From: Rahel Sixta Schmitz The Supernatural Media Virus Virus Anxiety in Gothic Fiction Since 1990 July 2021, 290 p., pb., 5 b&w ill., 54 col. ill. 44,00 € (DE), 978-3-8376-5559-9 E-Book: PDF: 43,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-8394-5559-3 Since the 1990s, the virus and the network metaphors have become increasingly pop- ular, finding application in a broad range of everyday discourses, academic disciplines, and fiction genres. In this book, Rahel Sixta Schmitz defines and discusses a trope recurring in Gothic fiction: the supernatural media virus. This trope comprises the confluence of the virus, the network, and a deep, underlying media anxiety. This study shows how Gothic narratives such as House of Leaves or The Ring feature the super- natural media virus to negotiate as well as actively shape imaginations of the network society and the dangers of a globalized, technologized world. Rahel Sixta Schmitz, born in 1991, earned her doctorate in cultural studies at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany in 2020. Her research focuses on Gothic fic- tion across all narrative media, especially Gothic in the late twentieth and twenty-first century. For further information: www.transcript-verlag.de/en/978-3-8376-5559-9 © 2021 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld Contents Acknowledgments............................................................9 Introduction: The Age of Virus Anxiety ...................................... 11 1. The Virus, the Network, and the Supernatural Media Virus ............ 39 1.1 Theories of Metaphor .................................................. 39 1.2 The Viral Metaphor: The Spread of the Virus Across Disciplines ......... 44 1.3 The Ubiquity of the Network Metaphor and the Emergence of the Network Society ................................................... 59 1.4 The Virus in the Network Society: The Supernatural Media Virus as a Gothic Trope ................................................ 72 2. Ghostwatch and the Advent of the Network Society ................... 83 2.1 The Ghost Story as a Critique of Society and its Media .................. 83 2.2 Blurring Fact and Fiction: Uncanny Mass Media ......................... 88 2.3 Gothic Conventions in Times of Increasing Interconnection .............104 3. House of Leaves, the Network Paradigm, and the Abstract Supernatural Media Virus ............................................. 115 3.1 Lost in the (Textual) Labyrinth: The Multimodal Transmedia Narrative ............................................................. 115 3.2 Alienation, Homelessness, and the Instability of the Text................124 3.3 The Supernatural Media Virus as Inherent Network Accident ............142 4. The Moral Dimension of the Supernatural Media Virus in the Ring Franchise .............................................................155 4.1 Ring as a Cross-Cultural Example of the Supernatural Media Virus.......155 4.2 Japanese Horror Traditions: The Kaidan and Globalgothic............... 161 4.3 The Metropolis as a Figuration of the Network Society ..................169 4.4 TheEvolutionof Ring’s Viral Vector: The Media’s Moral Dilemma .........186 5. The Digital Supernatural Media Virus and the Network Apocalypse in Kairo and Pulse ...................................................... 205 5.1 Media Anxiety in 21st Century Digital Gothic............................ 205 5.2 Disconnection, Disintegration, Disembodiment: The Human Individual in the Digitalized Network Society ........................... 211 5.3 Permanent Surveillance and Networked Ghosts: Digital Media as Viral Vectors ......................................... 235 Conclusions: Future Mutations of the Supernatural Media Virus ........... 249 Bibliography............................................................... 269 Film, Television, and Web Series ............................................ 269 Video Games ................................................................ 271 Audio Works ................................................................ 271 Literature.................................................................. 272 List of Figures Fig. 2.1 The Gothicized BBC studio ........................................... 89 Fig. 2.2 Thermal imaging camera ............................................ 98 Fig. 2.3 A peek into “Ghostwatch”’s on-location outside broadcasting (OB) truck................................................................... 99 Fig. 2.4 Reel-to-reel tape machine at the BBC studio .........................100 Fig. 2.5 Video wall and mobile television set with light pen ...................100 Fig. 2.6 Glitches disrupting the broadcast as the manifestations at the house increase until…................................................... 