#j Sheridan lefanu

[wellconstructedsentences]

It is a frightful plight. Two angels buried him … in Vallombrosa by night; I saw it, standing along the lotus and the hemlock.

Wylder’s Hand by J. Sheridan Lefanu

[bramsnumberonefanboy]

Read Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu, it has:

-lesbians

-vampires

Yeah that's all but it's great, and it was so gay omg, the only way it was able to get publish (it came out like 26 years before Dracula by Bram Stoker btw) was because Laura (main character) referred to Carmilla as her 'dear friend's or 'the pretty lady

It's really funny cause Carmilla straight out calls Laura 'darling' and 'dearest' and us always putting her hands around Laura's waist so super fruity

[thebrightpreciousthings]

RECENT READS: “Carmilla" by J. Sheridan LeFanu

“You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me, and hating me through death and after. There is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature.”

[martyrphilia]

“To die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together” — J Sheridan LeFanu

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Author Extraordinaire J. Sheridan LeFanu

[goblinfruit]

tentatively back

hello! it has been 3 years since I posted on this blog!

Since the last time we spoke, I have:

experienced a few different forms of heartbreak (some silly in retrospect despite how devastating it felt at the time, others are still an ache. my cat died, i miss him.)

got prescribed antidepressants. Turns out, medication can help one's anxiety! Who knew!

started a commonplace book. I plan to post at least one little essay/explanation singing the praises of commonplace books

started reading for fun again :)

starting writing fiction for fun again :)

starting bookbinding! I am making and binding my own notebooks & sketchbooks.

We'll see how much I stick around and utilize this blog, but as the dark inches closer during the day and the leaves start to turn, my power grows. October always makes me want to write, so I'm hoping to update this blog and make it useful for myself and any other writers who loves this season.

In the meantime, here's my Fall/Halloween TBR Goodreads shelf. Will I read all of these? Of course not. But I'm excited to try!

[heavenlylibrary]

“Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes.”

- from Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu

[goingrampant]

I reviewed The Child that Went with the Fairies by J. Sheridan LeFanu from my perspective of a feminist Carmilla fan and mused on the significance of its villainous fairies apparently making a cameo in Carmilla.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Aristasian Book Club

The old Aristasian forums had a lot of chatter, at different times, about starting a Book Club, and few suggestions for rancinated reading were tossed out, but none of them really ever seemed to take off. Maybe some Aristasians were voracious readers, but most of the chatter in elektraspace seems to be about movies and clothes. I started keeping a list when titled books were mentioned:

Princess Anne - Katharine L. Oldmeadow The Constant Nymph - Margaret Kennedy The Abbey Girls at Home - Miss Oxenham Carmilla - J. Sheridan LeFanu Olivia - Dorothy Bussy Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman Moving the Mountain - Charlotte Perkins Gilman With Her In Ourland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman Mizora: A Prophecy - Mary E. Bradley Understood Betsy - Dorothy Canfield Fisher

[murderoushagthesequel]

Carmilla by J Sheridan LeFanu and dorlene and/or nobleflower

[indigo-scarf]

Ten Books to Know Me

Thanks @nv-md for the tag!

But also I spent all day thinking about how I've literally just started a literature/languages degree yet I don't read books lol. Might be my suspected ADHD.

I like knowing things about literature more than actually reading, and I like reading fanfic more than original fiction (there's actually a post about how fanfic tends to be popular among neurodivergent people).

But anyway:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - This was my Bible in high school and I was an ardent fundamentalist. As in, I didn't want anyone else to read it because they didn't understand Holden like I did. (Fortunately I'm Brazilian and we don't read this for school).

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron - The Catcher in the Rye II.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu - From the late middle school phase when I wanted to read Gothic classics. This is the best because it has a pretty monster girl.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Second fave from the Gothic phase.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - From the early middle school phase when I wanted to read anglo classics. This is the best because it has boys being adventurous, imaginative, quirky, and all these things 9gag memes will convince you girls can't be.

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley - At one point I had a thing for middle grade horror stories.

Okey dokey, sono un punk by Domenica Luciani - Got this when I was 12 and read it several times. I was into punk aesthetics and Green Day (still am into pop punk, but Green Day is the punkest I go).

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - From the phase just out of high school, in 2015, when I was trying to read...things. That weren't classics. Spooky ghost girl.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey - Same as the above, but it's a monster hunter guy descending into madness.

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll - Graphic novel. Lovely Gothic/folk horror vibes.

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever - So in the seven years between 2015 and 2022 I hadn't even attempted to read any books. Then I started reading this one, was extremely into the toxic dark academia gay boys... and then I just stopped half-way through. For no apparent reason other than executive dysfunction.

Honourable mention to Poe and Lovecraft short stories.

Tagging @startanewdream, @artemisia-black, @siriusly-sapphic, @celestemagnoliathewriter + anyone who wants to

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #3.8

Anno Dracula, Kim Newman

Uzumaki, Junji Ito

World War Z, Max Brooks

Dracula, Bram Stoker (our episode here, mini ep here)

Kim Newman's Empire column (links collected on his website here)

Jack the Ripper (wiki)

John Seward; Dracula, Bram Stoker

Sherlock Holmes; the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Raffles; the Raffles stories, E. W. Horning

Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Tales, Bram Stoker

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

From Hell, Alan Moore

The Jack the Ripper letters (wiki)

The Diogenes Club; fictional club from the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Mycroft Holmes; the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Laundry Files, Charles Stross

Equoid, Charles Stross

Full list of Anno Dracula characters here

InfoWars (wiki)

Mary Sue (trope)

not like other girls (trope)

Oscar Wilde

IT, Stephen King

Jiangshi; Chinese vampires (wiki)

The Count; Sesame Street

Blindsight, Peter Watts (available for free here)

