A Georgian Itch

Halloween 2015: The Castle of Otranto and The Gothic

2015-10-06T09:00:00.000+01:00

This is the first in a series of posts leading up to my favourite holiday, Halloween. The late 18th Century saw the rise of the Gothic genre, a reaction against the rationalism that had defined the century. Leading this trend was Horace Walpole, writer of what is considered the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Like many of the novels published at the time, The Castle of Otranto was originally published with the claim that it was a true story, with the original full title being The Castle of Otranto, A Story. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto. In fact it claimed to be a translation of a recently discovered 16th Century Italian text, and it wasn't until the second and subsequent editions that Walpole claimed ownership.

"The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed in Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principle incidents are such are were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity ; but the language and conduct have nothing that favours barbarism. The style is the purest Italian. If the story was written near the time it is supposed to have happened, it must have been between 1095, the era of the first crusade, and 1243, the date of the last or not long afterwards."

For anyone familiar with the basic plot it seems ridiculous for anyone at the time to actually think the story could be true. I encourage you to go read it if you haven't already because to a modern reader it's absolutely hilarious, it's every horror cliché crammed into around a hundred pages. But if you consider that nothing like this, at least in this genre, had ever been written before, and that all of the Gothic tropes that can be found in the novel were brand new, this isn't just a load of adults falling for ghost stories. It's a very clever writer writing in the dominant story-telling form of the age, and twisting it to tell a story that would captivate its audience by appealing to its darkest fears.

Possibly the most interesting thing about the novel is that it is the first time we see many of the Gothic tropes that we're still familiar with today. These include old castles, secret passages, and virginal maids pursued by evil villains.

Another thing that remained a trend in the Gothic is its not-so-subtle psycho-sexuality, for example a character is killed by a falling giant helmet, and this is continued further in other exemplary Gothic novels such as The Monk and Dracula (a piece dedicated to Dracula to follow.) Even today's horror films contain overtly sexual themes. The Gothic represented the hidden desires of the sub-conscience, and presented them to its readers in a way that horrified them.

I'd argue that horror still does the same today, but the use of the supernatural makes the horrors of humanity more palatable for the consumer. When the villain is a vampire, ghost, zombie, or a werewolf, we can walk away from the film safe in the knowledge that these creatures don't really exist.We can process the ideas that are being presented to us in a safe environment, without feeling any immediate threat. Often monsters represent the darker sides of the human psyche, and this is never more apparent than in the Gothic novel. Perhaps that's something to bear in mind as we read these novels. Perhaps the scariest monsters aren't the monsters in ghost stories, but the monsters in our heads.

BI VISIBILITY DAY 2015 | Aphra Behn

2015-09-23T09:00:00.000+01:00

Today, September 23rd, is Bi Visibility Day. The fact that many of you reading this mightn't know this is probably why this day needs to exist. (Also, look at how pretty our flag is, we need a day dedicated to waving it unashamedly.) We often refer to ourselves as the silent B within LGBT discourse (the silent T often practically invisible), as it is important to remember that bisexual, pansexual, Trans* people, and anybody else under the LGBT+ umbrella often face issues that are separate from each other, and from those experienced by Lesbian and Gay people. All too often LGBT is used as a synonym for Lesbian and Gay, and whilst bi people obviously experience homophobia, we also experience biphobia, often facing discrimination from both within and outside of the LGBT+ community. The fact is, whilst we are a part of LGBT+ history and culture as a whole, us bisexuals have our own history, experiences, and issues that should be treated with as much respect and understanding. If you want to find out more please visit the following links. Otherwise, we'll get right on to talking about the total bae that is Aphra Behn.

http://www.bivisibilityday.com/
http://www.bisexualweek.com/about/
http://www.glaad.org/bisexual/bierasure
http://robynochs.com/biphobia/
Evan Rachel Wood on being bisexual

First of all, you should know that Aphra Behn was a badass. Interest in her literary works has recently reached new heights within academia, and rightly so! You see, there's this misconception that only rich men were writing popular fiction and poetry back in the day, largely because academia has chosen to dismiss the popular labouring class and women writers of the period (I could get into this more deeply, but if I get into a discussion about sexism within academia we might be here a while...)

So cutting to the chase, we don't know much about Aphra Behn's early life. We know that she was baptised on the 14th December 1640, spent some of her youth in the West Indies, was married in 1664 but divorced not long after, and she was a British SPY in Antwerp,1766 (her codename was Astrea. We definitely need a film about this.) It was imprisonment for debt, that she got herself into because the King wouldn't pay for her to come home, so she had to borrow money, that led her to start writing for an income. She also had a lover at one point named John Hoyle who was openly bisexual.

Aphra Behn wrote novellas, poetry, and plays, and her best known work is Oroonoko, the story of an enslaved African prince, and an important text in the history of the modern British novel. A personal favourite poem of mine by Aphra Behn, that I'm sure you'll love, is called 'The Disappointment', in which a woman in left sexually unsatisfied due to her partner's premature ejaculation. In fact, with all of the excitement, he cums in his pants.

