Evil Writers: The Obsessive Effect of Gothic Writing

Abstract

Maria Antónia Lima (Assistant Professor, University of Évora - Portugal)

“Evil writers - the obsessive effect of gothic writing”

To consider writing as an addictive practice, that leads to obsession and madness, is a point of view from which some gothic writers depart to reflect on the dangerous effects of the creative process, when it becomes a Faustian enterprise that exceeds all its reasonable limits. Gothic fiction involves high levels of ambivalence, which are sometimes translated by a curious similarity between hero and villain, and by a fatal attraction between victim and criminal. A possible identification between the writer and his villain is an important aspect of the ambiguity and transgressive power of gothic narratives. The intention to give gothic fiction a high degree of reality, in order to produce strong emotions, has always been a central motive for many gothic writers. In John Carpenter’s famous film, In the Mouth of Madness (1995), we can find an expert in fantastic literature, Sutter Can, who is able to affect the mental state of his readers by the power of his writing, a special gift that any other author, such as Lovecraft and Stephen King can possess. Jack Torrance in The Shining, Ben Mears in Salem’s Lot, Thaddeus Beaumont in The Dark Half and Paul Sheldon in Misery can be good examples to illustrate the obsessions and existential crisis provoked by gothic writing. Gothic terrors can subvert and transgress social and moral values as well as any kind of aesthetic limits, but they are also paradoxically used to reaffirm those limits underlying their value. Gothic fiction can become a warning against the dangers of transgression, presenting them in their darkest and most threatening form. However, many of the bestselling gothic novels can only produce a high level of alienation, extracting only a very superficial aesthetical pleasure from destruction. As Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose reminds us, the threat may not be a supernatural creature, but a text.