#<-sheridan lefanu in 1872

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

aaanyway

[livefromcastledracula]

CARMILLA: THE LOVE OF THE DEAD on Second Life

My Dear Friends...

October is upon us, which means It's time for a very special announcement.

I have been working on the first 'expansion pack' to my Castle Dracula Experience on Second Life, a new storyline based on another classic of gothic literature to immerse yourself in this Halloween season. Last year we debuted with Bram Stoker's Dracula, this year it's time to celebrate the work of Sheridan LeFanu, and a vampire story that helped inspire Stoker and hundreds of other works of fiction since.

CARMILLA: the Love of the Dead is a tale of gothic romance and dread entwined with the events of the original 1872 novella. Follow the missing Laura on her quest to discover the fate of the alluring and terrifying Carmilla, and explore new interactive story incorporating not only the words of the original story, but more puzzles, scares, and drama than ever before.

In the meantime, the original Castle Dracula Experience is very much still open - so feel free to come by and explore the Castle alone or with your friends! Happy Spooky Season, my dear batlings! COMING (VERY) SOON!

[mejomonster]

Some more fun recs! 

1. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The other day i mentioned how much in period romances i just crave... basically lesbian dracula. So Dracula the musical sure was satisfying. And Fingersmith was amazing. And it reminded me! The original woman vampire novel exists! Written in 1872, Dracula was published later in 1897. It is easy to find available in French (here is the free link to read: https://beq.ebooksgratuits.com/vents/Lefanu-carmilla.pdf ). I am currently looking up if there’s a parallel text though, since its also very easy to find translated into english! If you have ever seen the modern youtube webseries Carmilla, it is slightly based on this book. I believe there’s also an old film based on this novel (which I’d love to watch).

2. Dracula Musical, Korean version. I am still looking for the thing in its entirety, but seeing snippets is very cool because they have english subs on youtube - and it seems to be the same play as the japanese version. So dracula in love with mina, like a lover from a past life, is very much a plot point in text not just something i interpreted lol ( @keyhsahla this may be of interest to you since we talked about reincarnated lovers, and this particular musical - along with the Coppula Dracula movie to a lesser extent, definitely play with this romantic idea and I’ve always found it pretty cool). Like genuinely @keyhsahla watch this clip and tell me the desperation to find his love again does not remind you a lil of Yao: https://youtu.be/h4WANcorEWs

3. Dracula Musical, japanese version with japanese and chinese subs. If you can read either of those languages, you’re in luck! I did some more digging and found a version of the japanese musical with both these hard subs on them. Good for me because I can read a decent amount of chinese, and with japanese subs i’ll have an easier time looking words up. If you can read chinese, i am happy to say bilibili seems to have a high number of japanese plays subtitled you just need to search 中字 (chinese subs) along with the title. Here is the play with subs: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ni4y1T7tL?share_source=copy_web

[teddykalfu]

Monster i terapi: Skräcklitteraturens ikoner hos psykologen (Jenny Jägerfeld & Mats Strandberg) 2020

För Dig som: brukar psykoanalysera fiktiva figurer, och vill upptäcka klassisk skräck på nytt

Föreställ Dig att Dorian Gray, doktorerna Henry Jekyll och Victor Frankenstein samt fröken Laura och hennes älskade vampyr Carmilla kunde färdas i tiden – för att gå i terapi i dagens Sverige. (Deras psykolog måste ha mycket goda referenser.) Föreställ Dig att Du fick läsa hennes efterlämnade papper: de transkriberade patientsamtalen, journalerna, hennes personliga reflektioner och korrespondens – rubbet.

Det får Du. Och jag kan bara säga tack, Jenny Jägerfeld och Mats Strandberg, för den här boken. För det här är litteraturhistoria när den är som roligast, metaskräck när den är som mest fascinerande, och dessutom en grymt fantasieggande och läsvärd berättelse. En modern brevroman eller ett fiktivt personarkiv – lika bra som spänningsläsning eller en djuplodande litteraturkritisk (psyko)analys av fyra av skräcklitteraturens klassiska grundtexter.

Av Mats Strandberg förväntar jag mig vid det här laget normkritisk skräck med en queerfeministisk ansats, och det löftet infriar Monster i terapi innan man ens har hunnit öppna boken – i valet av skräckberättelser och hur de angrips. Inte Dracula, utan Carmilla. Det är inte ”monstret” (som i Mary Shelleys original aldrig kallas för monster utan för ”varelsen”) som behöver gå i terapi, utan doktor Frankenstein själv. Och i stället för mer välkända skräckikoner har Mats Strandberg och praktiserande psykologen Jenny Jägerfelt plockat in Dorian Gray, som sällan får det erkännande som monster han med sitt psykopatiska förhållningssätt till sina medmänniskor förtjänar. Urvalet, och vad författarna sedan gör med det, avslöjar hur väl förtrogna de är med både de klassiska berättelserna själva, och med den litteraturhistoriska forskningen om dem (samt, förstås, med den psykoanalytiska processen som sådan).

