Goth's Dark Empire [Paperback]

Carol Siegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2005

In Goth's Dark Empire cultural historian Carol Siegel provides a fascinating look at Goth, a subculture among Western youth. It came to prominence with punk performers such as Marilyn Manson and was made infamous when it was linked (erroneously) to the Columbine High School murders. While the fortunes of Goth culture form a portion of this book's story, Carol Siegel is more interested in pursuing Goth as a means of resisting regimes of sexual normalcy, especially in its celebration of sadomasochism (S/M). The world of Goth can appear wide-ranging: from films such as Edward Scissorhands and The Crow to popular fiction such as Anne Rice's "vampire" novels to rock bands such as Nine Inch Nails. But for Siegel, Goth appears as a mode of being sexually undead—and loving it. What was Goth and what happened to it? In this book, Siegel tracks Goth down, reveals the sources of its darkness, and shows that Goth as a response to the modern world has not disappeared but only escaped underground.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Siegel... counters the dearth of research into goth and the hostility of post-Columbine representations with a sympathetic, compelling examination of goth subculture as premised on gender fluidity, with sadomasochistic practices as 'radical technologies of resistance.'... Recommended." —Choice

(Choice )

"[Carol Siegel] makes a significant contribution to the intellectual discourse on this subculture... The panoramic quality of Goth's Dark Empire certainly poses a challenge, and the book makes no apology for its wide coverage of material from various disciplines. Instead, Siegel presents this diversity and complexity as a fundamental feature of the Goth community, its openness, and its fluidity..." —Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature

(Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature )

Siegel (English and American studies, Washington State Univ., Vancouver) counters the dearth of research into goth and the hostility of post—Columbine representations with a sympathetic, compelling examination of goth subculture as premised on gender fluidity, with sadomasochistic practices as 'radical technologies of resistance.' This argument is strongly informed by French theorists Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, presupposing some familiarity with their arguments. To this end, goth is a revolutionary mode of becoming in the face of alienating culture. Methodologically, Siegel draws loosely from many online discussions with goths, but more so on portrayals of goth through music, novels, and cinema, including Boys Don't Cry and The Matrix. For example, Siegel examines Poppy Z. Brite's novels to foreground the male hero as a masochist challenging the gender binary by 'queering' masculinity. Siegel also challenges perceptions of goth racism with attention to Asian American youths involved in goth. This book is sometimes difficult to follow. Chapter one opens with gender and sexuality in goth—related music and closes with a critique of abstinence—only education. Linkages between such elements depend on careful readers; such readers will be rewarded with a provocative analysis of the challenge and resistance goth desire represents within 'America's culture of denial.' Summing Up: Recommended. Upper—division undergraduates and above.R. C. Raby, Brock University, 2006jul CHOICE

(R. C. Raby, Brock University, 2006jul CHOICE )

About the Author

Carol Siegel, Professor of English and American Studies at Washington State University, Vancouver, is author of Male Masochism: Modern Revisions of the Story of Love (IUP, 1995); New Millennial Sexstyles (IUP, 2000); and Lawrence Among the Women: Wavering Boundaries in Women's Literary Tradition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (August 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253217768
• ISBN-13: 978-0253217769
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,186,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful Contribution to Gothic Debate, January 12, 2007

By 

James Rattue (Surrey, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Goth's Dark Empire (Paperback)

I have to take some issue with Anja Flower's review of Goth's Dark Empire. I read Carol Siegel's book very much from a British experience of Goth and Gothic culture (and that limited), and so I do have issues with (as Anja says) Carol's strong linkage of that culture with resistance to mainstream American identification and representation of sex and sexual identity. That certainly isn't what I find in Britain - here Goths seem to be fairly representative of the rest of the population, and even, if anything, rather conservative in their sexual habits. Nor do I know much about Deleuze-Guattari psychological analysis, and I don't think very highly of such theories anyway. But that aside, I was pleasantly surprised to find 'Goth's Dark Empire' very readable, and, so far as it goes, insightful in its discussion of the various products of the Goth culture it deals with. Carol Siegel clearly has her own point of view, which one may or may not have issues with, but she doesn't claim her treatment of the sexuality of contemporary Stateside Goth-dom is all that can be said about the matter; provided you remember that, and don't approach this specialised academic book as the 'guide to Goth' it makes no pretence to be, it makes a helpful contribution to the debate. At least it shows an academic taking Goth and Gothic seriously, which is always welcome! And even better that she's done a good deal of her work by talking to real Goths rather than simply sitting in a university study.

