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  • Writer's pictureDorian Block

The Role of Setting in Telling Digital Gothic Stories



I chose the literary element of setting for this blog for two reasons; one I believe that setting within whatever literary mechanism that is being conveyed through a medium (i.e a micro-blog) itself becomes part of the setting and two, because setting is a vital element in gothic storytelling which is a category I believe fully encompasses these two micro-blogs. So, through this lens I thought I might first explore what setting is.


Setting is the stage upon which your story is played out. There are different scenes which you switch between to move the story along, those are setting too. But how does setting affect the story as a literary element? For this I dive into my embarrassingly deep exploration of gothic storytelling. Within this style, setting is so central to the main plot that it many times manifests itself as a character or is described in the same way in which the story’s characters are described which lends itself into a characterization of sorts. If you want to know more about characterization please check out (Gothic Microblogging for Digital Storytelling). As for setting, it is the way in which the surroundings that the characters find themselves in are described. Now, a good setting creates the emotion within you that the characters are feeling just by a description of the place or lack thereof.



In ‘The Sick Land: The Diary of Alex Case, researcher’ as the title would suggest follows a man of assumed science as he notates his experiences in the field investigating a cave like structure through journal entry style. Much of the ethos he evokes within this narrative is through setting:


“There was less plant life; even the grass was patchy. Along the outskirts, where the Green Zone is new, there are diseased trees and shrubs in the process of dying. This sort of death isn't strictly mal, it's just a side effect of The Sick Land.”


This passage is a glimpse into what is referred to as ‘The Green Zone’ within the blog, which devolves as the expedition progresses into ‘Deep Green.’ Even the substitution and rearranging of words evokes that dread in the audience which itself is a part of the story. These descriptive phrases of a physical or sometimes ethereal place are setting, but an effective setting puts you (the reader) there yourself. The author here does this surprisingly effectively with these blog titles using single words that, as you probably know, are colors.


“We got in sight of the edge of the Yellow. I started to get vertigo and stopped my jeep. Bob carried on.


“He kept a running commentary as he got closer and closer to the Yellow. I was feeling sick, and wasn't really paying attention. He saw something ahead of him. It was definitely in the Yellow, not the Green, and he wanted it. He asked me if I minded him going into the Yellow. He said it could be the start of a promising branch of research. My condition was deteriorating; I said I'd prefer him not to go in.”


This utilization of colors to describe the setting is effective simply because of his assumptions of the communal understanding his audience has of having witnessed summer change to autumn which further devolves to a deeper metaphorical understanding of how the seasons reflect the stages of life. Without even having clicked on the blog to read this description the author has already put images in your head of the setting in which Alex Case finds himself. The juxtaposition of the setting (i.e. the colors) alongside the description of his deteriorating condition effectively heighten the audience’s emotional state. It is a very compelling case for how titles in this format can lend to the storytelling. This is why I believe that the digital format of the story, this one being a micro-blog, is itself part of the setting achieving a pinnacle of storytelling which could not be as effectively communicated in the traditional literary forms.



This is in contrast to the more tangible setting of, The Dionean House, which, while much of this digital story is unavailable due to privacy issues (that or they forgot to renew their domain name) I was able to pull up the LiveJournal of Loreen Mathers, the fourth and final installment of this Tetralogy following a decidedly unstable murderess living in what seems to be a haunted house:


“I would of stayed outside, just watching them move around like shadows behind the drapes, but then this nest of blackbirds made a racket flying outta that little elm tree in the front yard, and I see those twins at the window staring at me. Then the front door opened like someone was there inviting me inside. But no one was there.”


This is a classic gothic literature setting, the descriptive phrases like ‘shadows behind the drapes,’ is the bread and butter of a harrowing tale. These words that, again, are part of the human experience which is understood or assumed to be known. We have all had some creepy interaction before a door swings open suddenly without cause, right?


(This reminds me of Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 4 where the Doctor is investigating what is living under Danny Pink’s bed in the dark emptiness. They discuss how everyone at some point in their lives have had the dream where something grabs them from the dark beneath their bed. In the episode it turns out that it goes all the way to the beginning of time when the Doctor as a baby timelord is stopped from doing something by his companion Clara who has traveled through time to this moment simply to become the person hiding under his bed who reaches out and grabs his ankle which percolates through everyone's dreams for the rest of time.)


Anyway, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of The Dionean House is entirely hinged on one essential plot element, the door opening. This key physical architectural element that is so common —doors opening and closing— yet the description of how creepily it happens and the house built around it has the reader’s skin crawling simply through the setting. This personification of the house as the villain in the story turning on its inhabitants characterizes it through sentience and intent though houses are naturally assumed to be inanimate objects. This humanizing of the setting is what I love most about gothic literature, that the surroundings become a central element of the story contributing to the action itself instead of remaining a silent observer on the sidelines.



Citations:


Case, Alex. “The Sick Land.” The Sick Land, Jon Hills, 1 Jan. 2013, thesickland.blogspot.com/


Mathers, Loreen. “I’m Back.” Loreenmathers, 17 Jan. 2006, loreenmathers.livejournal.com/


Curtis, Mady. “Doctor Who 8x04: Listen.” Forever Young Adult, 15 Sept. 2014, http://foreveryoungadult.com/2014/09/15/doctor-who-8x04-listen/


Other photography by Dorian Block (Creative Commons 3.0 etc License)


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