Status Updates From Bungay Castle

“From a world I neither like nor approve, I could learn but little, while the chosen mistress of my heart may at her pleasure make me any thing she wishes.” ….The fashioning of a human mind from a blank slate. I can’t help thinking Mary Shelley must’ve read this novel—she explored similar themes in Frankenstein, but her worldview was less optimistic.

“Can the man expect being believed when he offers to revenge the wrongs of which he never heard a complaint? Can he who oppresses others, & is deaf to the sufferings of innocence, think to purchase pardon by the appearance of mercy?—Mend your own heart:—leave this castle:—then the living & the dead will sleep in peace.” ….Interesting scene, this one. Very Shakespearean.

‘A figure, w/ disheveled hair, & a face pale as that of the victim just deposited in her last sad resting place, rushed past them all, & quick as lightning, before anyone could suspect or think of preventing his design, threw himself w/ the utmost violence into the grave, & clinging w/ agonizing frenzy to the coffin, cried out “I have found her now, & no one shall ever again tear her from me!”’ ….LOLz. 🙈

‘Too proud, too haughty, & fastidious, to pay his court, or make any sacrifice to the wayward humours of a young beauty, [the Baron] secretly rejoiced that her father would take the whole upon himself.’ ….Sexual menace via paternal proxy—an interesting choice by Bonhote, allowing the father (the Adam of the family) to introduce a serpent into their utopian castle (Eden).

‘Sensibility I have long thought, nine times out of ten, proves a source of misery to the generous & benevolent, & as often is merely the boast of the ignorant, who pretend to be overstocked with the milk of human kindness, & whose feelings are equally excited by the death of a husband or a lapdog.’ ….So you’re saying that even in 1796 there were Special Snowflakes & pearl-clutchers?? 😂 SHOCKING!

‘She thought, & was extremely angry w/ herself for so doing, that he was the most handsomest man, & had the most prepossessing & elegant form she had ever seen. His manner too! Could any thing be more captivating than the manners of this unformed son of nature, whom cruelty & injustice had immured in the dungeons of her father’s castle!’ ….Run, Scooby! There’s a pale, skinny, emo beta in the basement! 😱

‘They were awakened about midnight by a war of the elements, & what made the scene more terrific, though it was in the depth of winter, the thunder rolled in tremendous peals over their heads, the sturdy walls of the castle appeared to shake from their center to the battlements, & the lightning flashed upon the walls, & gleamed along the vaulted passages, as if to make horror visible.’

‘[The abbess] was a young & interesting woman, of a benevolent & placid disposition; and, though she had voluntarily secluded herself from the world, she was not so much disgusted with its pleasures as she felt herself wounded by the severity of its disappointments.’

‘In times like these, every book that serves to amuse the mind, & withdraw the attention from scenes of real distress, without inflaming the passions, or corrupting the heart, must surely be as acceptable to the reader as it may have been found pleasant to the writer, & should exempt the latter from the severity of criticism.’ ….All trashy/escapist genre fic should come with this stamped inside. :D

Hmm. I need something a little different today, & it doesn’t get more ‘different’ than capital-G Gothic fiction—the original Old Skool trash genre. :D