CLASS: BONE DEEP GOTHIC
Curious what this is all about? Find out here!
I should take a moment to (procrastinate and) introduce you to your surroundings. Obviously, this is an online project and we are in many separate spaces. But this course is also an illegitimate, unaccredited, and (possibly) unread enterprise, and so I have little to lose by venturing a bit into the theatrical.
As you read these texts over the next eleven weeks and reflect upon them, I want you to consider that you are a student of the weird and haunted Arkaic University, built on the former grounds of the Arken County Lunatick Asylum:
So when you are reclining on the quints (AU’s name for their quadrangles), imagine it to look like this:
When you go to the library to pick up books and read in the shuttered silence, it looks like this, with a slight stench of acid dust in the air:
Should you feel reflective and want to stop by the campus chapel, this is where you will find it:
And do not forget the grounds of the campus, where you can take a twilight stroll:
When you return home each night, your dormitory looks like this:
And should you decide to take a Friday night out on the town, this is what awaits you:
These are, in fact, a few of the places we’ll be studying, where the Gothic expressed itself in new and more self-conscious forms than ever before. They are, in order:
Haskell Hall at the University of Chicago, photographed by Richie Diesterheft.
Thompson Library at Vassar University, photographed by Noteremote.
The John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester, photographed by Mdbeckwith.
The Gothic Temple at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, photographed by Amanda Lewis.
Vyrnwy straining tower, photographed by Clausgroi.
Strawberry Hill House, photographed by ChiswickChap.
Downtown Flint, Michigan, photographed by Connor Coyne.
Enjoy this moment of ephemera. Next week, we tackle Salvator Rosa!