07-30-2010, 09:16 PM
I think I might have a vague irrational preference for female authors when it comes to Gothics, if only because it's easier for me to believe a first-person narrative if the gender of the narrator matches that of the author. Again, completely irrational, as it's all fiction anyway. I've read some first-rate Gothics by male authors.
It also may be that so many authors of Gothics (female and male alike) use pseudonyms that are chosen to evoke a certain kind of personality. At the moment I'm reading a book by Priscilla Dalton, a.k.a. Mike Avallone. Avallone was a prolific author in many genres, and like so many other authors in the 1960s he capitalized on the demand for Gothics by writing several of them. The absurdity of it is that I respond to the name "Priscilla Dalton" even though I know it's a phony name, simply because it evokes a persona that suits the genre and story. The part of my mind that believes the story also wants to believe that there was a refined lady called Priscilla Dalton who really wrote these books. Ridiculous! Yet the imagination often plays chess to the checkers of the intellect, and in this case wins.
It also may be that so many authors of Gothics (female and male alike) use pseudonyms that are chosen to evoke a certain kind of personality. At the moment I'm reading a book by Priscilla Dalton, a.k.a. Mike Avallone. Avallone was a prolific author in many genres, and like so many other authors in the 1960s he capitalized on the demand for Gothics by writing several of them. The absurdity of it is that I respond to the name "Priscilla Dalton" even though I know it's a phony name, simply because it evokes a persona that suits the genre and story. The part of my mind that believes the story also wants to believe that there was a refined lady called Priscilla Dalton who really wrote these books. Ridiculous! Yet the imagination often plays chess to the checkers of the intellect, and in this case wins.