#carmilla (1872)

[sheridan-le-fanu]

Come talk to me about any of this stuff!

[mimimar]

carmilla and laura

(art prints)

[frogoru]

1800s toxic vampire yuri goes crazy

[elainiisms]

vampire yuri ily

[dyingnome]

Karnstein Ruins - concept art for a project based on Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

[cathyartie]

Toxic Yuri my beloved

[brotherdusk]

the people who got violently angry at everyone in dracula for not realising they were in a horror story until it was too late would die if they read carmilla I think

[corvidcrowned]

Read carmilla recently<3

[mswyrr]

I like toxic yuri. I do not like the Sapphic Overton window and how it's it's moved so far in the direction of unrealistic levels of purity that two women must act like inhuman saints and never have any conflict to be considered "healthy." And pretty normal women in love having realistic conflict for the plot they're in gets labeled "toxic yuri."

Malini and Priya from the Burning Kingdoms books are not toxic yuri, their feelings for each other and how they relate are pretty damn healthy, they're just trapped in impossible circumstances. Ditto Siuan and Moiraine from Wheel of Time. There's a difference between inherent toxicity and a dramatic plot pushing people to the breaking point.

Now, Lucille the repressed bisexual from Crimson Peak who is a serial killer and slowly poisoning Edith to death even as she desires her? Or Carmilla in the original 1872 story Carmilla who believes her love for other girls can only be death and so she's slowly killing the girl she loves to draw out their time together while slaying other women quickly to satiate her bloodlust? *That's* toxic yuri. There's something at the very core of their dynamic that is toxic. Not two women who are pretty sweet together forced into a mind-breakingly impossible situation and having conflict over it. I am into that shit - and I am into realistic writing and high stakes situations pushing people to the breaking point - and there's a very important distinction there.

[twisted-little-fuckermeh]

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla 1872

[malletofjudgement]

Let us look again for a moment; it is the last time, perhaps, I shall see the moonlight with you.

[frogoru]

i tried to redraw one of the illustrations from the story

[alunaeterna]

I know Carmilla is a horror book and all, but the fact that Laura told her governesses something like, "Don't tell Carmilla about the paranormal stuff going on because she'll be scared shitless" will always be hilarious to me.

[dyingnome]

A few more Carmilla sketches

[cathyartie]

Girlie got friend zoned, sibling zoned, cousin zoned in one book that’s crazy

Based on Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

“Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardor of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet over-powering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever." Then she had thrown herself back in her chair, with her small hands over her eyes, leaving me trembling.”

“Are we related," I used to ask; "what can you mean by all this? I remind you perhaps of someone whom you love; but you must not, I hate it; I don't know you–I don't know myself when you look so and talk so."

She used to sigh at my vehemence, then turn away and drop my hand.”

[fluffywuffle]

ok so the thing about carmilla (1872) is that carmilla has probably done the "oh i'm so in love with you" shtick with so many girls that she has devoured. it's textbook predatory lesbianism and 19th century fear of the queer, or monstrous sexuality as jack halberstam puts it in skin shows.

but what if carmilla did love those girls? what if laura is not just one in many victims of carmilla, but an actual object of love? after all, vampirism is often a perversion of desire, and oh what twisted love is that of literally consuming each and every one of your partners?

and that's not even to say of how long carmilla put off devouring laura. she fed off of so many villagers and killed so many villagers before -- what very well may be resorting to -- laura. can we say that carmilla is even protective of laura in this regard? that carmilla would put off feeding for so long to protect laura from herself?

of course she's a predator. of course she is savoring her meal. of course she uses laura's love as a way to guard herself from suspicion. but i don't think it was all a game. i don't think that when carmilla said, "you must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me and still come with me," she was merely speaking as a predator. after all, what simple predator asks for their prey to come with them to death?