Vad som följer i fyra beskrivna terapisituationerna är inget mindre än briljant. Äntligen utmanas Frankenstein att ta ansvar för sina handlingar, både mot den stackars varelsen han först skapar och sedan grymt överger, och mot sin tålmodigt väntande fästmö. Äntligen får Laura hjälpen att lära sig uttrycka sitt missnöje med ojämlikheten i sin och Carmillas relation. Äntligen kommer någon på tanken att uppmana doktor Jekylls båda personligheter att försöka kommunicera med varandra. Och äntligen ser någon vackre Dorian för vad han är, med potentiellt fatalt resultat…

Monster i terapi är helt klart roligast att läsa om man själv har läst klassikerna – men jag kan föreställa mig att den lika gärna skulle kunna locka nya läsare att våga ge de gamla, med dagens mått mätt långsamma, skräckberättelserna en chans. 

Om jag alls har något att anmärka på så är det att boken tog slut alldeles för fort. Jag skulle gladeligen ha tagit del av vad författarduon hade kunnat hitta på med fler av skräckens klassiker. Vågar man kanske hoppas på en del 2, som tacklar Skruvens vridning (Henry James), The haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), The great god Pan (Arthur Machen) och alla stackars levande begravda kvinnor hos Edgar Allan Poe…?

 På svenska: Ja, svenskt original

Ljudbok: Nej

E-bok: Ja

 Bibliografi

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

Sheridan LeFanu, Carmilla, 1872

Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

Jenny Jägerfeld & Mats Strandberg, Monster i terapi: Skräcklitteraturens ikoner hos psykologen, 2020

[writingsfromspace]

The amphibious existence of the vampire is sustained by daily renewed slumber in the grave. Its horrible lust for living blood supplies the vigor of its waking existence. The vampire is prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, resembling the passion of love, by particular persons. In pursuit of these it will exercise inexhaustible patience and stratagem, for access to a particular object may be obstructed in a hundred ways. It will never desist until it has satiated its passion, and drained the very life of its coveted victim. But it will, in these cases, husband and protract its murderous enjoyment with the refinement of an epicure, and heighten it by the gradual approaches of an artful courtship. In these cases it seems to yearn for something like sympathy and consent. In ordinary ones it goes direct to its object, overpowers with violence, and strangles and exhausts often at a single feast.

J. Sheridan LeFanu, Carmilla (1872)

Ever wondered what Twilight would have been like if Edward was a proper vampire (and also female)? Wonder no longer!

[generallygothic]

"𝕲𝖎𝖗𝖑𝖘 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖕𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖗𝖘 𝖜𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖞 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖑𝖉, 𝖙𝖔 𝖇𝖊 𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖞 𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖋𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖍𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖗 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖘; 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖊𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖌𝖗𝖚𝖇𝖘 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖆𝖗𝖛𝖆𝖊, 𝖉𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖊𝖊 - 𝖊𝖆𝖈𝖍 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖎𝖗 𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖚𝖑𝖎𝖆𝖗 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘, 𝖓𝖊𝖈𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊." 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 Born this day, 1814: Sheridan Le Fanu (d. 1873), dark romantic author of the gothic and horror. Le Fanu is famous for his occult detective narratives, for his influence upon M. R. James and the Victorian era obsession with the ghost story, and for his atmospheric approach to horror. He is also known as author of vampire-fiction which, during this month's explorations 🧟‍♂️Of Monsters and Men🧟‍♂️, is of most interest to me today. Published in its entirety in 1872, the novella 'Carmilla' is the prototypical lesbian vampire narrative, predating Stoker's globally famous Dracula by almost three decades. (I hope it was understood that women are no less capable of monstrosity than men, and that I use the term 'man' in this month's theme title to denote '[hu]mankind'...) The text pictured though is actually a dramatisation of the monstrous classic of gothic fiction, which I admit I am yet to read. Le Fanu was known for reworking his fiction - developing shorter pieces into longer ones, and adapting past ideas into the new. I therefore imagine that he would be open to the idea of this play; that he would appreciate Carmilla having fresh blood pumped into it...💉. 🤔: Has anyone here read this adaptation? How do you feel about adaptations of classics, into new forms and new directions? . #sheridanlefanu #lefanu #carmilla #mrjames #vampire #vampirefiction #vampirenovel #bookstagram #bookish #darkacademia #spookynerd #gothic #gothicnovel #gothicfiction #classics2020 #classicliterature #dracula #bramstoker #otd #bookworm #booknerd #bookphotography #drama #books #horror #lesbianvampire #englishliterature #academia #literaryhistory #bookquotes https://www.instagram.com/p/CEcpEKTgVG7/?igshid=bwhj2begehpu