The final core we three wish to leave you with this year is the effervescent, highly mutable, slightly dark, yet utterly magical core of whimsigoth. May these suggestions spark warm fizzes of delight amidst the deep dark grey of winter.
Meranda: My first taste of whimsigoth came from The Addams Family. The dark aesthetics, the joie de vivre, and the witchy vibes couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. Whether you are familiar or not, I highly recommend this movie’s moody and loving family that seemingly can’t be killed. Another movie suggestion with some dark humor and fun aesthetics is Lisa Frankenstein. A zombie from the 1800s is brought back to life and develops feelings for Lisa, a teen with many troubles. A great ode to ‘80s campy horror movies.
A couple books I’ll suggest are Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger and Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland. In Elatsoe, Ellie can summon ghost animals, a sacred gift from her Lipan Apache heritage. She tries to solve the death of her cousin in this book full of secrets. In Witch of Wild Things, Sage has an ability to communicate with plants. She uses this for botany sleuthing while trying to fight her attraction to an old partner as the ghost of her sister plies her with coffee.
Finally, try Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years, Don’t Stop, especially the song “Rhiannon” about a Welsh witch which is almost an anthem for whimsigoth. Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love has enigmatic tones that harken strongly of whimsigoth vibes.
Chelsea: For me, whimsigoth means a blend of the mysterious and peculiar, served on a gothic platter, sprinkled with luster dust. Let’s explore!
Dead Can Dance and Lorenna McKennitt are two signature “neo-medieval” artists who rose to fame in the 80’s and 90’s. Dead Can Dance’s sound is quite eclectic; give their debut album Dead Can Dance a try for a more gothic tone, while Lorenna McKennitt’s wistful voice will charm you through distant lands and ages in The Book Of Secrets. Nils Frahm is a modern artist whose neo-classical compositions fuse acoustic with electronic, creating songs ranging from delicate to sweeping. All Melody mixes digital elements with vocals and piano creating an ambient/classical/techno mix – is cyber whimsigoth a thing?
For bookish whimsigoth, Psychopomp & Circumstance is a spooky coming-of-age novella where spirits and secrets are discovered while planning a funeral in the Reconstruction-era South. Piranesi takes place in The House, a place of infinite rooms and innumerable statues, where our protagonist contentedly wanders until he finds unsettling evidence of another reality. Strange Practice follows a doctor to the undead, whose quiet life is upended when terror comes to the living and the dead of London, and she must use her skills to solve the mystery.
In film, MirrorMask is a Jim Henson feature about a young circus performer who is transported to a bizarre realm being invaded by darkness where she must find the MirrorMask to save that world and return home. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus from Terry Gilliam follows the ancient Doctor Parnassus with his travelling ‘Imaginarium’ as he attempts to strike a new bargain with the devil – win souls in exchange for his daughter’s life.
Veronica: To hopefully prevent upsetting all the True Goths out there, whimsigoth is very much an aesthetic and aesthetic only for me. I think of it as someone who may wear a lot of black but has a purplepink sparkly heart at their core (i.e. me). Or maybe as the darker side of fairycore. It’s a little goth, a little witchy, a little fairytale, and 100% magical. Thus it is that I locate the origins of whimsigoth for me in the iconic fantasy movies of the 80s – Legend, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal. While Tim Burton’s films cover a range of goth, gothic, and just plain weird (looking at you Beetlejuice), Edward Scissorhands remains a pinnacle of whimsigoth.
Fast forward to the early Oughts and we’re given the gift of Evanessence’s Fallen. Amy Lee’s lush and winsome operatic vocals gave me solace amidst the male-dominated, grungy airwaves while still allowing for an entry point into the harder edges of the rock scene. And while I came late to Florence + The Machine (just after 2011’s Ceremonials), she remains the queen of whimsigoth (among other things) for me. Though her personal and musical aesthetic has shifted away from the earlier whimsy of Lungs, her latest album, Everybody Scream, only cements the band’s place in this core’s cannon for me. But prior to Florence Welch’s lace-filled stage theatrics, there was and will always be Stevie Nicks. Bella Donna and The Wild Heart are two of her best.
This aesthetic is harder to capture in books for me, but something that immediately jumps to mind is Howl’s Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones, the inspiration behind Hayo Miyazaki’s gorgeously animated film of the same name. It’s hard for me to keep them separate in my head at this point, so be sure to check both out. I also see it in the brutal, lush, and intricately detailed illustration of Marjorie Liu’s Monstress, which borders on the baroque. On the opposite end of the visual spectrum is Nagabe’s spare, yet quietly magical manga, The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún. Finally, it feels criminal not to mention Alice Hoffman, as her entire canon of books fits well within this aesthetic. But I want to highlight a title some may overlook, because it’s actually a knitting book that pairs patterns with short stories written by Hoffman: Faerie Knitting: 14 tales of Love and Magic, which captures both the aesthetic and the literary magic of whimsigoth.
This concludes our mini-series 3 Takes on an Aesthetic! We hope you’ve found some joy in our little series of posts on cores – we’ve certainly enjoyed writing them! In case you missed them, here are our first two in the series:
~Posted by Chelsea, Meranda, & V.