At face value, the Gothic and Dark Fantasy genres have nothing in common save for perhaps a “dark” ambience. Gothic writing takes place in the real world, albeit often a historical period within our world. Dark Fantasy exists entirely in an alternate world. Gothic literature is often lingering, languid, melancholy – a slow, dark beautiful journey into the soul. Dark Fantasy tends to chafe with sarcasm and cynicism, full of edges and reality portrayed in a harsh light.
But all of my literary loves tend to fall into either the Gothic, Horror or Dark Fantasy sphere. Which caused me to stop and consider the fact that, at some level, there must be a connection between these. Some similar factor that resonates for me in each genre.
That’s what we’re going to look at today: the connection between Gothic and Dark Fantasy.
I used to think that I loved Fantasy fiction in general. Until I couldn’t find a book that truly appealed to me. I finally stumbled upon Robin Hobb’s work and devoured the Farseer Trilogy. The stories feature a royal bastard – a liability to the throne – who is raised to be a royal assassin. The books are fantastic. Years later, G.R.R. Martin hit the scene with his A Song of Ice and Fire series. The stories also resonated with me, although I have my criticisms… but that’s another story for another day.
It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that both Hobb and Martin are said to write in the Dark Fantasy (also referred to as Grimdark) genre.
Some people describe the genre in particularly deprecating terms – as one full of characters devoid of any honor or goodness, with no beauty or hope – but I haven’t found that to be universally true. If anything, the most common thread I’ve witnessed is a commitment to realism. To leaders who are often self-centered and corrupted by their power. To characters with mixed motives – some that may be idealistic, others that are rooted in some secret predilection. To worlds that may be beautiful in one respect, but which are often tainted by a long history of human greed and self-interest.
I find these stories to be more complex. More authentic. And something about that appeals to me greatly.
But what does this have to do with Gothic writing?
Contrasting Themes
Dark Fantasy is technically described as Horror mixed with Fantasy, but that’s not a perfect description. Because a horror work set in a fantasy landscape wouldn’t necessarily result in a work of Grimdark. You need a whole lot more: characters who are easily corrupted and are often amoral or morally ambiguous; a plot without the certainty of good triumphing over evil; a story stripped bare of the sugar-coating that we used to see in more of the Tolkien-esque storytelling.
But both Dark Fantasy and Horror use themes related to what we call a “secret sin.” These themes deal with the moral failings of people, whether that’s the protagonist, a close associate, or merely the world leaders themselves. The fallout from their prior choices haunt the principal characters throughout the work.
But this is very different from the themes in traditional Gothic writing: themes which address the irrational truths of spiritual and psychological issues that many of us question. Whether love is really eternal. Whether the spiritual world is as great, or perhaps even greater, than the visible one around us. How a person’s conflicting nature can be understood; is one part perpetually competing with the other? Or are they like two (or more) parts of a whole – parts that cannot operate simultaneously?
Clearly the themes of Gothic novels are quite different from those of Dark Fantasy, so that can’t be the common factor.
Fantastical Elements
Both the Gothic and the Fantasy genre – Dark or otherwise – often use fantastical elements. In Dark Fantasy, magic is necessary. It underpins the entire world-building, becoming an integral part of how the characters relate to the world around them. The magic reveals who the characters are and what we should believe about what is of value in their world.
A world in which characters have a magical form of telepathy or can travel through time and space says something about the value of connectivity and relationships. A world in which characters can access life-saving healing sources is one that places great emphasis on the fear of death. Sure, some characters may not be able to harness those sources, but they’re out there, holding out the promise of life and hope. A world in which characters have superhuman strength, or other extra-human abilities, is attempting to compensate for the sense of helplessness that so many people feel. It gives readers the ability to see themselves rising above their foes or their circumstances, of having the power that they don’t have in real life.
At its heart, a magic system should tie into the value system of the world in which the characters live. It should tell readers what is important and what is true.
Gothic writing, when it uses fantastical elements, does so in order to bring the theme to life. I wrote about this in an article entitled How Gothic Writing Makes the B-Plot Tangible. What that means is that the fantastical elements are a tangible manifestation of a particularly intangible theme. Gothic books, as I just mentioned are examining those things that we can’t prove. They do this at a thematic level, using the entire book to test a theory about some spiritual or psychological question. In doing so, the Gothic genre attempts to present a more robust truth than we would see with only our five senses. The Gothic delves into the invisible to bring the unseen to life so that our understanding of truth will be richer, fuller.
So vampires can be a way to show how the character(s) feel ostracized and out of place or even threatened by changing circumstances. Monsters can bring to life the idea that man’s access to power – through science – can have disastrous ends. Ghosts can represent the past, or another part of us, that haunts us.
Clearly these two are a bit different, but I think you can see the similarities. Both of these genres use fantastical elements to make the truth more accessible, more relatable to readers.
If you’re like me, you’re starting to see a glimpse of that common thread.
Hidden Truth Revealed
I call it “hidden truth revealed.” Both Dark Fantasy and Gothic writing seek to reveal things that are true but are often overlooked or unseen.
Dark Fantasy does this through portraying fallible characters ripe with good and bad intentions, duplicity, and shifting whims. It also does so through its use of the magical elements in the fantasy world.
Gothic writing does so through its theme and the tropes that make these difficult themes tangible.
So while the two genres are employing very different methods, they both present deeper truth than most other genres do. They both want to present the truth as the writer understands it, devoid of the sanitized expectations that might be expected elsewhere.
That’s what appeals to me. Whether or not I agree with every writer, I appreciate the desire to show the truth in all of its facets – whether those be beautiful or gritty and dark. Because I value the unvarnished truth more than the varnish itself.
If you love Gothic and Dark Fantasy writing, perhaps that’s true for you as well. Give it some thought and let me know!
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