At this point in my life, I am mostly an interior darkling.
In my busy life, the idea of spending a lot of time on any type of visual
aesthetic is completely foreign to me. Yet, in my heart, I will always be what
may most closely be classed as a variety of Romantigoth. If only I had known
that there were others like me when this tendency was at its peak (my
adolescence)!
Poetry, Music, Art, Darkness, Spirituality, Beauty,
Creativity…yeah. When I was in high school I went through a fervent Romantigoth
period, wearing vintage Victorian clothes, bustles, hoops, authentic granny
boots, and the like. I shopped at antique stores and flea markets the way my
classmates did at the mall. I begged my mother to help me make vintage dresses
and bustles, from patterns. I had a collection of riding hats. I repeat...riding hats. Of course, this
was before the internet, so I didn’t know I was a Romantigoth. I intuitively
went that direction on my own. Painfully socially awkward, I spent my time
alone, likely reading a Bronte novel and ignoring the other kids. As a child of
domestic violence and sexual abuse, never making the normal types of friendships, I had always been bullied. By high school, I saw most of my peers more
as hostile forms of alien life, so my look was probably as much a buffer to
keep them at a distance as anything. Again, probably due to my context, I
longed desperately to exist in another time and place. I fervently believed
that, in that “simpler time,” everything would be okay and I would fit in. I
don’t mean to imply that these are the motivations of others with gothic
leanings, but merely mine.
The Romantigoth part of me is now just a deeply inherent,
yet not overwhelming, aspect of my identity. Once dressed to the nines in
period clothes, I now but rarely even wear a skirt! But as you can see, my love of the culture is
very real.
One of the hallmarks of a Romantigoth is love of poetry. Mind
you, I enjoy a deliberately “bad,” playful verse as much as I do the classics. But
today I want to highlight the veg leanings of some of the old masters.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was a philosopher, a “radical,” and an
environmental activist before he discovered vegetarianism in 1813. One of his
most ardent biographers was Henry S Salt, who was also a prolific author on
vegetarianism, animal rights, and other types of social reform. A website on
Salt that references his work on Shelley is as follows: http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/critic/percy-bysshe-shelley
Salt notes in his book, “A Shelley Primer,” that Shelley
loved philosophy at least as much as poetry. And he took to vegetarianism with
ferocious enthusiasm. In 1813, after about eight months of eating veg, Shelley
wrote “A Vindication of Natural Diet.” It was initially published as a set of notes, to help his fans understand the philosophical basis for his famous poem, Queen Mab. This short book goes over all
the philosophical, religious, and moral reasons that he finds vegetarianism to
be the ideal diet (and natural diet) of humans. He quotes more ancient veg
writers including Hesiod, Ovid, Plato, and Plutarch in his work. “Vindication”
is available online, and is a fairly easy read. One website I have found it on
is: http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/shelley01.htm and if that website ever disappears, it can be found pretty easily with a web search.
Percy not only moved away from meat, but apparently also eggs and dairy. The Vegan Society of England (www.vegansociety.com) says, in a section on history, "...Fast forward to 1806 CE and the earliest concepts of veganism are just starting to take shape, with Dr William Lambe and Percy Bysshe Shelley amongst the first to publicly object to eggs and dairy on ethical grounds."
Although I hate to skip to the end of Shelley's well written book, the last two sentences of "Vindication" are in all caps for emphasis, and sum his ideas up:
NEVER TAKE ANY SUBSTANCE INTO THE STOMACH THAT ONCE HAD LIFE.
DRINK NO LIQUID BUT WATER RESTORED TO ITS ORIGINAL PURITY BY DISTILLATION.
This touches on his other belief in abstinence from alcohol. He believed both substances (animal products and booze) had a negative effect on the temper and morality of humans, mostly in leading toward violence.
which includes this clip from Queen Mab (book eight):
Immortal upon Earth:
No longer now,
He slays the lamb that
looks him in the face,
And horribly devours
his mangled flesh,
Which, still avenging
nature's broken law,
Kindled all putrid
humours in his frame,
All evil passions, and
all vain belief,
Hatred, despair, and
loathing in his mind,
The germs of misery,
death, disease, and crime.
