Abstract German Idealism still dominates most approaches in theoretical biology. This has led to a conception of organisms as tightly regulated self-forming systems where the demands of the whole organism dominate how the parts are coordinated. This article troubles this approach by presenting aspects of biology that refuse to be synthesized into a specific whole. I call this approach “goth biology” as it recognizes the murkiness of systems of knowledge, the loosely composite nature of most living things, and the continual haunting of life by death. Methodologically, I use insights gleaned from the history of post-punk goth music to explore the role of aesthetics, timbres, and forms as elements of lives that bound disparate times and spaces without providing a unified synthesis. A form of biological experience, and a theory of how the body works, goth biology demands that one lose a conception of “self” in order to embrace the complexity of biological interactions. As the goth performance artist Anna-Varney Cantodea recently confessed in an interview: “I have long given up on any goals I might have had,” but this doesn’t keep me from being inspired by everything around me.

中文翻译：

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异化的生活

摘要 德国唯心主义仍然主导着理论生物学的大多数方法。这导致了将生物体视为严格监管的自我形成系统的概念，其中整个生物体的需求主导着各个部分的协调方式。这篇文章通过展示拒绝合成为一个特定整体的生物学方面来扰乱这种方法。我称这种方法为“哥特生物学”，因为它认识到知识系统的模糊性、大多数生物的松散组合性质，以及死亡对生命的持续困扰。在方法论上，我使用从后朋克哥特音乐历史中收集到的见解来探索美学、音色和形式作为生活元素的作用，这些元素束缚了不同的时间和空间，但没有提供统一的综合。一种生物经验，一种关于身体如何运作的理论，哥特生物学要求人们放弃“自我”的概念，以接受生物相互作用的复杂性。正如哥特行为艺术家 Anna-Varney Cantodea 最近在接受采访时所承认的那样：“我早就放弃了我可能拥有的任何目标”，但这并不妨碍我从周围的一切事物中获得灵感。