As a goth, it has been my duty to reflect on the Death Mysteries. Being goth, for me, is about holding space with the dead, because they are a part of life. To say otherwise, is to be in denial to oneself about the reality that we all so clearly face living day to day. People and other things, are always dying. Things in life are always in a state of decay. To say otherwise is to be n deep denial about the reality of life. It's a form of gaslighting that humans who like to profit off of denial like to perpetuate in the culture in order to make sure they have more profit in their pockets.
This is why, as a goth, my first job is to stay in touch with reality. To avoid being scammed by anybody, to stay out of other people's illusions.
This is the goth ethos, this is not the same thing as goth literature. I am speaking directly to what it means to be a goth in the modern era. What the responsibilities of a goth are on an ethical level. If you are just an aesthetic goth, if you only dress the victorian style or cyberpunk style of goth dress, then you haven't dived in to the literature side of goth culture, and you are really missing out on the deeper elements of goth as a subculture.
Do you understand punk music as a subculture scene? If you don't, you're not a real goth.
No one said you had to be a punk, but you do need to understand it's ethos, so you can understand one of the root cultures on the goth subculture. Siouxsie and the Banshees is a keystone artist of the goth subculture. Even if you don't like their music, etc, knowing the history and culture of a band like Siouxsie and the Banshees will help you understand authentic goth.
You can blame my extensive knowledge of Death studies from a cultural anthropology perspective, on the fact that I was suicidal for many years, and upon discovering the library and looking up suicide, found only books about suicide prevention, and so learned to talk myself out of committing suicide amny times, however, looking up books about death took me down a different mental route. I learned about not just artistic studies of death, but about what can be called death culture.
The beliefs, symbols, and mores of various cultures in relationship to death.