The
above lines showcase his beliefs that killing of animals for food increases
human tendencies to violence; against other humans as well as the animals. Below,
he reflects ideas about a Golden Age of humans (or prior species of humans)
seen in work by Hesiod and Ovid. Yet Shelley looks forward to a future age,
where he hopes modern humans can reclaim paradise:
No longer now the
winged habitants,
That in the woods
their sweet lives sing away,
Flee from the form of
man; but gather round,
And prune their sunny
feathers on the hands
Which little children
stretch in friendly sport
Towards these
dreadless partners of their play.
All things are void of
terror: man has lost
His terrible
prerogative, and stands
An equal amidst
equals: happiness
And science dawn
though late, upon the earth;
Peace cheers the mind,
health renovates the frame;
Disease and pleasure
cease to mingle here,
Reason and passion
cease to combat there;
Whilst each unfettered
o'er the earth extends
Their all-subduing
energies, and wield
The sceptre of a vast
dominion there;
Whilst every shape and
mode of matter lends
Its force to the
omnipotence of mind,
Which from its dark
mine drags the gem of truth
To decorate its
paradise of peace. (59)
Pretty
much everyone knows about the close friendship between Byron and Shelley. The
two of them even dated sisters for a time, those being Mary Godwin (Shelley)
and her step-sister, Claire Clairmont. Anyone who appreciates the horror genre
and the reign of the “penny dreadful,” probably knows about the epic weekend in
1816 when the group was holed up at their Villa in Lake Geneva, Italy, due to a post-volcanic ash storm and its attendant dark, moody weather. Byron suggested they all write a ghost story. This led to the first
draft of Mary’s famous “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus.” What many do
not realize is that Byron’s personal physician, John Polidori, also wrote an
important work on that day. It was “Vampyre,” and is often acknowledged as the
prototype to the Victorian, literary vamp. He said that his vampire in the
story, Lord Ruthven, was homage to (or perhaps critique of) his boss, Lord
Byron. Further, Byron is thought to have inspired Polidori with an earlier
story draft about a blood-sucker that was called “The Burial: A Fragment.” In
fact, authorship of “Vampyre” has sometimes erroneously been given to Byron,
due to a mistake made by an early publisher. Given Byron’s health-based
vegetarianism, and how everyone saw it as an extremely odd and eccentric way to
eat, it is intriguing to wonder to what extent both authors saw the odd diet of
the vamp as a commentary on the importance of diet, and on the nature of dietary
predation.
The vegetarian ideas of this literary group have been scrubbed from the historical narrative. Yet, as
we have seen, Percy Shelley was very committed to vegetarianism, and was probably
the “ring-leader” with his friends on the vegetarian front. Percy seems to have been an
excellent example of an “ethics vegetarian,” who abstains from animal foods due
to his beliefs. Letters document that the group of friends would sit around
discussing philosophy, politics, science, and literature for a good portion of
any day. It is absolutely inevitable that vegetarianism would have been well
represented. Both Byron and Shelley were vegetarian, though seemingly in
different ways and for different reasons. We cannot know to what extent the
other members of the circle were vegetarian, but they clearly understood and
seemed to agree with the underlying ideas. We know from the appendix of “Vindication”
that Shelley’s first wife went veg with him for at least eight months. Whether
Mary was veg seems to be lost to the ages. Yet while she was with him, I’m
betting she was.
For instance, the major ideas found
in Shelley’s “Vindication of a Natural Diet” can also be found in Mary’s
“Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus.” Her work is absolutely a vegetarian
horror story. This may be a surprise to you, since the vegetarianism has been
completely cut out of modern renditions. Yet the philosophy from Percy’s
“Vindication” underlies the whole original story.
 |
| Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley |
The “creature” that Dr.
Frankenstein makes from both human and non-human animal parts is the “new Adam”
of a different species. Dr. Frankenstein is called the modern Prometheus because of Percy’s
argument that the mythological Prometheus bringing fire to humankind was
meddling with the natural order, and led humans to a meat diet. He asserts this
because humans have always sought to cook meat before eating it, since it is
not our natural food and is not palatable, or sometimes even digestible, in its
natural state. He got this idea from earlier writers, like Plutarch in his
treatise, “On the Eating of Flesh.” So the term "Prometheus" is used to suggest someone who meddles with nature, and challenges the gods, which inevitably leads to unintended consequences. And these folks who are sometimes called "the Romantic (era) Vegetarians" asserted that introducing livestock agriculture and meat-eating to humanity was a similar act.
 |
Shelley's Vegetarian Treatise
|
Mary’s creature is a vegetarian,
and does not even eat meat when he finds it lying around by an old campfire.
