Gothic Lolita: Good Reads

Like so many other goffs, androgyny and the feminine fascinate me. Gothic Lolita style is a natural fit for the dark and ambiguous dandy of all 5 sexes. Add a love affair with Japanese pop culture and you've found the perfect look.

But there's more to looking than appearing. You've got to down-and-dirtify your mind with some good brain candy.

I'm going to make some suggestions but beyond the obvious. If Gothic Lolita is like a wicked Victorian fairy tale, then here are some books that capture the dark side of innocence:

1. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. About a wretched boarding school and the vile creatures that inhabit it. Tragicomic with an eerie cartoon sense. Waugh's characters are like marionettes just on the edge of becoming real people.
2. Put Out More Flags by Mr. Waugh also. Some of the same characters return to the Blitz. Even more tragicomic. With two of the most distasteful children imaginable. And the archetypal con artist.
3. Dorian by Will Self. The Picture of Dorian Gray was terrific but this late-last century remake is even better. More edge. More evil. Deliciously decadent.
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Ok, this one is obvious. But it is one of the best novels from the latter half of the last century. Moreover, it is a postmodern dark fairytale without equal. Think Alice in Wonderland twisted by Poe and written by an incomparable stylist.
5. The Enchanter by Vladimir Nabokov. The almost lost proto-Lolita. Shorter, maybe sweeter. Definitely darker.
6. The Holy Terrors by Jean Cocteau. About a metaphysical incestuous relationship. And adolescent doom.
7. Count D'Orgel's Ball by Raymond Radiguet. Cocteau's lover. Dead at 20. Ah, tragic talented youth. Beautifully written. A magic tale about adultery.
8. The Complete Saki by Saki. The Edwardian dandy writer. Malevolent epigram-spouting youths and an avenging weasel. You know you want to read it.
9. Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Erotic masterpiece by the man that put masochism on the map. Really an adult fairytale.
10. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Heavy. Yes. But it takes place in an Alpine sanitorium populated by bizarre characters. You can taste the doom and the mystery.
11. The Confusions of Young Torless by Robert Musil. Another book about evil adolescents and a horrible boarding school. Bullying and sexual torture. Not for young adults.
12. The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille. Here is another adult fairytale. A dark erotic story that is more twisted and evil than arousing. Not for the squeamish, either physically or morally.
13. Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau. The title tells it all. Black magic most foul and fae.
14. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. The British master of horror. A tale of terror for younger readers...maybe? Like Coraline (too obvious to list here) but darkly different.

Ending at 13 would have been too predictable. But 14 suggestions for Gothic Lolita intellectual kicks is surely enough for now, is it not my pretties?