In vain th' enraged Youth assaid
To call his fleeting Vigour back,
No motion 'twill from Motion take,
Excess of Love his Love betray'd ;
In vain he Toils, in vain Commands,
Th' Insensible fell weeping in his Hands.

Great stuff isn't it? You can read the full text HERE.

Aphra Behn was an early feminist icon, and argued fervently through her writings for a woman's right to sexual pleasure. She talked frankly about sex, including sex with other women (see below, and also The Dream), and about having multiple lovers (On Her Loving Two Equally)

To the Fair Clarinda, who made love to me, imagined more than woman

Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be
Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee,
Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth:
And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth.
This last will justifie my soft complaint,
While that may serve to lessen my constraint;
And without Blushes I the Youth persue,
When so much beauteous Woman is in view.
Against thy Charms we struggle but in vain
With thy deluding Form thou giv'st us pain,
While the bright Nymph betrays us to the Swain.
In pity to our Sex sure thou wer't sent,
That we might Love, and yet be Innocent:
For sure no Crime with thee we can commit;
Or if we shou'd - thy Form excuses it.
For who, that gathers fairest Flowers believes
A Snake lies hid beneath the Fragrant Leaves.

Though beauteous Wonder of a different kind,
Soft Cloris with the dear Alexis join'd;
When e'er the Manly part of thee, wou'd plead
Though tempts us with the Image of the Maid,
While we the noblest Passions do extend
The Love to Hermes, Aphrodite the Friend.

If you want to find out more about Aphra Behn, you can do so at the following links:
http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/behn_aphra.html (includes links to more poems)
http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/lbrothe/shoup1.html
http://www.sappho.com/poetry/a_behn.html
http://writersinspire.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/content/aphra-behn
https://dramadaily.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/before-gaga-there-was-behn-or-liz-duffy-adams-bisexual-bombshell/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIWqH8CYKuM

Do you have a favourite bisexual writer? Let me know in the comments below :) Also, if you're doing anything today to celebrate Bi Visibility Day, let me know what you're up to!

#PigGate | Pigs in 18th Century Political Satire

2015-09-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

Thomas Rowlandson, 'The Wonderful Pig, 1785

Following what was easily the best couple of hours I have ever spent on Twitter, where pig puns could never get old, and we wondered how Hameron and his crew down in Number 10 would deal with all of the embarrassment, I started to wonder if there was any hilarity of this kind in 18th Century political satire. Well it turns out they never went full Black Mirror, but there's still plenty of laughs to be found.

The Learned Pig

The illustration at the top of this post depicts a phenomenon that occurred in London society in the 1780s. Pigs were trained for the purposes of entertainment to pick up cards with their mouths in order to spell words and answer arithmetical problems. The original Learned Pig was trained by a Scottish shoemaker named Samuel Bisset, who ran a travelling novelty show. In fact, according to Jan Bondeson "The Wonderful Pig soon became the leading light in Mr Bisset's troupe. It could kneel, bow, spell out names using cardboard letters, cast up accounts, and point out married and unmarried people in the audience." Naturally, satirists saw an opportunity here, and ran with it.

It became a bit of the in joke to compare a writer or politician to a learned pig, and even the then Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt was referred to as "the Wonderful pig", and was depicted in a caricature with the body of a pig. (I'm led to believe that The British Museum may have the image, but unfortunately as I write this the Collection Online search on their website isn't working.)

The 'Swinish Multitude'

The complete reversal of the above, where the masses are characterised as the pigs, is also present in eighteenth century literature. In Edmund Burke's 1790 Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke wrote "along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude." Naturally, the idea that revolutionary supporters were an animalistic and dangerous mob that would destroy any notion of civilised society and education caused some outrage. For many this highlighted how the upper classes were completely out of touch with the issues facing the working class.

Burke's comments generated plenty of commentary and satire. Thomas Spence wrote a poem narrated by an anti-revolutionary simply called 'Burke's Address to the "Swinish Multitude"', which is littered with piggish puns.

YE vile SWINISH Herd, in the Sty of Taxation,

What would ye be after?—diſturbing the Nation?

Give over your grunting—Be off—To your Sty!

Nor dare to look out, if a KING paſſes by:

...

Do you think that a KING is no more than a Man?

Ye Brutiſh, Ye Swiniſh, irrational Clan?

I ſwear by his Office, his Right is divine,

To flog you, and [...]eed you, and treat you like Swine!

...

Then no more about MAN and his RIGHTS,

TOM PAINE, and a Rabble of Liberty Lights:

That you are but our "SWINE," if ye ever forget,

We'll throw you alive to the HORRIBLE PIT!

Get ye down! down! down!—Keep ye down!

(You can read the text in its entirety HERE)

His satire points out that this kind of language is designed to keep the lower classes down and remind them that they are a "lesser" than the men of nobility. And it struck me reading this poem how incredibly relevant it is to recent events. If the pigs are the working masses that are continually put down by an oppressive form of government, then #PigGate seems too perfectly crafted a satire to be true. To those of us who feel we are being continually fucked over by David Cameron and his party, we are that pig.

Find out More:

Thomas Hood, 'The Lament of Toby the Learned Pig'

Christopher Machell, The Politics of Beastial Imagery in Satire, 1789-1820

Jan Bondeson, The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History