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American/Midwestern Gothic and Alice Isn’t Dead

(*I wrote the following essay for a college class in April 2023, but in doing so discovered to my disappointment that there wasn’t much writing on Alice Isn’t Dead! So I'd like to contribute this.)

Tracing the Gothic to New Mediums & Subgenres – a case for Alice Isn’t Dead

The Proposal:

“America has weird things in it. It has so many miles, so much space to put the weirdness in.” - Alice Isn’t Dead, Part 1: Chapter 10

One of the strengths of [this course*] is in how it traces gothic tropes from its historic roots to contemporary variations, like Parasite being called “Neo-Gothic” or Get Out “Post-Racial Gothic”: in doing so, the course argues for the relevance and importance of the genre’s history, lineage, and permutations, which also facilitates a discussion of what factors contribute to such differences. I propose tracing yet another modern branch of the genre to that of “American gothic,” or specifically “midwestern gothic,” which would enable a focus on how the gothic genre was adapted to address regional-specific settings, histories, and anxieties, such as the different facets of the American experience. Allan Lloyd-Smith writes in American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction about how the “frontier experience, with its inherent solitude and potential violence” especially shaped the midwestern iteration of American gothic; this framework still holds for modern stories confronting endless flatness, nowhere towns, the destructive force of capitalism on communities (4). The medium of audio drama also provides new ways to think about framing, point of view, and immersive storytelling.

Synopsis:

Alice Isn’t Dead is an audio fiction podcast which follows a Black lesbian truck driver, Keisha, as she drives across America in search of her missing wife, Alice, whom she had long presumed dead. On her harrowing road trip, she deals with grief, anxiety, and depression, comments on aspects of American culture she encounters on his travels, and encounters supernatural phenomenon and larger conspiracies—such as regarding a group of dangerous creatures called the “Thistle Men,” a factory owner who ages a whole lifetime before her eyes, a day in which her straight drive passes through the same town over and over, and billboards that seem to speak to her directly, to name some examples from the first episodes.

The series, written by Joseph Fink and voice acted by Jasika Nicole, is composed of 30 episodes total of about 25 minutes each. The show’s format is that Keisha makes audio recordings on the road, either as a diary of her thoughts, speaking directly to Alice, recording live events, or recounting events after they happened.

(More) Key Terms:

The style often “intercuts” a longer, dramatic narrative of what has just happened to Keisha (more plot-focused sections) with shorter observations or memories she speaks aloud in the present (more thematic). Intercutting, or cross-cutting, is a narrative technique used in Alice Isn’t Dead to build tension by cutting between scenes with differing intensity levels or stakes, highlight connections between seemingly unrelated characters or events, or help maintain narrative momentum (Chen).

Liminal: “characterized by being on a boundary or threshold, esp. by being transitional or intermediate between two states, situations, etc.” (OED). We see liminality in Alice’s status between being “dead” and being “found,” in the road between towns, in the towns that themselves are only a bathroom stop on the way to the next destination, the destinations that themselves are only one of many stops.

Rationality and Irrationality: Although we also see Jonathan Harker’s attempts to rationalize events through his journals in Dracula, Lloyd-Smith writes in particular about the influence of Enlightenment era thinking on American literature in the idea of trying to rationalize the irrational, which is amplified by Keisha’s contemporary first-person narration in trying to comprehend the seemingly impossible things she witnesses (95). In episode 10, Keisha prefaces her story with: “I can’t drive while I tell this. Too much to say. I’m going to tell it all Alice. Even the parts you know. I’m going to describe the shape of the monster that is devouring me” (Fink).

Lloyd-Smith describes “frontier gothic” or “gothic nature” as “a terror of the land itself, its emptiness, its implacability; simply a sense of its vast, lonely, and possibly hostile space” (93). In the Part 1 finale, one of the Thistle Men says: “America. A country defined as much by distance as culture. America embraces its distances. Empty spaces and road trips, but there is always a price. We are that price. We are creatures of the road. We feed on distance, on road trips, on emptiness, bodies by the side of the highway” (Fink).

