Cyber Goth

One of my very favorite subsets of Goth, though not one I can pull off on a daily basis due to my hectic schedule and desire to sleep rather than affix falls to my head and wrap my stompy boots in torn tights to match. Please, please, spare me the 'Goth can be simple' lectures, I prefer my cybergoth to be full-on and OTT. However, that is not the best look for a high school Goth.
I love cyber, on other people. One day, I always vow, one day I shall have enough time and Cyber or Cyber-inspired pieces to dress in the cybergoth fashion at least once a month, but for now I am left admiring and being madly jealous of girls like Biohazard, from the British show 'Snog Marry Avoid'.so beautiful! She described cyber goths as "Brightly colored, happy people" which I am sure they are, and she sure seems so! I love cybergothic!!!
One day I shall get a camera and spam this site with all my outfits, but for now you'll simply have to take my word that I look nowhere near as interesting or beautiful when I try out cybergoth.

Recently Read Books

          1984: by George Orwell, this book was originally published in 1949. It is a story about a dystopian society, in which there are three classes: the proletariat masses, the Outer Party and the Inner Party. Everyone in the party is continuously monitored via telescreens in their homes. The book follows a member of the Outer Party, who begins quietly rebelling against the government and Big Brother. He falls in love with a woman who rebells in her own way, and they ask for the help of a rebellious Inner Party member. In addition to the telescreens there are thought police, every bit of history can be edited or revised, even people who disappear in the night removed so completely from documentation that they may as well never have existed. I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't read it, but it's a marvelous book, still applicable to what life is becoming today. I DO LOVE BIG BROTHER!
         All Quiet on the Western Front: by Erich Maria Remarque, copyright 1929, remains one of the greatest war novels of all time. Touching in unexpected ways, descriptive in the little things, All Quiet is set during WWI, following the story of a German soldier who loses his friends one by one, and begins to grasp what life truly is just as it begins to slip away. Again, I won't spoil the ending, but I recommend this book too. It has excellent characters, an amazing feeling of reality, even for those of us who have never experienced the horrors and little details of war.
          Night of the Living Trekkies: By: Kevin Anderson and Sam Stall. I loved this book, even though it gave me nightmares for weeks. Granted, I am scared to death of good old fashioned shambling zombies, which this book featured in abundance. Unlike other books and movies, there was a plausible explanation for the zombification, involving outer space and aliens, no less, as a nod to the pervasive Star Trek theme. Pretty much, everyone at a convention is turned into zombies. So, there are people running about in full Trekkie getup, for example a Klingon, an Andorian, the expected Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk, and, explicably (though oddly so) Princess Leia. It was a fun, fast read, with an amazing mixture of horror and science fiction. READ IT!!

Genna is not Crazy!

"Genna! Your costume today is very cute," The voice dripped with insincerity, and Genna prepared for bad news. "But you'll have to take off the corset."
Genna is tired of people calling her outfits costumes. This is how she dresses, and it has been for four years. Genna also wonders why she has to take off her corset. She is dressed in the Victorian fashion, a time period which was practically synonymous with modesty. She has a long-sleeved, high-necked shirt under her corset, a long skirt that she has to pick up when walking up stairs so that she doesn't trip, and the corset itself is as not sexual as corsets can possibly be.
"Genevieve! Did you hear me?"
"Yes, Mrs. A." Genna sighs, undoing the corset, listening to the babbling explanation of why she has to. Vaguely, she catches the word 'sleepwear' six or seven times.
Have you ever tried sleeping in a corset? "Genna wonders angrily. Genna thinks this is unfair discrimination, since she has been dressing this way for two years in this school and no one has said anything, and no one says anything to the bleached-blond types in their short skirts and low-cut, tight shirts. Genna thinks that her mother was silly to move to this tiny town. Genna thinks that nearly everyone here is small-minded. They have the best intentions, Genna realizes, but they go about it in the wrong way. Taking away the things that make Genna feel beautiful and do not break any dress code simply because one uber-conservative teacher complained did not seem fair. Genna thinks it's stupid. Genna's mother thinks so too.

Genna also thinks she will stop talking in third person now, because Genna is not batshit crazy!
I (that's better, isn't it? -Genna thinks so too) am by no means anything but a babybat, but in the small, conservative town I live in, I may as well be the next most GAF thing after cloves and absinthe. *shakes head regretfully* WHY, small minded teacher, WHY? She is a nice enough person, but full of misguided intentions. Now that she has complained, I am not allowed to wear any of my four corsets to school, which severely limits my wardrobe choices, as there are outfits I could only wear with a corset covering some dress-code breaking flaw. See-through shirts, shirts with tears or midriff-revealing cuts, shirts too thin to wear in winter without something over them. I do not see why people can't all be open minded, or at least politely disagree about style choice. Oh well. I suppose I shall simply have to rip some skinny jeans, paste some obscure bands and sayings on old T-shirts and attempt something vaguely resembling corset-less cyber or tradgoth, for the rest of my high school career... Normally, I'm so Victorian and Lolita/Steam punk inspired it's downright madness, but I have had days I call normal, with my platform Demonias and mid-length skirts. I suppose this my fate, five days a week, for two years... I already want to put on a bustle and rain-proof my parasol.

Music: Bauhaus

(Listening to: Terror Couple Kill Colonel by Bauhaus)

Stereotypical of me, I know. But, there's a reason Bauhaus is the band credited with kicking off the Gothic subculture. Personally, they aren't my favorite band, but I love "Bela Lugosi's Dead", "Terror Couple Kill Colonel", "Double Dare", "St. Vitus Dance", and "Telegram Sam". I do have other songs of theirs in my possession, and I like them all, but I'm not worshiping Peter Murphy (sorry Voltaire). *double points to everyone who got the reference to "If I Only Were a Goth" by Voltaire. If you don't know it, shame upon you.*

Bauhaus, as most or all of you know, formed in England, a post-punk type band (vocalist: Peter Murphy, drummer: Kevin Haskins and guitarist: Daniel Ash), had several albums and are widely considered the first Gothic Rock band. Some even go so far as to pinpoint the starting of our beloved subculture with the song "Bela Lugosi's dead". They disbanded, came back together, and disbanded again after releasing Go Away White in 2008.

I like their sound, lyrics, etc, but I suppose I'm personally not one for all the 80's bands. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Joy Division, all great bands, and a couple might even make my favorites list, but there's just something about that era that echoes through the music and fails to make me fall in love with them. More specifically, I like to dance. Unless you're a bellydancer or someone who does the stand-still-and-wave-your-arms dancing that my favorite boy did, Bauhaus can be a little difficult to just dance to.

In summary: I love Bauhaus, but they collectively don't top the chart in my brain.