The speciesism that Frankenstein’s creature experiences at the hands of humans
both begins and escalates the violence and tragedy in the tale. By speciesism,
I mean that the creature is reviled and treated unkindly because it is
different. Speciesism is the term for an assumption that humans are better than
other animals. If you are interested in this concept, there is a fairly recent
documentary on it called simply, “Speciesism.” This can be found here: http://speciesismthemovie.com/
When the creature demands a bride,
he is asking for his “Eve” so they can go to a remote location and start a new
race, living the way that the Shelleys suggest is best—upon plants. This all
reflects the “back to the garden” ideal that Percy writes about in Queen Mab. When the creature teaches himself to read, one of the prominent books he uses is "Paradise Lost," by Milton. Milton also romanticizes the Golden Age vegetarian diet, and self-identifies as a Pythagorean (what they called Vegetarians before the eighteen fifties).
Carol J Adams wrote a whole chapter
on Frankenstein in her foundational work about vegan feminism entitled, “The
Sexual Politics of Meat.” That chapter and, in fact, the whole book, are
well-worth the read if you are interested.
 |
|
Now for Lord Byron. From what
remain of his own letters about his life, he seems to have been a vegetarian
mostly for the health benefits. Like many who view vegetarianism as a diet, he
was more likely to “cheat” by having animal products on a holiday, while
traveling, or at a family dinner. This doesn’t mean that vegetarianism was not
also informed by his ethics (or the ethics of his close friend), but ultimately
he obviously was more prone to lapses when it came to both animal products and
alcohol.
For instance, here is a segment
from his letters, which is online at http://www.ivu.org/history/williams/byron.html. This segment is from Life of Lord Byron : with his letters and journals
(Vol.3 1814-17) (link to archive.org) pub. London, 1839, this edition 1854.
Where it says he has “kept to Pythagoras,” this means he has been vegetarian.
p.337 - 1817: Venice,
January 28. 1817."The remedy for your plethora is simple — abstinence. I
was obliged to have recourse to the like some years ago, I mean in point of
diet, and, with the exception of some convivial weeks and days, (it might be
months, now and then,) have kept to Pythagoras ever since. For all this, let me
hear that you are better. You must not indulge in ' filthy beer,' nor in
porter, nor eat suppers — the last are the devil to those who swallow
dinner."
One of his friends loved to
circulate the funny story that Byron would buy a goose to fatten up for a
holiday, then get attached to the goose and keep it as a pet. His struggles to
be vegetarian are still understandable, today.
Extract from Shelley by Edward Blunden 1946:
[in Ravenna, Italy
1818] One of Byron's characteristics could not have been missed by any visitor.
Madame Guiccioli found it very comical, and would tell a good story about it.
For Michaelmas Day Byron regularly resolved to have a roast goose, and bought
one; but by the time he had fattened it for a month the goose and he were such
friends that the bird did not come to the table, and another was bought. At
last he possessed four pet geese which traveled in cages under his carriage.
Shelley's catalogue of Byron's zoo ("besides servants"), omitting
geese, includes "ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five
cats, an eagle, a crow and a falcon; and all these except the horses, walk
about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated
quarrels, as if they were masters of it." Shelley supposed that this list
was complete, but as he departed "met on the grand staircase five
peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane. I wonder who all these
animals were before they were changed into these shapes."
 |
| Percy Shelley |
So, between the Shelleys, Byron,
and Polidori it could be argued that both Frankenstein and Dracula have
vegetarian roots! Certainly we can easily see that the horror genre is almost
always a way for humans to work out our fears and fantasies about violence and
predation—most typically as they apply to sex and to eating (or being eaten). The
base line is to ask, who is the consumer, and who is consumed? This plays out
across layers of context that include species, race, class, gender, sexual
identity, and more.
 |
| John Polidori |
Anyhow,
that’s my Romantigoth rant of the day. Faretheewell, fellow darklings. We’ll
always have Lake Geneva.