Uncanny refers to an unsettling kind of strange or mysterious, which is a perfect way to describe the revulsion one feels from the odd behavior of the Thistle Men, even without directly witnessing their acts of violence. “Every one of them was like the Thistle man. All of them. Loose skinned, odd movements…none of them spoke, although sometimes one would laugh, long and loud, and then return to monastic silence” (Fink). Getting at the German root of the word, “unheimlich,” Lloyd-Smith elaborates: “it can be understood as equivalent to the ‘domestic terror’ which so aptly describes much of the work of American Gothicists… The house, not the castle, becomes the site of trauma” (75). When Keisha temporarily gives up on her journey, overwhelmed by all she has been through, the Thistle Men follow her home and cause intense paranoia, which ultimately drives her to flee her house and take to the road again.

Works Cited

Chen, Jeff. “Intercut: Everything You Need to Know.” NFI, 14 Mar. 2021, https://www.nfi.edu/intercut/.

Fink, Joseph. Alice Isn’t Dead.

"liminal, adj." OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108471. Accessed 19 April 2023.

Lloyd Smith, Allan. American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction. Continuum, 2004.

#gothic #american gothic #midwestern gothic #Alice isn't dead #audio drama #audio fiction #liminality #uncanny #frontier gothic #gothic nature #intercutting #cross cutting #Joseph fink #Allan Lloyd-smith #night vale presents

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Penumbra fans! I’m teaching a class on the queer history of audio drama, but haven’t had a chance to listen through Penumbra yet. Is there a 2 min clip from any episode you’d recommend that highlights the kind of diverse queer rep this show is known for? (My initial idea is from Midnight Fox “I’m more of a lady myself” but that’s like just one line.)

#penumbra podcast #juno steel

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“The fact that your meaningful relationships are mainly with inanimate objects is not saying much for me” - David 7 (Stellar Firma ep 41)

#stellar firma #david 7 #trexel geistman

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sorry not sorry I can’t get enough of S1 fanon tim

#tma #im mostly talking about in fics but yeah #give me jontim give me martim give me sashatim give me s1 polycule so long as tims in it (not elias tho f elias) #give me happy bubbly silly charming suave harbors hidden pain sees the best in people #give me golden retriever man give me lives alone in a big house give me best listener x best hugs #timothy stoker

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“How could he love something so much and forget to feed it?” (Camp Here and There ep 18)

THIS SHOW’S WRITING IS SO GOOD

#camp here and there #podcasts

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Whenever I see someone (rightfully) complain about mainstream media I want alert them to fiction podcasts.

Want weekly/monthly episode releases to speculate about? Tired of feeling like you have to binge a whole season to tell the streaming service you want more? Over your lesbian rep being cancelled after one season, if it's even worth counting as rep to begin with? Want to know what original ideas could look like without corporate interference? Want original ideas? Where are all the stories with trans/nb characters that aren't about the woes of being trans/nb? Feel like there aren't enough passion projects being created? Where's all the aspec rep? Hate paying but feel lost trying to pirate media? How come disabled characters never feel like they've been written by someone who actually gets it? Like spooky stories but hate jumpscares or sexual horror? Miss shows that encourage theorising instead of just trying to surprise? Why can't any money you give support the creator directly and not the corporation?

Have you perhaps considered the noble/humble audio drama?

#podcasts

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@fl0ralaura and I currently on ep 16 of Camp Here and There; here is one of our current theories (no spoilers pls!! excited to find out for ourselves if it pans out)

Proposition: 

Camp Here and There is not only a geographical bubble of supernatural anomalies (evidenced by its being referred to as “SITE1” and only various agents being allowed entry) but a time loop beginning with the “limn” event and looping after Sydney dies in new ways each time. Jedidiah probably caused it and is the only one who remembers every iteration and feels responsible for fixing it and/or saving Sydney.

