here . We also have a new Patreon for the podcast, which you can find, here . Dreadful Discourse  is a podcast-style YouTube series hosted by myself and my partner, Lindsay Wheeler. In it, we discuss the Gothic—what it is, and its individual components in a great detail. Note: This section will be updated as future videos in the series go live. Episode 1, the Pilot This episode   discusses the Gothic more generally by outlining its core components: the uncanny, the abject, hauntology, atmosphere, presentation (i.e., horror and terror), oscillation; and various trope...

This compendium contains the interviews for "Hell-blazers," my Doom Eternal Speedrunning Q&A Project, and any salient links. Note: When new interviews go live, this compendium will also be updated. Update, 1/4/2025: My focus has shifted to Metroidvania, which I've written multiple books on, since this post. To it, 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). Foreword Aimed largely at the Twitch crowd, but also speed...

I'd heard recently that a Super Metroid remake is in the works . I wanted to write about that, here, but also give my thoughts on remakes, and the idea as it pertains to the Gothic in videogames—specifically Metroid as a Gothic franchise. Note: Written while listening to "Alien: Isolation ASMR."   Remakes are a curious business; they generally involve a great deal of reinvention, but try to preserve something in the bargain. For the Gothic, the thing being preserved is generally the "past." This falls in line with  Metroid   (1986-present). This sci-horror franchise might seem concerned with the so-called future. But it's also Gothic, fixated on the reimagined past. This object can vary a lot, and has historically. For Walpole and the Neo-Gothic writers, the Gothic's sense of dislocated pastness came about through a cultivated aesthetic—of the medieval period distanced from actual history as it was understood in the 1700s; it took the form of c...

Alien (1979) is a film I've seen so many times that I've lost count. I've watched it on laser disc, television, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and online. I've fallen asleep to it, or had it playing in the background while I do other things. I first saw it when I was nine, and continue to watch it into my thirties. Not as often, mind you, but I still return to the haunted Nostromo from time to time. I'll be stating my piece for a movie about which so much has already been said; nothing I'm saying will prove transcendental, but merely a different reaction inside the same system of differences. But why is Alien so important to me when I've seen so many other movies, too?  Alien  is not a "perfect" movie; it has its flaws, to be sure. It is, however, a perfect example of Gothic horror. Any mistakes it does have don't stop it from working the way it was intended. About a year ago, I saw Alien in theaters. I had memorized it by that point, but still ha...

For October, I'm doing weekly write-ups on  The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance  (2019). This write-up concerns the theme of appetites—how the show presents and explores them. Spoilers! Age of Resistance  is, amongst other things, a show about appetites, food. Multiple scenes portray gross consumption by the Skeksis. During these opulent gluts, they shamelessly gorge themselves, their tables sagging with endless essence, food and incense. Much of it is exotic, dressed up for optimal succulence. However, more of it is domestic, pilfered from the land around them. There is no limit to what they consume. More to the point, the show connects appetite with its characters' individual wants and desires. Consider this conversation between the Chamberlain and Rian; both sit inside a carriage, winding towards the Castle of the Crystal: Rian: "You killed Mira!" Chamberlain: "All things kill.  Is z'nid bird evil because it eats crawling nurloc?" Ria...

For October, I'm doing weekly write-ups on  The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance  (2019). There will be spoilers—lots of them. Last week, I explored horror as centered on the Skeksis. This week, I wanted to study it through a less likely but equally productive source: the Gelfling.  The Gelfling are an interesting source for horror, but produce it differently than the Skeksis. From a practical standpoint, they are uncanny. Unlike the Skeksis, who are deliberately fashioned to be hideous and ugly, the Gelfling are made to appear cute. However, they are also, at times, doll-like; there is a very real limit to their cuteness, which pushes up against the technological constraints manifest in dolls. The faces are cute; the eyes inside are lifeless ("A shark has blank eyes, a doll's eyes."). This is a practical issue. Eyes are complex. They swivel in their sockets; the pupils contract and the irises change color. Or, at least, they should. Gelfing eyes do not. This p...

Moving into October, I wanted to do weekly write-ups on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019). There will be spoilers—lots of them. This week's write-up concerns AoR 's use of horrifying content—mainly the Skeksis—to affect the audience. In the Gothic, horror has a specific function: to shock and disgust. However, the ways in which this goes about are not always so simple. For example, seeing a Skeksis lord explode before our eyes might, under most circumstances, be unwanted. The core punch this discomfort offers isn't the explosion, itself, or that it was gross; it's that we, the audience, paid to be showered with it. An argument can certainly be made to its surprising nature; but the show's dark reputation for violence and horror falls in line with whatever comes our way. To rephrase, there are those in the audience who not only enjoy the gory mess; they'd feel robbed without it! The genius behind AoR is how it chooses to deliver the goods, and wh...