Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill Collection provides visitors with the opportunity to view a virtual reconstruction of Walpole's extensive collections--everything from armor to wall hangings--housed in his custom-built Gothic villa,
Strawberry Hill. (For video tours and discussions of its ornamentation, ongoing restoration &c., check out the
Strawberry Hill Youtube Channel.) Objects can be viewed according to maker, type, or room; there's also a virtual tour, based on contemporary paintings and sketches. For more about Walpole, plus links to e-texts of his fiction (most famously, the pioneering Gothic novel
The Castle of Otranto), visit
The Literary Gothic.
posted by thomas j wise
on Jan 21, 2012 -
5 comments
Malpertuis (Belgium, 1971, aka ‘The Legend of Doom House’) is a
movie that has been described as ‘bizarre, lurid and baffling;’ ‘a mysterious curiosity;’ and ‘exquisitely bonkers.’ An international cast led by Mathieu Carrière and Susan Hampshire (playing
five rôles) also included Orson
Welles. Its director, Harry
Kümel, is otherwise best known for his stylish
lesbian vampire
flick Les Lèvres Rouges (aka ‘
Daughters of
Darkness’). The
movie was adapted from an
unusual gothic
novel, first published in wartime Brussels—the
work of Jean
Ray (aka Raymond Jean-Marie de Kremer): a convicted embezzler & prolific
hack, who was, nevertheless, one of the foremost
exponents of the
fantastique in French-language fiction. Please note that some of the links above are
NSFW (some nudity) & several contain
SPOILERS.
[more inside]
posted by misteraitch
on Nov 14, 2011 -
7 comments
We see it every day on signs, billboards, packaging, in books and magazines; in fact, you are looking at it now — the Latin or Roman alphabet, the world’s most prolific, most widespread abc. Typography is a relatively recent invention, but to unearth the origins of alphabets, we will need to travel much farther back in time, to an era contemporaneous with the emergence of civilisation itself.
The origins of abc.
posted by netbros
on Aug 10, 2010 -
24 comments
"
Back in 1993 I was tutoring my sister in algebra. Her quizzes and tests were always made of word problems with a running storyline involving many recurring places and characters. I tied the fate of the main characters to how well she did on the previous quiz, so a good performance brought them good fortune. Unfortunately, one test she completely bombed, and, well,
this is a transcription of the quiz she got next."
[more inside]
posted by Iridic
on Feb 3, 2010 -
40 comments
A second
Edgar Oliver story
was posted [mp3] on The Moth Podcast yesterday. Recorded in January, 2006, he calls it The Apron Strings of Savannah but the Moth people call it The Story of How Edgar Became Edgar.
posted by morganw
on Dec 15, 2009 -
8 comments
Explore the joy of
American Tribal Style (
1,
2,
3),
tribal fusion (
1,
2,
3),
industrial,
gothic (
1,
2,
3),
fantasy,
heavy metal,
punk raqs,
‘80s fusion,
hip hop,
new age,
feminist,
Star Trek, or
tough love belly dance.
[more inside]
posted by velvet winter
on Jun 19, 2009 -
20 comments
User
El_Greco of the SkyscaperCity Forum presents
"Lost London", an absolutely stunning photographic thread of old London architecture.
posted by 6am
on Feb 25, 2009 -
21 comments
Peruvian Gothic. "Don Benigno Aazco carved his way 36 years deep into the green heart of the Andean forest, founded 14 settlements, abandoned his wife and many children, married his daughter, slew his son-in-law, fought drug peddlers, tamed the wilderness, and reclaimed, as best he could, the Inca Empire. And now I was going to find him." [
via]
posted by Sticherbeast
on Jul 16, 2006 -
23 comments
"Q: Is that another car on top?
A: Yes, it's a VW bug." --
Carthedral. A few more (clearer, daylight) photos
here.
posted by Gator
on Feb 19, 2006 -
27 comments
Gothic fonts , aka
Blackletter, aka
Fraktur are
often associated with Nazi propaganda these days. And indeed, at the beginning the Nazis encouraged their use...that is, until, in one of the most
bizarre decrees of the Third Reich, Hitler declared them "non-German" and even "Jewish" and banned them with immediate effect.
Funny thing is, Fraktur would take its
vengeance on Hitler fans forty years later...
(And before any typographic pedant points it out, yes, I know Fraktur is a subdivision of the Gothic/Blackletter family of fonts)
posted by Skeptic
on Aug 9, 2005 -
32 comments
Images of medieval architecture. A great site put together by Alison Stones, Professor of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. There are two large gazetteers, one for
Britain, and one for
France. Besides photos, there are many plans, sketches and elevation drawings, which help to give an idea of the sheer scale of gothic cathedrals such as the cathedral of Saint-Étienne at
Bourges (scroll down for the human figures at the bottom).
posted by carter
on Jun 29, 2003 -
7 comments
Morbid Outlook is a polished, eclectic Goth magazine with a killer design and content to die for. With hundreds of articles and images in the categories of Art, Music, Fashion, Lifestyle, Fiction and Nonfiction, this is one of the very best online zines I've seen yet. Go to any feature, and you will find a list of related-interest articles accompanying the story, and, usually, a listing of online resources or suggestions for reading as well.
posted by taz
on Jun 12, 2003 -
31 comments
Literary Gothic offers up a splendid smorgasboard of literary ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and, of course, gothic. As a Victorianist, I have a particular predilection for their
ghost stories. Many more Victorian tales of the terrifying--and just plain weird--can be found
at this site, which also features an ongoing reading group. [more inside]
posted by thomas j wise
on Oct 31, 2002 -
8 comments