Evidence:

“Aggravatingly, ENTITY6 [Yvonne] and ENTITY7 [Joshua] continue to fail to bring up the topic of ENTITY1’s [Jedidiah’s] pre-limn exploits. Either they are faithfully keeping ENTITY1’s secrets, or they have both been stripped of all memory of what they once knew.” (show notes, ep 9)

Between this episode note, Jedediah’s general secrecy and powerful-yet-sketchy experimentations, control of clocks which control time, his sense of responsibility for everyone, the fact he’s named Entity #1 (and the number system appears to be level of importance or power, evidence by occasional re-numbering of entities based on interesting-ness), and the way he’s allowed to contact the outside world via Agents 15/16, I surmise that Jedediah played a large role in if not being solely responsible for whatever has happened to this place/time.

“If you listen closely, little ones, you might just hear, amidst their raucous peeps, the day of the week on which you are fated to die! I hear a different day every time, and boy, does that raise a lot of questions! Like, am I immortal? Am I already dead? Or is it just confirmation that it’s all of our seemingly insignificant decisions which determine where life will take us next? It’s probably not the last one, because Jedidiah says he pretty much always gets Thursday!” (Ep 6)

This line, combined with Sydney’s dreams about an alternate childhood (ep 16) and maybe even the hallucinations lead me to believe he may have led a Groundhog Day multitude of different lives, or maybe alternate realities converge/overlap for him, and he dies multiple times in different ways. Whereas Jedediah has a single timeline, fated to die on a single day.

We know Jedediah is protective of Sydney, even if not emotionally supportive. From being super alarmed about Sydney’s being kidnapped by penguins, to “I’ll always try to defend you…” in ep 16.

“ENTITY1 [Jedediah] has always been awkward and recalcitrant, but its hesitance to interact with ENTITY2 [Sydney] is more marked this cycle than ever before. Not that it's my place to theorize, but I would presume the guilt is catching up.” (Show notes, episode 3)

The word that stands out to me is “cycle,” which sounds much more mysterious and cryptic than “this summer” or “this year.” I’m guessing that’s the time loop. “Guilt” is due to some personal failing of Sydney. Sad hypothesis is that Jed is emotionally distancing himself from Syd in order to try to save himself the extra grief in case he loses him again.

“He insisted that I make his challenge even harder. ... ‘I’ve just got to do better,’ he explained.” (ep 12)

The final non-extraneous line I could think of, “better” implying possibly a long line of failures. Lucile seems to trust and understand him but the show notes writers don’t seem to tag her as an instigator, and then there’s her weird relationship with Sydney which I won’t even attempt to unpack or detangle yet.

#camp here and there #camp here and there spoilers #camp here and there theories

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key word “storm the camp” lol

“Last year, in a different weather-related incident, a counselor from Cabin Magpie Moth was tragically… destroyed.“ (episode 3, Camp Here and There)

“Last year we had real elephants storm the camp, and a counselor was destroyed.” (episode 6, Camp Here and There)

Does this mean elephants rained from the sky?????

#camp here and there

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Jar of Rebuke is quickly becoming one of my new favorite podcasts but this line made me fully laugh out loud in my car I love Jamie and Jared

#jar of rebuke #podcasts

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Lady Ethel Mallory has been accumulating spider-like traits as HFTH goes on, from the pet flies she keeps on leashes, to the alarming dark web(?) she used to trap Marco on the roof of Box Cassiopeia. 

The Lady stopped, and waved the train of her coat across Marco’s body; when the fur and velvet passed, he was plastered to the surface of the Dreaming Box with a thick tangle of black veiny cord. (ep81)

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the other iconic spider-coded villainess of my childhood nightmares, the Beldam, or The Other Mother, from Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. These are, of course, two very different horror stories and very different characters. For example, LEM doesn’t exactly create an alternate reality that appeals to your every whim in order to lure you in and steal your soul, but... huh. So I begin. 

(Just a warning - this post is long. I’m not sure I necessarily have an argument, but I’m doing some comparative analysis with textual support. It’s a fun detail-focused dive into two wonderful texts.)

