Questions for those knowledgeable about the goth subculture

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What specific books and writers do those of the goth subculture enjoy? Is there a "Catcher in the Rye" (ultimate fictional manifesto) of goth? Is literary taste among goths homogeneous or varied? Just curious.

Goths tend to have more in common when it comes to music and fashion than in literary preference, although the ones who read tend to gravitate toward the fantasy and horror genres.
Neil Gaiman is pretty popular, and Clive Barker. There was a time when every goth had read "Interview with the Vampire", but I don't know if that's the case with the baby bats these days.

If you have a taste for historical gothic literature, you might want to read "The Sorrows of Young Werther" or "The Castle of Otronto" or "Maldoror". Don't expect any goths you meet at clubs to be able to discuss them with you, though--most of them are rather stupid and are only good at drinking, posing, and moping.

And Welcome Back!

College is where you find yourself! That does have an obscene overtone. It is a place where all of your hopes and dreams meet other people. You are of legal age, so you need to come up with new excuses, you need them.

Our local undead are suffering more than they pretend, the economy has pushed more people into the "I used to have a life" range, and they have more feeling.

I have to agree, they are not readers, "The dead do not think" and they drink the cheap stuff.

If any group should have formed the Edgar Allen Poe Fan Club, but they never heard of him.

Goth is combining I don't want to growup, just be immortal. Why bother to try if you are just going to die? They take it personally.

I did the doorman thing at a club, I found that flattery works, also a $2 pitcher of beer at happy hour. Their world view seems to be that they will be exploited, abused, and used, if only they can find someone. Meeting me they felt dirty and ashamed, but kept drinking.

I never met any readers, most had trouble with the speaking thing, beyond dress and makeup, not much identity, good band, was a long speech.

I had more fun with the Gutter Punks, they sat on the street outside the club, smoked weed in the alley, and watched the Goths as the show. They were an under dressed come as you are group. They could converse intelligently.

MissPickwickian, Coed, time does change things.

As far as reading, you are way past where most will ever get. Opinions are not to be expected of your age group, beyond, good band.

I would suggest telling them that you are writting a book about the Goth Culture, exposing all of the exploitation, abuse, and degrading activities, and then they will tell you stories. I have gotten far with off comments, "I heard about you and that thing." Since I know, and still speak to them, they tell all.

Humans can be fun. If you expect the worst, you are most often right.

Good to see you back on the planet!

Edgar Allan Poe, Friedrich Nietzsche, Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, HP Lovecraft...

remember that being goth isn't about dyeing your hair black and purple and wearing a corset around with argyle knee highs. It's a state of mind. You see darkness and despair and beauty everywhere. You're able to recognize that mankind is capable of experiencing deep pain and immense joy.

Seems counter-intuitive, I know.

oh, and just because something is Victorian, doesn't mean it's gothic. Goths were a Germanic tribe (Austragoths and Visigoths) some 2,000 years ago.

The poems The Waste Land by Eliot and The Second Coming by Yeats, perhaps. The Castle of Otranto which someone mentioned above is the real Ur-Goth; yes, the Goths were a people (several peoples) and yes, it's an architectural style, but Gothic literature and the associated doom-and-drama culture begin with Otranto.

I would never consider myself Goth. But I would consider myself more Goth than the people who play dress up for goth night at the local college bar.

I don't know what they read. But I say you cant go wrong with Franz Kafka or Soren Kierkegaard.

Also try Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. And anything by JD Salinger.

But most importantly....read whatever you find interesting.

I like Poe and Lovecraft, but I'd rather read Jack Kerouac or Raymond Chandler.