Dear Reader,
They say the past will haunt you. They write it, too, and slip it quietly under my door at night. That’s because it’s my inadvisable duty to pursue the particulars of the Gothic in art, literature and travel. Welcome to the Gothic Dispatch, the strangest blog in this world – or the next.
But you probably have questions. Questions like, “What is the Gothic Dispatch?” And, “What is Gothic, really?” And maybe, “If you don’t know him and I don’t know him, who is the thirteenth guest at our dinner party?” I’ll answer all the questions I can but, for many of them and much else, I’m afraid you’re on your own.
What is the Gothic Dispatch?
The Gothic Dispatch is the blog I started in 2023, originally with the intention of finding and visiting Gothic locations in Europe and, I one day hoped, the world.
The blog you’re wandering through now is built around the ruins of that idea. Life and all its headaches mean that travelling isn’t always as easy as I’d like. But Gothic has plenty that I can explore from my own home – or, when you’re not looking, yours. The Gothic Dispatch now includes essays and opinions on all sorts of Gothic particulars:
- Dispatches – Light reports from the world’s darkest places
- Eulogies – Introductions to Gothic masters and servants
- Inquisitions – Longer essays on even longer-standing conceits
- Judgements – Lists of Gothic works to pursue or be pursued by
But who are you?
I’m Tom Rippon, an English reader and writer living in France. I came to the Gothic through literature, through classics such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. I started this blog to find where their otherly worlds slipped into ours and, before long, my search expanded into Gothic architecture, art, film and beyond. On it goes.
And what is Gothic, really?
Many who ask that question are doomed never to know. The truth is, I’m no more qualified to give you an answer than anyone else. Gothic characteristics exist in the natural, the architectural, the textual and beyond.
- The natural – in storms, forests and other gloomy circumstances.
- The architectural – in ruins, graveyards and other lonely locations.
- The textual – in rumours, folklore and other mysterious tales.
To guard our sanity, let’s say that the Gothic is anything in which the past haunts the present.
So, what now?
Now, the time has come to lock the door, light a candle and let someone know to check on you every once in a while. Thanks for reading the Gothic Dispatch.