Since personally it was 13 years between when I first read Coraline and my recent reread, here’s a refresher on the Beldam (or if you haven’t read it and don’t care abt spoilers): a shapeshifter who almost perfectly resembles Coraline’s mother, except for the black buttons sewn onto her eyes, and her long, thin hands with pointed fingernails like claws; and the way she is the ruler and creator of the alternative reality perfectly tailored to Coraline’s tastes; and the way she eats beetles; and how she sucks children lifeless and traps their souls in marbles, dating back at least several hundred years. Coraline discovers her dark side after resisting the temptation of a perfect life and demanding to return to her original world and family.

While the animated movie leaned literally into her spider-like qualities by giving the puppet a monstrous transformation, the novella largely used metaphor (and the bug-eating):

Her other mother’s hand scuttled off Coraline’s shoulder like a frightened spider.

“Spiders’ webs only have to be large enough to catch flies.”

It was funny, Coraline thought. The other mother did not look anything at all like her own mother. She wondered how she had ever been deceived into imagining a resemblance. The other mother was huge—her head almost brushed the ceiling of the room—and very pale, the color of a spider’s belly. Her hair writhed and twined around her head, and her teeth were as sharp as knives…

The hand, running high on its fingertips, scrabbled through the tall grass and up on to a tree stump.

The direct spider comparisons are sparse but called upon quite effectively to describe the kind of witch she is, the trap she’s spun, the way she intends to consume Coraline. 

However, much of the stickiness of her “web” comes from psychological tools rather than rope. She shows Coraline the attention she had always craved from her parents, cooks delicious meals whereas Coraline had previously criticized her dad’s cooking and her mom’s lazy non-attempts, gives her an overflowing magical toy box, and turns their boring elderly neighbors into spectacularly entertaining (if bizarre and creepy) performance artists.

“Stay here with us,” said the voice from the figure at the end of the room. “We will listen to you and play with you and laugh with you. Your other mother will build whole worlds for you to explore, and tear them down every night when you are done. Every day will be better and brighter than the one that went before. Remember the toy box? How much better would a world be built just like that, and all for you? … If you stay here, you can have whatever you want.”

Now what does that all remind you of? Granted, Lady Ethel Mallory didn’t create BotCo or the Prime Dream herself, but she’s definitely responsible for the scale of the kingdom it’s become, and is the voice of the promise that people sell their lives for.

If there is a place you wish to visit, we can add it to your Favorite Dreams, or see if it’s been made public in the Prime Dream!... It’s all part of the Prime Dream, and it’s yours to explore.

Your interests and activity also influence other parts of the dreaming experience, such as the ads you see on Botco Advertising surfaces. It’s all to make sure your dreams are peaceful, pleasing, and happy every night in a row, and that whenever you need something, you already have it… (ep87)

When they don’t get their way, they resort to twisting their victim’s ideas of reality to turn them back again towards them. No matter how straight a line Coraline walks from her house, she returns back to it in time. The Other Mother shows Coraline a video of her parents exclaiming how happy they are that she’s gone, and she half-believes it to be true. At the end of the scene:

“And,” said her father, “I take great comfort in knowing that her other mother will take better care of her than we ever could.” 

Moth experiences similar psychological torture from Botco twisting and manipulating Moth’s dreams and memories to have loved ones direct Moth to the Prime Dream over and over again. In such a dream, not only do your loved ones share what they think is best for you, they also abandon you at the same time. Where else are you to go?

And how could I neglect to point out the use of “family” to welcome lost and neglected characters into the arms of someone who loudly purports to care about them?

“Hello, Moth,” said Lady Ethel Mallory. “Welcome to our happy dreaming family. I’m sure the journey wasn’t easy, but we are so glad to have you here with us at last.” 

“And then we’ll all be together as one big happy family,” said her other mother. “For ever and always.”

A key difference between the two is while the Beldam traps and then eats children’s souls, technically LEM is advertising a service which most of their customers consent to purchasing. Obviously, she kidnaps many of our favorite characters, but the vast majority of the millions of dreamers supposedly turned themselves in. They’ll live out their lives in bliss (if they’re not working off their subscription fees via some weird indentured servitude that’s only been hinted at) and then die without ever having to fend for themselves in the desolate post-apocalyptic landscape the outside world has become.

