13 September 2007

True Goths

Being goth is not about the clothes you wear, the piercings and body mods you have, the music you listen to, the cloves you smoke, the death and undead you're fascinated with. Being goth is a state of mind.

A true goth is someone who recognizes the validity of all emotions. A true goth does not see any one emotion (such as happiness) as superior to any other, but finds all of them equally worth experiencing and exploring, and ultimately understanding. A true goth does not hide from any of the other ones, but enjoys them all.

A true goth rejects denial and illusions. Yes, there is suffering in the world. Yes, there are tragedies and people who wrong other people. Yes, these things do happen and sometimes no one is at fault. No, the truth isn't always comfortable to bear. All of those emotions are worth experiencing too.

Many goths have a darkness to the soul that makes the world appear bleak to them, and in that bleakness they find beauty. But there are also fundamentally happy goths - those who see the same bleakness and the same beauty, but have found balance between them and in being true to themselves, and have therefore found peace.

An emo, so far as I can fathom, is a goth by another name. The next generation down is trying to proclaim their differences from those who came before.

Being goth (or emo) isn't wrong. For those who are true goths, especially the ones who have found their balance, it's real and it's right.

11 comments:

Megadeus said...

Nerwen's goth?

MWT said...

I am, actually. One of the happy kind. ;)

Holland Wilson said...

By that definition, I'm one of the happy kind too. I don't think of myself as goth, but I'm far more of a goth than I am a hippie, on the Goth-Hippie continuum. Where I am an asterisk,

Goth |-----|*----|-----| Hippie

I also like some music that my goth friends like, and I wear black and grey a lot, and I changed my X-Chat colors to greyscale and my Adium skin to a nice black and grey one. *gasp* I'm a closeted goth!

Megadeus said...

But I take it from the post that you don't mean the type that wears black nail polish, eye shadow, lipstick (no matter the gender), and writes angsty poetry about suicide and cutting themselves.

Right?

I think "happy" kind of precludes that sort of childish behavior.

Anonymous said...

I was goth. I thought I was goth for a long period. But no matter how I try, I always seem to be more comfortable with being punk. Even if I never have looked like a punkrocker, I have always found more comfort in punkrock in a way.

The whole ideology around punk is more liberating.

MWT said...

I didn't start out as a happy goth. For a sample of my "greatest hits" angsty poetry-like thing, I refer you to this Ficlet. But no, I've never actually looked the part. Someday I want to be the proud owner of a black leather trenchcoat just so I can look gothy at some point in my life. ;)

What's the ideology around punk?

Anonymous said...

Hmm...what is punk...an attitude of "Fuck em all!"

I guess it is a various of things for different people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_ideologies

It's about not letting anyone restain you. Not the authorities, not the people around you.
It's about not following the rules or norms. To go your own way.

MWT said...

I was more interested in your particular answer, and not other people's. And I agree that punk suits you. ;)

Anonymous said...

Well I did answer you. Punk for me is "Funk em all!" and "Don't try to tell me how to live my life."

I didn't tell you what others think. ;) I was just lazy and pointed you to wiki.

And thank for the compliment ;).

Anonymous said...

Hey, Kayara, you can have my black leather trenchcoat when I get a new one! Which should be real soon here, btw.

MWT said...

Seriously? Awesome! :D