Blog post: The Freedom to be Grotesque and Gothic Authoresses
"I shall thus give a general answer to the question, so frequently asked me—How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?"
- Mary Shelley, Introduction to Frankenstein
In the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explained how she, as a 19-year-old young woman, wrote a work that shook contemporary intellectuals.
“I didn’t mean anything by it; it’s only flight of fancy,” the writers who defined gothic literature said to a world that was not prepared to accept that women with no formal education were capable of the intellectual prowess woven into these tales of dark, profound, terrifying worlds.
We have long lived in a society that is quick to denounce, demonise and deny the voices that speak in a different tone. Even if you never show it to a single soul, write. Write, because to write dark, terrible things is to accept that they exist inside you without shame.
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Unedited post - with a short piece I published years ago - linked above!