Lady Ethel can’t resist throwing in some spider language, though maybe that was due to the conceit of it appearing in episode 25, “Spiders”:

We need people to focus on us. We need their attention. We need them to walk into our web so we can own them forever, drinking their lifetime value.

Unfortunately, “lifetime value” ends when their customers’ lives end. For now.

They now have their hands on the Instrumentalist’s books and Percy’s agreement to help. As I speculated in a previous post, I don’t trust BotCo (whether it’s Oswald, or LEM, or Faust) not to misuse the ability to trap their customer’s souls indefinitely and maximize their “lifetime value” for all it’s worth, especially if their customers trapped in individual pods aren’t reproducing and the number of new members from the outside is dwindling.

Coraline speaks for all of us listeners when she rejects even the premise of the Beldam’s promise: 

Coraline sighed. “You really don’t understand, do you?” She said. “I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?”

“I don’t understand,” said the whispery voice.

“Of course you don’t understand,” she said, raising the stone with the hole in it to her eye. “You’re just a bad copy she made of the crazy old man upstairs.”

Lady Ethel seems more self-aware and ambitious than to believe everything she says about a life of perfect bliss being all one could ever want, but I’m curious about her perspective on whether the Prime Dream is something she believes in or if it’s simply something over which she has ownership and power. A question I’m wondering - is Lady Ethel a bad copy of the crazy old man upstairs, Mr. Botulism? What will her revolution look like when it comes, when she tries to make her claim for the throne?

#please chime in if you think of anything else!! #hfth #hfthw #hello from the hallowoods #coraline #hfth spoilers #hfthw spoilers #horror #podcasts #neil gaiman #hfth meta

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found on the HFTHW wiki

#hfth #hfthw #lmao this is perfect for her

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“… brought to you by Haunted swords dot com. They’re exactly what you think they are!” made me cackle Monstrous Agonies is so cute and I’m realizing is full of real life advice

#monstrous agonies

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Oh thank god my heart survived ep 89 to die another day

#hfthw #hfthw 89 #hfth #hfth 89 #I’m confused what tags this fandom uses

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2 episodes later???? “if the kids want to kill their counselor in the spirit of opposite day that’s fine” THATS FINE??

“I know my job as camp nurse is to keep the kids alive but I don’t think that should be solely my concern” - Sydney @ Lucille, top of ep 3, about the impending boiling blood rain

#camp here and there #incorrect quotes #still trying to figure out this character

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“I know my job as camp nurse is to keep the kids alive but I don’t think that should be solely my concern” - Sydney @ Lucille, top of ep 3, about the impending boiling blood rain

#camp here and there #incorrect quotes

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2 eps into Camp Here and There and Jedediah’s sleepy end-of-episode voice is absolutely endearing but also SO sus I have a feeling he’s secretly a mad scientist type

#camp here and there

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[HftHW ep 87 spoilers]

I don’t trust Mr. Botulism telling Percy all he wants is to do with The Instrumentalist’s work is reanimate his son. For several reasons:

1- seems like an easy trope, “the big bad only actually cares about his kid”. I feel like the Instrumentalist tried pulling that card too

2- Oswald is asking for the power to give people essentially eternal “life”. Sure, maybe he claims to only want to use it once, but that’s an ENTIRE can of worms, and if he doesn’t use it for ill then certainly someone else will (*cough cough* Lady Ethel, maybe even Anderson, etc.)

3- BotCo never shuts up about “lifetime value” (which has always been creepy af). If they can hold onto their customers even past death???? Keep squeezing value out of them?? They will. The outside population is dwindling and sure Danielle was born in a dreaming box but tbh I’m confused about how often that is happening if at all. If they’re in separate boxes I don’t think any future pregnancies are happening. I’m surprised it’s never come up that BotCo is concerned about their customer base slowly dying off but if they’re not about to start forcing births (or growing new costumers in a lab, come to think of it), I can see this being a priority initiative

#hfthw spoilers #hfthw 87 #hfthw #hello from the hallowoods #hfth #hfth 87 #hfth spoilers