Let's talk southern gothic

agreed. but southern gothic by definition must take place in the south, no?

>never wrote anything like it again

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I wouldn't say so. It's more about the themes dealt with, in the context of Southern culture, which can be transplanted anywhere. In Blood Meridian's case, this culture is moving westward. Southern Gothic isn't just "Gothic" stories set in the South, it has its own peculiarities.

I think that the main aspect of loss presented is that of the loss of a culture, or more exactly, a way of life that was largely in its death throes. You have a southern aristocratic culture that is largely derived from their noble ancestors from England. Even the mental decline presented in Southern Gothic is largely a metaphor for their way of thinking, in general, being attacked by the world closing in around them. You'd be hard pressed to find something in Southern Gothic, and Gothic literature in general, that isn't tied to loss in some way.

I'm working on writing a Victorian Gothic short story right now to practice a couple classical narrative techniques. Maybe i'll post it here later , if this thread is still up, and you guys are interested, of course.

Blood Meridian is anti-western.

ballad of the sad cafe is exactly that. a ballad. it's an overly dramatic opera set in a pathetic dying bar/cafe/thing.

the heart is a lonely hunter explores deep complex emotions and questions of identity and is just... better

It's a Gothic Western, which is inherently going to be an anti-Western. Arguably, it's a Southern Gothic-Western.

Southern is inherently a regional genre. the book doesn't take place in the South, I don't see where that fits into the equation

i'm not so sure loss is really it. to me it seems more like a question of coming to grips with the reality of the south's past. to me the driving dichotomy of southern gothic is the difference between the enlightened southerner (sometimes this is only the author) and those who refuse to do so.

to be more precise, southern gothic is about the knowledge of loss (o'connor's "christ-haunts" and faulkner's ghosts, the southerners who have experienced loss but can't understand how or why)