Jazzy D's Soul Notes

Just finished watching the third and final part of The Art Of Gothic on BBC 4, in which we enter the fin de siècle and the early twentieth century with Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the foreboding of what was to come as the new century turned. Joseph Conrad's book "The Heart Of Darkness" is a microcosm of what the imperial west has done to Africa, and in particular the Congo, a book i am reading now.




The other side of the Gothic is the vampirish blood sucking spectre of Capitalism, sucking the lifeforce of the workers, and thus you can read Karl Marx's Das Kapital as a tale of Gothic horror. William Morris read the book, and was determined that his company should be run as a co-operative. Perhaps in the modern world we are all Gothic with our machines that look into the past, such as cinema, recordings,the telephone, the mobile and such like of people, artists , singers and performers now long dead constantly preserved in the flickering image or medium of sound.

The ghost in the machine, or deus ex machina. Perhaps when i leave this mortoil coil the net will still be full of my writings.

With that in mind, here is a Gothic tune of the dead and lamented Ian Curtis of Joy Division with Atmosphere.



Enjoy your nightmares!

This was one I started yesterday on my trip to Hythe and completed just before lunch this morning.

Richard Matheson “I Am Legend” (Orion)






First published over 50 years ago this is a surprisingly fresh look at the last surviving human on earth. Robert Neville is a believable character as he deals with the aftermath of a plague that has left his family dead and his friends, neighbours and probably the whole world as the living dead. Vampire-like, thirsting for his blood, attacking his house at night and sleeping during the day.

How Neville reacts to this situation - his loneliness, his search for why this has happened and his varying moods and day to day life - works very well. Flashbacks to the early days of the plague do much to explain the world he lives in but as he carries on trying to understand the situation his frustrations and loneliness are understandable. It all builds up to a wonderful conclusion. This is a great story.