As to Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails - the ultimately sterile and futile 'Is it Goth?' debate may amuse teenage Goths in web-based discussion groups, and provide fun for the Goth style police who have always been with us. But, in the first place, Goth/Gothic is a multifoiled and multifaceted beast, has no (or virtually no) abiding identity, and its ability to absorb and process almost any form of entertainment, art or history and turn it out figured Gothically is part of what makes it so exciting and interesting. Secondly, Messrs Manson & Reznor have helped to process, represent, and popularise Goth imagery to the American public - and arguably debase it, but that's a matter of personal taste rather than anything more concrete. Check Catherine Spooner's fine 'Contemporary Gothic' (Reaktion Books, 2006) if you don't believe me! Try and tie Gothic down to anything in particular - or rule anything out of the ring - and you'll find it rising up to bite you in the neck.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dense, theoretical but sympathetic, June 11, 2010

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Goth's Dark Empire (Paperback)

Gloom shrouded me by sentence three of this academic treatise. "And just as [Linda] Williams set out to examine the Foucauldian 'knowledge-pleasure' produced as 'the frenzy of the visible' through the convergence of 'a variety of discourses of sexuality' within pornography (36), I set out to examine the Deleuzoguattarian becomings [1] that are produced within the discourses of sexuality that converge within Goth." (1) Siegel, a professor of English, studies Goth culture within fiction, music, film, and sexual mores. This is an admirable goal, but I wonder if those who'd benefit most from these contextual chapters can even decipher much of this prose.

I started this hoping that Siegel, given her "sex radical" hippie-era formation and her interviews with Goths in the Northwest U.S., would incorporate a wide-ranging survey of how sexuality and fashion, music and aesthetics, morals and subversion all intertwine in the American manifestations of this often caricatured subculture. Glimpses of this persist, but much of her 2005 academic work, three of its six topical chapters published previously (often a sign that a book's cobbled together from past research rather than conceived as an organic project), struggles to arrive at the goal that her introduction promises.

Professor Siegel tends to wander around her subject. Digressions about our destructive automotive reliance, abstinence programs in schools, and Chandra Levy (remember her pre-9/11?) may distract readers wishing for a focused analysis. Her insights reminded me of a passionate lecturer, eager to pursue tangents, and then bringing the discussion back a few minutes later to the main point. This may please some of her audience but may annoy others.

The audience needs lots of background in critical theory. I found two of my grad school classmates cited in the text, and while I admit less patience for extended forays into jargon than they indeed possessed, the theoretical tone of much of this work does distance itself from those readers likely to take it off the shelf for information. I found in teaching students needing reference works on Goth culture (the reason I sought Siegel's book out), that undergrads lacked solid, thoughtful explanations. Siegel does bring sympathy to her project, but her reading level's elevated so high that few outside of, yes, grad school seminars in post-modern cultural criticism will be able to understand her own analyses.

That being said, patient readers will come away with some value. Within the text, phrases pop up that sum up her perspective well. "In place of the denial of the future that characterizes mainstream American life, Goth offers a very special kind of masochistic delight in knowing the worst." (25) Chapter One tries to contrast Goth culture with "abstinence programs." It veers all over the place in doing so.

Chapter Two takes on Angela Carter's fiction. Siegel spends much of this section lamenting the passing of 1960s celebrations of free love but while she advocates similar freedom for today's teens, she seems to gloss over the American reality that has followed this shift. She decries sexual restraint, while she blames the dearth of "useful information about sex" that results in an "appalling rate of unwanted pregnancies and venereal diseases." She then states how "young people form radical countercultures around their musical tastes," to resist a custodial, infantilizing social schooling routine. (25) Siegel packs so much into so small a space that this left me puzzled as to how sexual rebellion could bring freedom-- given the dismal track record (pregnancies, STDs) of radical alterations in how sex was brought into teenaged American culture by the late 20th century.

