July’s theme was the exploration of Sapphic Gothic and Horror. A few of our speakers had to cancel so I jumped in for a few slots. Not all our talks were exactly on theme but we stuck to it tight in book group. What stuck out about this month was how much amazing sapphic Gothic and horror there is out there so let me take you on a little journey about what we’ve been learning and reading this month! Contrary to the formatting of previous months, I’ll talk about our book group and the classes separately as they both deserve their own space.
Reading
There is such a boom in great sapphic Gothic and horror at the moment with writers like M K Hardy, Caitlin Starling, Suzan Palumbo, M H Ayinde, Hailey Piper, Emma Osborne, Lindz McLeod, Kirsty Logan, Antonija Mežnarić, Trang Thanh Tran, the writing team of Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta, S T Gibson, Jade Song, Alexis Henderson, Lindsay King Miller, Kaylnn Bayron and so many more! This month, we read 4 separate books, crossing over some genre lines, to explore a little of what there is out there!
We started the month off with the most Gothic of our reads: M K Hardy’s The Needfire.
If you like your Gothic with an old house (isolated in the North of Scotland); some horrific secrets just out of sight; a competent, looming, traumatised and traumatising housekeeper; and some good old fashioned sapphic angst… this is a book you’ll very much enjoy.
I always enjoy seeing the ingredients of a long standing sub-genre of the Gothic taken and played with. And it may be that I am terrible at guessing twists (I am), but I also didn’t see some of this coming and that is also a nice surprise. The fact our sapphic protagonist (you can guess which one I think is the true star) stays morally grey to the end is also a delight.
Our second read of the month took us in a very different direction with a modern-day sapphic zombie. We read Emma Osborne’s Grief Eater.
Grief Eater is a nibble of a book size-wise, but it hits hard. We read from the perspective of a zombie. Before her death she was a queer woman with an abusive family and after death, she holds onto consciousness long enough to find them. Within the conceit of the novel, tasting blood and flesh allows zombies to experience the thoughts, feelings and memories of those they bite. I won’t spoil the revelations, but this is a pretty haunting study of grief.
Our third book was a lot chunkier and was probably my favourite of the month: Caitlin Starling’s The Starving Saints.
God, I loved this book. Did it cater to my specific obsessions? Yes. But it’s also a really great book, layered and nuanced with some gorgeous world-building. For those you don’t know me, I’m a theology nerd who researches historical theologies and their reflection in contemporary texts. I take that nerdery into my modern reading and the construction of a alternative theological world in this was DELICIOUS to me. It’s also got cannibals, deeply flawed and traumatised protagonists, violent religious ecstasies, dangerous ‘saints’ and all the siege horror you could ask for. I would give my right eyebrow to teach this.
Our last book of the month was a move in a different direction – Sci-Fi. We read Lina Rather’s Sister’s of the Vast Black
Now, I will admit that more often than not my theology interest bites me in the butt and this was one of those occasions because I had a lot of questions about the theological world here that the book doesn’t answer. However, as I am a complete outlier, I doubt this will be something to even register on the radar for anyone else who isn’t a weird theology nerd. What you can expect (and hopefully very much enjoy) are space nuns, living ships, ethical dilemmas and the Catholic Church in space. I really enjoyed the detail paid to the nitty gritty, or the every day mundane routines, of looking after and living in a living ship. There’s a sequel which I haven’t read but it certainly intrigues!
Talks and Learning
None of our books this month were tied to specific talks but there ended up being a lot of overlap, particularly in relation to the depiction of (sapphic) women. One of the things I love about horror and the Gothic is that we often get to bypass the discussions or complaints about the ways in which perfection is often required of marginalised characters in the name of good representation. Horror is full to the brim with messy, monstrous, morally compromised, deeply delightful women – from zombies bent on closure to cannibals surviving a siege to housekeepers navigating the demands of a family curse and a desire to vengeance.
Our first talk of the month took us right into the world of women on the borders who appear monstrous from inside the bubble of privilege and belonging and appeared enraged from a location beside them. Atalie Gerhard joined us for a talk on Commodified Womxn at the Border in American Horror.
I did two talks this month (filling in for speakers that had to change dates or cancel, I wasn’t just putting myself forward!) and I’ll give them to you out of order because my second talk Evil Women I Have Loved: The Enduring Appeal of Murder Ladies picked up on the theme of dangerous, murderous, delightful women. Growing up in the 80s, I was used to seeing sapphic women on screen and in literature as tragic or evil and you all should know by now which one I chose to align myself with. The talk explores the way that FICTIONAL murder ladies (I am expressly against murder in actual real life) symbolically take on a cathartic role for the sapphic, female or other viewer. Whether they’re expressing rage, desire or pain, the appeal is obvious to me. See if you agree!
I’m being a bit cheeky here with the timeline but I wanted to include one of the talks that got rescheduled which was delivered in September: Morgan Dante’s Daughters of Darkness: Sapphic Vampirism on Film. It picks up some of the characters and ideas from the evil women talk as it takes us on a whistle-stop tour of some of the sapphic vampire films of the 20th and 21st century.
The other two talks this month diverged from the theme. We were joined by Mia X Perez to talk about the French writer and visual creator Valentine Penrose. This was not a name I knew before I received the pitch for this talk so it was a real treat to be introduced to such an intriguing figure – both in life and writing! Even if you haven’t heard of Valentine either, I recommend diving in!
The last video of the month was me again (hi, sorry!) and it was the one with the most tenuous connection to the Gothic (thought I did make sure to get some in there!) The talk was Fated Lovers, Burning Houses and Unruly Hens: A Potted History of Sapphic Romance. I offer a short introduction to the development of sapphic romance, looking at the some of the sub-genres that we have and some key writers (and some who are my favourite modern authors!)
I hope you enjoy this month’s offerings! Let me know if you have any recommendations or thoughts, do share!
Romancing the Gothic 