The AIDS crisis (wiki)

Bloody Sunday (wiki)

Drinking your respect women juice (duckduckgo refuses to furnish me with the origins of this piece of internet lingo, alas)

Fridging (trope)

Bridezilla (definition)

Hate Sink (trope)

Annie Lennox (wiki)

Arthur Holmwood, Lucy Westenra; Dracula, Bram Stoker

The Vampyre, John Polidori

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (our episode here)

Dr Moreau; The Island of Doctor Moreau, H. G. Wells

For a full list of cameos, see this section of the Anno Dracula wikipedia article

Lord Ruthven; The Vampyre, John Polidori

Carmilla, Sheridan LeFanu

Joseph Merrick (wiki)

The Museum Vrolik, Amsterdam (website)

Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia; Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

The Bloody Red Baron, Kim Newman

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Anno Dracula on AO3

Catherine Eddowes (wiki)

Mary Jane Kelly (wiki)

Mansplain Manipulate Malewife (meme)

Van Helsing; Dracula, Bram Stoker

Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding

Hugh Grant (imdb)

Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss (meme)

Lenore, Edgar Allan Poe

ACAB (wiki)

The Muppets

Miss Piggy, Kermit; The Muppets

Jack Black (imdb)

Tim Curry (imdb)

Threads (1984)

Shout outs!

Charlotte's insta

Telling the Bees, Emma K. Leadley

Cat Rating: 6/10

Next Time on Teaching My Cat To Read

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

[themodernprxmetheus]

was nO ONE going to tell me carmilla was THAT gay

[amandaklwrites]

Book Review: Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu

Genre: Classic Horror

Rating: 4/5

Book Review:

Fun fact for all you book nerds: DRACULA was not the first vampire book. This book, CARMILLA, actually was. The author was Irish and undoubtedly knew/met Bram Stoker. So, with that in mind, I realized there were a lot of similarities between the two.

Honestly, I liked this book just as much as DRACULA. This one focused more on women (vampires seem to be obsessed with mostly women, don’t they?? What does this say about the Victorian period, hm?), and I thought the telling of the story was great. There was a lot of mystery and eeriness to it, just like its successor. It’s not a long book, it gets right to the point, and everything unfolds right up to the end.

A good, gothic horror about classic vampires. I highly enjoyed it!

[abatkatblogging]

RecsMas 2k17 day 2

Day 2: A short book

This is a book about fear, loathing, and shame. It is a quiet tragedy that doesn’t understand its scope or influence to come. But it is an essential part of vampire and queer fiction history. We can’t appreciate where we come from or what we stand to lose without appreciating where we have once been. And confronting those old spirits can be a cathartic, even essential part of moving beyond the shadow our past casts. This is why I would especially recommend the book to any Creampuff who enjoyed the Carmilla movie. The talented creators used the film to wrestle their way through their source text with a new level of intimacy that left me thrilled and devastated in a way I hadn’t felt with this story in a very long time. This is the tale of the vampire princess who founded many of the popular vampire tropes we love/hate today, and the sweet, sheltered girl who she brought under her thrall. 

3/5

I still don’t know when I first heard about Carmilla. In my mind, she exists as a benevolent immortal, whispering into the minds of every queer vampire fan who needs her when the time is right. However she came to me, my first instinct was to ignore her completely. It was a fascinating tidbit of information, a vampire novel older than Dracula starring a woman who just happened to lust after another woman. Good trivia, maybe something to tuck away for later.

It was only a matter of days before I was sheepishly scouring the internet for a copy of the book.

I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone could see what I was searching for. I didn’t dare get a paper copy, not yet. What if someone saw? Suppose they recognized what the book was about? Or worse, what if they asked me? How would I explain myself?  I downloaded an ebook copy in the middle of the night, waited a day in case some invisible force watching me thought I seemed too eager, and finally downed the novella in two sittings during finals week. 

There was an instant, laying down in my bed with my tablet pressed over my chest, where I felt my heart tighten in time with the story in a moment of terrifying synchronicity. I knew these compulsions. I’d imagined being petted by mysterious, adoring girls, and felt my stomach jerk with panic when the fantasy veered down a track too far from my comfort zone. I had lost sleep over wanting something I could not fully wrap my mind around. I’d felt sick being in the same room as someone I carried an unrecognized crush for. But it was just good writing, of course. Very compelling, well crafted writing for the time that swept me into the moment. I was definitely just projecting unrelated moments onto the story and stretching them to fix Laura and Carmilla’s story. Totally. 

When I did get the paper copy, I passed it off as research. Just brushing up on some vampire history! Nothing to see here! And when I started watching the web series of the same name, it was definitely just because I had an a soft spot for this intellectually compelling book. Not because it was even more queer than the source material. That would be silly.

It was the @carmillaseries not the book, that first helped me take my first steps out of the closet without scurrying back in. For all that I had been able to love and identify with in LeFanu’s text, it didn’t offer much in the way of hope or role models. But those petrified flashes of realization are as much a part of my history as any of the brighter spots. And LeFanu’s Carmilla is an essential part of the history of vampires and queer women in fiction as any of our more hopeful, contemporary favorites. We can’t appreciate where we come from or what we stand to lose without appreciating where we have once been. And confronting those old spirits can be a cathartic, even essential part of moving beyond the shadow our past casts. This is why I would especially recommend the book to any Creampuff who enjoyed the Carmilla movie. The talented creators have wrestled their way through their source text with a new level of intimacy that left me thrilled and devastated in a way I hadn’t felt in a very long time. If you want a rush of feels and to admire the work that went into transforming this story's legacy, this book is an absolute must. And if you do not, then you should read the book, then take a look at the film or series anyway. Because we don’t have to be controlled by our past. We can step out of the shadows. And that is something we must never forget.