And how does Goth relate? Siegel promotes casual sex and feminist-positive play. She wants to resurrect sexual expression from those who demonize it among the young. But within the "Dark Empire" of Goth, how these aberrant revolutionaries will manage sex better than their cowed if somewhat perkier peers appears uncertain. Siegel left me befuddled as to how this transformation will occur.

Chapter Three dives into Poppy Z. Brite's novels, which celebrate male masochism and female dominance. Yet, given the cannibalism of "Exquisite Corpse," even Siegel appears to shrink back at the extremes of such liberties. She's on surer ground when navigating the gender fluidity and male self-discovery and female empowerment within such fiction. "In Brite's fiction, as in much of Goth, the gendering of classic Gothic iconography may seem reversed, for she presents her female readers with breaking and b broken male bodies that fill the spaces of her prose as if it were the last act of 'Hamlet.'" (84)

Comparing a documentary on Brandon Teena vs. the "Boys Don't Cry" film treatment of his fate, Siegel favors the former portrayal, for it does not "erase" the boys and their brutalization of Teena. (Brandon, as she notes if gingerly, was no icon.) She earlier, if tangentially given her convoluted approach, juxtaposes Punk with Goth. Punk's "destructive fury" followed the loving hippies. After Punk's rage subsided, youth faced scorched, haunted landscapes. Punks posed in bondage gear but twisted free of its signifiers; Goths "express their rejection through a defiantly eroticized passive resistance." (97) They wrench punishment into victory.

Chapter Five surveys "male femme homosexualities" in film, but without a thorough knowledge of her examples (as with the literature earlier discussed), readers will be challenged to grasp theoretical formulations. The sixth chapter winds up her pursuit of masculinity with Asian American Goths. She settles on a satisfying take on Keanu Reeves as Neo in the "Matrix" series. "Man enough to save humanity, gentle and nonmacho enough to be himself and saved by a woman, and easily sexually attractive enough to inspire her devotion, Neo models the new masculinity" that these new models engender. (151-2)

One ends this work with little of a broader appreciation of the sexual subcultures as lived by Goths today; one does learn more about how Goths are dramatized in films, literature, and music. Siegel strives to expand Paul Hodgkinson's "Goth" thesis (see my review and also that for Jillian Venters' "Gothic Charm School") farther from fashion into sexual behavior. Still, you get little sense of how actual Goths, as opposed to aestheticized ones, express such devotion to the alternative models she so longs to see replace those of the typical high school campus. Musically, as with Hodkinson's monograph, Siegel leaves us without the depth this aspect merits, but Don Anderson's appended discography's very helpful.

She concludes spiritedly. "Goths escape the willed stupidity of the American dream to find in the nightmare of fallen knowledge a becoming that is also a coming to knowledge with no goal beyond intimacy with life's dark side. They refuse end goals, remaining, instead, fascinated with natural decay and the falling apart of all things that current mainstream values formed. By valorizing perversion and artifice for its own sake, they express their desire for a regime of endless desire." (166)

Again, I'm unsure how this manifesto plays out given this decade's downturn in Goth's fanbase. I also wondered how Goth may endure among older devotees. Those readers who could gain the most will find this work far too dense to unpack its meanings easily. (As an aside, from my observation, Siegel overlooks a delayed generational identification of some Latino and inner-city youths with a Goth-rave-darkwave-death metal assortment of styles.) Still, she tries to extend the direction of cultural studies towards Goth, and while the background's foreshortened and the examples as digressive as often as targeted, Siegel's empathy assists her and her sympathizers.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If "Anti-Oedipus" had a little gothic cousin..., August 27, 2005

By 

Rhizome "mille plateaux" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goth's Dark Empire (Paperback)

...it would be "Goth's Dark Empire." This book first caught my attention due to its application of Deleuze and Guattari to gothic youth culture. Having spent a great deal of time with both Deleuze and Guattari's work, I was interested in how Professor Siegel was applying these radical philosophical concepts to a genre of music and culture that I also possessed something of an interest in. Needless to say, this book illustrates what is so Deleuzoguattarian about goth culture and does this in a very original and charmingly idiosyncratic way.

