Are contemporary Gothics possible?

[Penfeather]

Gothics have made a comeback in the sense that it focuses on the paranormal, such as all the vampire fiction, as well as some supernatural, such as ghosts.  I can tolerate supernatural elements if they are used well, but I do not like the paranormal.  By "horror", what do you mean?

This is depressingly true.  "Gothic" is used in all sorts of ways but today it usually doesn't mean what we mean by it in this forum (which in itself is not all that "authentic" if we're honest).  Nowadays the term usually applies to some other genre (erotica, horror, romance, etc.) with very banalized and simplified "Gothic" elements tacked onto the surface -- the Peel-'n'-Stick school of vinyl Gothics.

If there are supernatural/paranormal elements, that can be OK in principle -- but they can be problematic because of the cliché and banal way in which they're often handled today.  Vampires are sexy? BLECH! They're DEAD! In any case so many of these "paranormal" characters come off the page as trite and strangely vapid people, for all their superpowers, with very conventional and mundane mentalities.  I imagine their dialogue in valley-speak.  There's a cheap feeling of cosplay to many of these books.  Are they "Gothics"? By today's definition, unfortunately yes.  This is the way their readers like them: basically soap operas with "Gothic" window-dressing.  But they don't have a Gothic tone.

A nice example of a more traditional "Gothic" with supernatural elements is -- although it's a movie -- The Others.  I would probably enjoy reading that in novel form.  Probably not a big market for that sort of thing these days, though.

Will the "traditional" Gothic novel make a comeback? Probably not in the commercial publishing world, because it isn't likely to garner a big enough readership.  But here and there, it might crop up among micropublishers -- and of course there's a lot of self-published stuff, most of it unfortunately pretty unreadable.