Week 1: Gothic Elements As Told by George RR Martin

George RR Martin's short story The Sandkings is one of the creepiest science fiction-gothic-thriller pieces I've read in a while. Martin tells a story about a rich man named Simon Kress, who's obsession with exotic pets and ruthless violence leads him to his own demise.

Kress lives in a high-tech house in the middle of nowhere. It's his own castle of sorts. The tension builds when an exotic pet store owner sells Kress extremely dangerous and hilariously tiny Sandkings. The store owner warned Kress that their ability to go to war with each other when inhabiting the same space could be dangerous, but Kress never heed the omen.

Through Kress's abusive and neglectful treatment of the Sandkings, they started to hate him. Kress was angry the Sandkings didn't want to battle for territory in their sand-filled aquarium, but these pets were pushed to a point of no return. As they got larger, starved and were forced to kill each other, their hate for their owner grew, until they literally took over his house. RR Martin bumped up the creep factor when the insects' sentient queen absorbed herself into the basement walls and became the house, dead-set on killing Simon Kress. 

Another nuance of gothic writing includes the treatment of women. Kress, being the tyrannical main character he is, threatened the female pet store owner of killing her business if the Sandkings didn't entertain his party guests adequately. Lastly, the main character goes through acutely intense emotions throughout the course of this story. His affinity for anger foten jumps to impatient distraughtness, but then climaxes when he rekindles anger for his ex girlfriend. Driven by romantic vengeance, he ends up screwing his good karma for the rest of his short life (no spoilers).