Regarding the table of contents, I was surprised to see what at first seemed like disparate topics. How exactly was a Deleuzian book on Goth going to weave through criticism on abstinence programs, the work of Angela Carter (a British author who is only now being appreciated for her transgressive and amazing body of work), and the Brandon Teena tragedy? The fact that the book brilliantly juxtaposes discussions of Virginia Woolf with Fields of the Nephilim lyrics, and passes from Carter to Poppy Z. Brite (thus seeming to suggest Brite as a kind of successor to Carter's throne while also making the argument that both authors represent a "minor literature") is the book's ultimate triumph.

Further, what makes this book so important is that it challenges the flawed academic conception that goth culture is unworthy of study by showing its movement across women's and feminst studies and its direct connection to the anti-capitalist philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari's "Anti-Oedipus. For example, Siegel argues early on (upon the heels of Foucault's intro to "Anti-Oedipus"), in what may be the thesis of her book that "The look of Goth, its style-as-substance, can thus be understood as a potentially very powerful force of resistance, a way of generating affects that can stand against State institutions of control and the discourses of power they authorize. Goth cannot tell us how to live both darkly and against fascism, but it can show us" (25). By functioning as a minor culture that works beneath the normalcy of the mainstream, Goth culture redefines an era where the sexual revolution didn't fail, but has instead been reconfigured to account for the threat of AIDS; thus explaining Goth's romanticizing of death. Goth is also a deterritorialized cultural resistance to the zombie-bourgeoisie whose lives are plagued with denial of both their bodies and sexuality, as well as the sources of their own unmaking-a concept that grounds the anti-Oedipal argument that capitalism possesses covert ways of turning one's desire back on one's self.

Again, it is the bridges that Siegel constructs that facilitate movements and gateways between goth culture and standard academic fare such as Asian-American literature, British literature (both Joyce and Lawrence strongly figure in during the conclusion) and of course Deleuze and Guattari. An example of such bridging is Siegel's excellent chapter on the Japanese animated film "Vampire Hunter D." Throughout her analysis of the film she expertly historicizes its revision of Asian male masculinity. She places the film in recent debates concerned with representations of Asian-American males. She regularly cites authors like Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kinston, and Chang-rae Lee when observing the ways the film responds to constructions of masculinity in Asian-American literature. After reading this chapter it seems only natural that "Vampire Hunter D" as well as other gothic portrayals of Asian-American masculinities should be taught alongside the above authors.

Professor Siegel also fills a crucial gap in studies on goth cultures by showing the strong connections the movement shares with BDSM. While critics such as Paul Hodkinson claim there are no direct links between goth culture and BDSM, Siegel suggests otherwise by relaying how nearly all the participants in her ethnographic research were able to successfully point out and name the fetish gear adorned by artists such as NIN. In fact, it is the connections with BDSM that allows goth to experiment with radical sexuality in a way that embraces the darkness of living in a post-AIDS world, while also disrupting the strict binary of the sexes that perpetuates the tired and "dead" capitalist mainstream. In this way, Goth is surprisingly quite life-affirming.

Siegel's rhetoric is also enjoyable. Her love for Deleuze and Guattari is immediately evident in her writing. At her most polemical, Siegel composes some of her most inspired and calculated prose. In her conclusion she writes that "Goths escape the willed stupidity of the American Dream to find in the nightmare of fallen knowledge a becoming that is also a coming to knowledge with no goal beyond intimacy with life's dark side. They refuse end goals, remaining, instead, fascinated with natural decay and the falling apart of all things that current mainstream values formed. By valorizing perversion and artifice for its own sake, they express their desire for a regime of endless desire" (166). Siegel's reading of goth culture through an anti-oedipal, schizoanalytical lens seems so natural and even common-sensical that it is truly a wonder other Deleuzians haven't noticed goth as a cultural reflection and manifestation of the basic arguments of "Anti-Oedipus."