...the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

I have read so few books this week, oh no! It's all because The Living Dead is such a door-stopper and took so much of my time... And I have no thrillers at all this time, what a crying shame. But I still have had two more interesting reads, one non-fiction on black culture and one translated gothic novella, that I review here and hope you enjoy these recommendations aling with the currently nice weather!

Darkly - Black History and America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor 

I’ll admit, I sometimes felt a bit Blacula-ish in their presence – a Black version of a white story.

Writer and designer Leila Taylor begins this profoundly interesting little book by recounting situations and stories from her earlier life in Detroit and Cincinnati as a black goth teenager. And if you now think “Black and goth in the 80s Midwest? That must have been interesting!”, then you’ve hit the nail on the head! Taylor extracts from her experience following questions that will be the basis as well as the guiding line for her opinions and analyses contained in Darkly - Black History and America’s Gothic Soul:

What is the equivalency between goth-ness and Black-ness? What is it about the gothic, beyond the color black, that is Black? Is Blackness inherently gothic?

To demonstrate said equivalencies she highlights parallels between these two cultures which sometimes initially feel a little far-fetched, but thinking about it, make more and more sense. On the way there, really interesting connections between “typical goth” concepts and Afro-American history emerge: mourning, melancholy, outsider, gravestones, horror – you can take all these concepts as ideograms of the gothic movement but they also bear a grave meaning for the black community.

In Darkly, history and popular culture come together in a unique way; from Siouxsie and the Banshees to BLM, from slave auctions to “Only Lovers Left Alive”, the Cosby Show to Strange Fruit and the horrifying barbecues. An all-round fascinating read!

The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus

George A. Romero's final magnum opus, which he himself unfortunately didn't live long enough to see finished, has monumental ambitions. When I was about a third into the book and realized in which direction the lives of a handful of people surviving the Zombie apocalypse are moving, I was immediately reminded of King's The Stand and was excited that this could also be of similar biblical proportions. Unfortunately there is something lacking in Romero's book that King excells in and which is justly his trademark; succesful character building. No matter how flawed, King's characters are always relatable and if not relatable then interesting to follow. I'm sorry to say I can't say the same for The Living Dead.
I understand Romero's initial plan was to present a broadly based variety of people with different backgrounds facing the apocalypse and thus it kind of is the point that not every character is relatable and likeable. Still, I had irreconcilable problems with especially the way women were described in this book - namely the "Ladies, you can be tough, but please look hot while doing so!" approach, while that privilege was not extented to male characters. Although this style is nothing new in horror, to be honest I was expecting a little more from Romero, who, otherwise throughout the book does not miss any chance to emphasize the importance of equality and to spread his progressive views.  

I was the-sexiest-goddamn bitch - whoever survived- the apocalypse.

Seriously? These are the last words of protagonist Charlie whose thick blond hair and big chest seem to be her main assets, since the authors can't get enough of describing them as much as they can. I have never been one to dismiss books by eye-rolling, but this one gave me headaches, I rolled them so hard. I can't understand the appeal of this... On the other hand, the only male character whose appearance plays a major role is Chuck Corso, the idle anchorman who is a slave to plastic surgery and facial corrections. In his case the focus on his appearance makes a difference though, because the disfigurement of his face in the post-apocalypse will play a major role in his character arc, it is not used to highlight his fuckability.

Apart from the problem with character building I actually liked this book. Although at times a little too in-your-face preachy, I like the political undertones. I was happy Romero pulls zombiehood back to what he originally meant it to symbolize: the hungry masses. I remember an interview with him where he points out that a fast moving zombie is totally against the point of zombiehood because their horror is not in their swiftness but in that they slowly but surely get to you; their danger lies in their number not in their bodily strength. In The Living Dead he emphasizes this fact by calling humans "the fast moving ones" and names a post-apocalyptic settlement in Toronto "Slowtown". There are chapters told from the point of view of the Zombies which form a kind of hive-mind and I found those chapters breathtaking. I like how the relation between humans and zombies evolve. I also like the universe, there were absolutely striking scenes like a perverted priest and his lust for flesh that translates nicely into zombiehood and also the zombie rats were awesome. Still, it wasn't a book that swept me away.
Favorite quote;

We had to devolve to realize we’d never really much evolved.

My thanks to PanMacmillan for providing me with the text.

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

Zárate's little parable is based off an extract from the original Dracula, namely the sea voyage in which the evil Count Vrolok was transported in his coffin from Rumania to England. The core twist of Ice and Salt is that the Captain of the ship Demeter is gay and his lover has paid for their criminalized relationship with his life. The Route of Ice and Salt was written in the end 90s in Mexico - a time and place where you could be prosecuted for merely being gay. Fast forward 20 years and here we are with a first English translation (thanks to efforts of Silvia Moreno Garcia among others), so more people can enjoy it.

Ice and Salt is written in an immensely flowery, poetic language and in the beginning I thought it was a little over the top. As I read on I got used to it though and even ended up enjoying many parts.
The novela starts with a lengthy part that describes the captain's sexual desires and dreams and boy is he horny! Zárato really took his time describing Captain's desires and focuses on nothing else for a long time - a more balanced distribution of erotica and horror throughout all chapters would have been nice. That being said, I think it's important that the erotic scenes weren't sans purpose; him being gay and suppressing it as well as the horniness that comes with life as a ship captain results in a kind of intense focus on himself only and nothing else that I think is very interesting. There is very little encounter with the monster and that's unusual but very poignant and effective.
The idea of taking an extract out of a classic and writing its own political allegory over it is very clever, really! Even though the original Dracula is one of the most boring books of history to me, The Route of Ice and Salt works perfectly.
The book comes with an introduction by the author and an afterword by Poppy Z. Brite, both of which I found immensely interesting and useful since I had no idea about the situation in Mexico at the time and the additional texts certainly added meaning to the message of the book.
Maybe because of the minimalistic setting, but I think that this could make a really nice theater play too. I would definitely recommend this book very highly as it offers a fresh look on an old trope and has a political point, go for it!