107 Fig. 2.7 …the television signal collapses completely ..........................108 Fig. 3.1 The novel’s edition notice ............................................122 Fig. 3.2 Three sets of competing footnotes ..................................126 Fig. 3.3 Navidson at the bottom of the stairwell… ........................... 130 Fig. 3.4 …and Reston at the top ............................................. 131 Fig. 3.5 Illegible text as evolution ............................................148 Fig. 4.1 Foreshadowing at the end of “Ringu” ................................. 171 Fig. 4.2 Deleted scene from “The Ring” .......................................173 Fig. 4.3 Close-up of the video tape...........................................173 Fig. 4.4 Disorienting shot of high rises .......................................180 Fig. 4.5 Rachel steps out onto her balcony ...................................180 Fig. 4.6 Rachel gazes into apartments in neighboring buildings ............... 181 Fig. 4.7 The camera pans from one window to the next… ..................... 181 Fig. 4.8 …displaying the physical proximity of the inhabitants ................182 Fig. 4.9 Rachel as part of the overcrowded, fragmented metropolis ...........182 Fig. 4.10 Multiple Sadakos in a shop window at an electronics retailer.........193 Fig. 4.11 Truck with LCD screen as symbol of the mediasaturated world .......193 Fig. 4.12 Corrupted paratext .................................................196 8 The Supernatural Media Virus: Virus Anxiety in Gothic Fiction Since 1990 Fig. 4.13 Samara’s appearance twice removed from reality....................201 Fig. 5.1 One (techno-)ghost occupying multiple locations simultaneously ...... 218 Fig. 5.2 Michi alone on the bus.............................................. 220 Fig. 5.3 Michi, getting off the bus, is almost indiscernible ................... 220 Fig. 5.4 Geometrical patterns dominate Kurosawa’s detached style ........... 221 Fig. 5.5 The supernatural media virus leaves visible traces… ................ 227 Fig. 5.6 …turning the skin of its victims an inky black color ................. 228 Fig. 5.7 The opening credits of “Pulse” juxtapose images… .................. 230 Fig. 5.8 …of animated epidemiological maps… .............................. 230 Fig. 5.9 …and diverse digital technologies ................................... 231 Fig. 5.10 Leaflet with safety instructions .................................... 234 Fig. 5.11 Multiple pages forming a single image .............................. 239 Fig. 5.12 A feeling of surveillance pervades “Kairo,” evoked by long shots… .. 242 Fig. 5.13 …and obstructed, distorted perspectives........................... 243 Fig. 5.14 Obstructed perspectives remain a common feature throughout “Kairo” ......................................................... 243 Fig. 5.15 Bird’s-eye view of the campus ..................................... 244 Fig. 5.16 Camera position changes between such surveillance shots ......... 245 Acknowledgments Writing this book has been an incredible journey, one that has been supported by many people. It is with great pleasure that I acknowledge those people, communities, and institutions that made it possible to make this project happen. I have been fortunate enough to find very many passionate and generous supporters who have aided me during my struggles and who challenged me to consider the questions that reside at the heart of this book even more deeply. I can only express a fraction of the gratitude I hold with these words. I would like to thank the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) as well as the International PhD Programme “Literary and Cultural Studies” (IPP) in Gießen, Germany for the fel- lowship support that gave me the time and resources I required to work on the doctoral thesis that formed the basis for this book. I would also like to extend special thanks to my supervisors, Ansgar Nünning and Michael Newton, for their constructive, helpful advice. They have been instrumental in shaping my ideas and in conceptualizing my argument. Without their aid, I never could have explored the uncanny depths of Gothic fiction as I have. I have been especially fortunate in having received assistance from a variety of inspiring researchers: Stephanie Lotzow, Melissa Kaufler, Greta Olson, Teona Micevska, Michele Brittany, Nicholas Diak, and es- sentially the entire working group “AG Game Studies” of Justus Liebig University – they have all been valuable interlocutors. This book is bet- ter because of their inspiring commentary and challenging questions. I am particularly grateful to Madeline Kienzle, who did me the honor of 10 The Supernatural Media Virus: Virus Anxiety in Gothic Fiction Since 1990 reviewing drafts of the book and who offered invaluable editorial