He looked like Tim Burton, this guy. I’d see him hanging outside the alt-rock nightclubs and bars of Detroit in the early 1990s with a posse of girls in plum lipstick sitting on his Toyota. License plate: 2-GOTH-4-U. He didn’t have it all figured out, I remember thinking, but in living life like it was a Goth-version of a Hype Williams video, this guy had something figured out. Goth is, of course, a godsend for teenagers. Sad girls with heads full of revenge plans can empower themselves by wearing more crushed velvet than Elizabeth Bathory on a Friday night while twink boys can flaunt their sexual ambiguity by wearing more crushed velvet than Elizabeth Bathory on Friday night. Everyone should have a Goth phase they can either brag about or deny. Yet, with two generations of practitioners from the post-punk era to the post-emo now, Goth has both grown up and grown diffuse: its aesthetics sinking roots into a dozen different music and literary cultures. Goth, as it is today, needs a codex of some kind and Toronto journalist Liisa Ladouceur has written one in the witty, exhaustive and, for aficionados, endlessly debatable Encyclopedia Gothica. Toronto Standard spoke with Ladouceur about her new book, which launches Tuesday, Oct. 4 at the Gladstone. 8PM. Free. Why the encyclopedia? I’m a Goth and a grammar nerd. I had long wanted to write a book about Goths but wasn’t sure of what kind, as there were already so many out there about the history of the music, photo essays of the fashion, sociological studies of the culture, etc. I came across the book The Rock Snob’s Dictionary, by David Kamp and Steven Daly, which appealed to my love of insider language and music and the lightbulb went off: I could do an A-Z of Goth language. I figured the in-jokes would be pretty funny, and if I approached it seriously enough it could be a genuinely useful reference book. Soon after coming up with the list of words and phrases, my “dictionary for the doomed,” expanded to an encyclopedia including biographical entries for all the artists, events and other cornerstones of Gothdom I felt were important to fully understand it. What do you think the reason for Goth’s longevity as a subculture is? It’s undead? I would like to say it’s because Goth is about sex and death and the romance of history and other immortal themes, but honestly I don’t know that Goth is much different from hip-hop, skateboarding, or any other youth cultures that have sprung up since the ’60s and never went away. We’re now into the third generation of self-identified Goths and while the music and fashion has enjoyed a few surges in mainstream popularity (thanks, Marilyn Manson!) it’s for the most part still a fringe, underground society that keeps to itself. But there are always new kids on the block discovering the allure of black eyeliner and The Cure and so it’s constantly replenishing its blood, reinventing itself through new mutations in each decade, such as Cyber Goth in the rave era and most recently Steampunk, which isn’t exclusively a Goth scene but appeals to many of them. What was your defining Goth moment? The moment where you said, “Yes. I. Am. Goth.” I didn’t have one. I only really think of myself as being Goth when other people ask me about it, although through the writing of the book I certainly delved into it more than I have since high school, back when standing on the subway grates in front of Nathan Phillips Square to let the gust of air blow your velvet cloak up for photo ops was considered the highlight of a weekend trip to the city. I did however just get my arms tattooed with O.G. to celebrate the book launch, so I guess maybe that was the moment, just now. Goth identity and adulthood: Is it a tough negotiation? Not at all. Anyone who still thinks Goth is an adolescent phase hasn’t met the many grown-ups who proudly call themselves Elder Goth. While I certainly don’t rip my fishnet stockings and wear them over my head as T-shirts anymore, I have changed very little in my outlook, my interests and my appearance since first falling in love with the dark side those many moons ago. I actually think dressing up fancy, reading scary stories and visiting graveyards around the world are fine ways to grow older. __ Brian Joseph Davis is Toronto Standard’s Book Critic. He also is the author of Portable Altamont and I, Tania, and co-founder of the literary website Joyland.
