SPILL BOOK REVIEW: JOHN ROBB – THE ART OF DARKNESS: THE HISTORY OF GOTH

JOHN ROBB – THE ART OF DARKNESS: THE HISTORY OF GOTH

LOUDER THAN WAR BOOKS

BOOK REVIEW BY RYAN RUPLE

If there was ever a genre that surpassed the confines of sound, constructing identity, and expression through the sonic base to reach into the very hearts of fans, it would certainly be Goth. A formidable genre and culture to dissect, but one that John Robb is more than qualified to hold a scalpel to, albeit one with a raven black handle trimmed in crimson. In his newest book, The Art of Darkness, Robb goes well beyond the highly acclaimed work he did with Punk Rock: An Oral History, casting light across the genre where all walks of life can see it illuminated before the ever-permanent shadows stretch back across. Unfortunately, the work, while massive and incredibly researched, does not always make for a pleasurable read.

While tackling a genre that has such distant cultural roots is not going to be something that one can handle leisurely, it is, for much of the work, pretty scattershot in terms of continuity, with a fairly egregious number of footnotes that don’t give much impact to the reading experience except for the odd citation. The chapters are fairly well held together in the time period or artist in which Robb writes about, but that is mostly when taking a more wide lens approach to the text. During the read, paragraphs can cover the foundations of Gothic literature, proto-industrial acts that utilize those themes a century later, and then to a slight parallel on the earlier works of Bowie. Though it does tie everything together, the velvet bow is loose enough that readers might have trouble remembering exactly what the focus of the chapter was, especially when the footnotes bring us well beyond the point while not offering much substance or, in numerable cases, none at all.

For those who are fully entrenched within Goth culture, this is a seminal text that will be filled with highlighted passages and riddled with tabs. Yet for the merely curious, or fans of classic Goth and Goth-adjacent albums, this may be a difficult work to get through, overloaded with information to the point of bloat, focal points blurred, that gives the feeling of one overly excited to talk about a genre they are well versed in. In the latter half of the book, we do get chapters that are much more consistent and incredibly illuminating, but the journey to get there may be too arduous a trek for some. If this was trimmed to, at most, two-thirds of its current length, this would be a riveting experience that would leave readers with a firm, digestible understanding of the genre and the culture surrounding it. As it remains, it is a massive work with several amazing passages and chapters that don’t stand as strong around the bloat that fills the pages.

ISBN – 1526173204

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