I may be thoroughly damning myself for beginning my design blog this way, but in a strange way it kinda works…
Basically I have been home sick all week, and along with actually having some time to work on my jewellery during the day (for the first time in what feels like months!), I have also been climbing into bed early and spending my evenings watching countless episodes of TRUE BLOOD back to back.
I came late to this series, and was sceptical at first (large amounts of hype always seem to make me less likely to watch something). However, I have suddenly found myself engrossed in this tale which is not just about vampires, but also about broader social issues – race, religion, faith, god, love, death, sexuality, mind control – all put together in true American Gothic literary style.
The defining features of American Gothic include the use of supernatural or unusual events to guide the plot, not merely for the sake of suspense, but in order to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of American society. American Gothic literature turns traditional stereotypes on its head, lending its characters a grotesque quality that we may not necessarily admire, but with enough good traits that the reader can still relate to them and feel compelled to follow their story. Tennessee Williams described Southern Gothic as a style that captured "an intuition, of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience."
In Australian Gothic, we see similar themes and circumstances played out, with the isolated Australian landscape as the backdrop. I’ve been listening lately to a lot of what I call dirty blues rock, which has its roots in American folk and country music combined with the blues (essentially a black American invention), slave songs, and gospel.
I remember once reading an article about Nick Cave, where Cave’s musical world was described somewhat as follows:
“His characters inhabit a downtrodden and dusty outback mining town, whose only a features are a faded church and a shabby public bar, where hookers rub shoulders with preachers, every man carries a Colt 45, and bodies are buried at the crossroads at the edge of town…”
So, maybe I’ve been listening to bands like Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, and The Violent Femmes for too many years now, but over time I’ve delved further into blues and roots, country and gospel, until I too now inhabit that dusty and desperate outback town. When I feel restless I dream of taking a trip to the desert, to Lightning Ridge, Silverton, Coober Pedy, Hill End, one of those sleepy little mining towns on the edge of nowhere, full of desperate outlaws with secrets in their souls…
One day I’ll ride west into the setting sun, hitting the road like El Mariachi. You’ll find me holed up in a draughty clap-board shack making wedding rings for outlaws out of rusted nails and the gold from some old boozer’s broken tooth. I’ll be sitting on furniture cobbled together out of broken fence pailings and termite-eaten trees that came down after the last dust storm.
In the evenings, I’ll be sitting on my verandah in an old rocking chair, drinking whiskey and polishing my shotgun…
Theme song for today: “Bad Things” by Jace Everett
IMAGE: "American Gothic", Grant Wood, 1930.
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