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Writer's Block: Legend has it ...
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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 ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever."
(From Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu)
~*~
I've always been obsessed with vampires, specifically the older versions of the stories, like Dracula, the myth of the creatures of the night, mostly the European folk tales that inspired our now-a-day versions of werewolves and vampires. I know the long, somewhat questionable pedigree that has produced what we know today, and it's utterly fascinating to me, how they evolved, what they came from. For example--most people accused of lycanthropy were the world's first serial killers, and really not those suffering from a monthly fur growth-age. Which, you know, makes it a lot less fanciful and happy, but there you go. XDDDD
However, my favorite of ALL of these is the novel (though, really, it's more of a novella) entitled Carmilla. It was written by Le Fanu some twenty years before Dracula, and is the inspiration for Stoker's epic. Stoker's vampire is the one that everyone knows, the vampire that hollywood cashed in on in the twenties, thirties and forties (and hell, still today), but Carmilla got pushed to the wayside. Some argue that her story is less known because she was a woman.
But the truth of the matter is that I believe the story is not well known...because she was lesbian.
The book is lesbian. There's no two ways about it. The way it's described, the deep passion between Mircalla (Carmilla) and Laura is off the freakin' charts.
The story? Simplified, it's narrated from Laura's (a human) point of view. A young woman's carriage has a horrible accident near her home, and she helps the girl back to "health." The girl's name is Mircalla, and she is very pale and very delicate...but at night, Laura dreams of her, coming to her bed.
It's a beautiful story, every line of it near perfect...the passion, the want, the need, the deep abiding sadness and the wishing...it's perfect, and it is the base inspiration for how I write and what I write. If I am ever to convey the longing that is within the final pages of that novel...? I'll known I've made it.
~*~
But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.
(From Carmilla)
~*~
Jenn, knowing my love for the story, made up her mind to find me every version in existence, and basically did. There are many beautiful adaptations from it for the screen, most made in the 60s and 70s, many made to be sensationalistic (OMGYOUGUYZLESBIANS), but some are just beautiful. They are:
Carmilla -- My faaaaaaaaavorite version. So beautiful.
Blood and Roses -- Beautiful, sad, very hard to find. I cherish my copy.
The Vampire Lovers -- Epic and ridiculous--but it stars Ingrid Pitt, who was an amazing horror actress. :) I unashamedly love this version. XD
Vampyres -- They SAID it was based on Carmilla, but it's really just lesbian vampires. XD And totally 70s.
Vampyros Lesbos -- Again, it was supposed to be based on Carmilla. It waaaaaaaasn't at aaaaaaaaall. XD I own it because of its historic significance. I have traumatized Karyn with this movie.
(Yes, I have and have read the erotic horror comics of Carmilla. They're good...not great, but they don't deviate too much from the story line. TOO much. XD)
Save yourself the trouble--never, ever, ever (even if you love the story), read its "sequel." It broke my heart, and the day I finished, I vowed this: one day, I WILL write a novel based on the story of Carmilla, one that is passionate, makes sense (what a concept), and will hopefully be an homage to the greatness that Le Fanu left us. If it has even an ounce of what the original has, I'll be able to die content. :)
~*~
"How romantic you are, Carmilla," I said. "Whenever you tell me your story, it will be made up chiefly of some one great romance."
She kissed me silently.
"I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love; that there is, at this moment, an affair of the heart going on."
"I have been in love with no one, and never shall," she whispered, "unless it should be with you."
How beautiful she looked in the moonlight!
(From Carmilla)
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 ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever."
(From Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu)
I've always been obsessed with vampires, specifically the older versions of the stories, like Dracula, the myth of the creatures of the night, mostly the European folk tales that inspired our now-a-day versions of werewolves and vampires. I know the long, somewhat questionable pedigree that has produced what we know today, and it's utterly fascinating to me, how they evolved, what they came from. For example--most people accused of lycanthropy were the world's first serial killers, and really not those suffering from a monthly fur growth-age. Which, you know, makes it a lot less fanciful and happy, but there you go. XDDDD
However, my favorite of ALL of these is the novel (though, really, it's more of a novella) entitled Carmilla. It was written by Le Fanu some twenty years before Dracula, and is the inspiration for Stoker's epic. Stoker's vampire is the one that everyone knows, the vampire that hollywood cashed in on in the twenties, thirties and forties (and hell, still today), but Carmilla got pushed to the wayside. Some argue that her story is less known because she was a woman.
But the truth of the matter is that I believe the story is not well known...because she was lesbian.
The book is lesbian. There's no two ways about it. The way it's described, the deep passion between Mircalla (Carmilla) and Laura is off the freakin' charts.
The story? Simplified, it's narrated from Laura's (a human) point of view. A young woman's carriage has a horrible accident near her home, and she helps the girl back to "health." The girl's name is Mircalla, and she is very pale and very delicate...but at night, Laura dreams of her, coming to her bed.
It's a beautiful story, every line of it near perfect...the passion, the want, the need, the deep abiding sadness and the wishing...it's perfect, and it is the base inspiration for how I write and what I write. If I am ever to convey the longing that is within the final pages of that novel...? I'll known I've made it.
But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.
(From Carmilla)
Jenn, knowing my love for the story, made up her mind to find me every version in existence, and basically did. There are many beautiful adaptations from it for the screen, most made in the 60s and 70s, many made to be sensationalistic (OMGYOUGUYZLESBIANS), but some are just beautiful. They are:
Carmilla -- My faaaaaaaaavorite version. So beautiful.
Blood and Roses -- Beautiful, sad, very hard to find. I cherish my copy.
The Vampire Lovers -- Epic and ridiculous--but it stars Ingrid Pitt, who was an amazing horror actress. :) I unashamedly love this version. XD
Vampyres -- They SAID it was based on Carmilla, but it's really just lesbian vampires. XD And totally 70s.
Vampyros Lesbos -- Again, it was supposed to be based on Carmilla. It waaaaaaaasn't at aaaaaaaaall. XD I own it because of its historic significance. I have traumatized Karyn with this movie.
(Yes, I have and have read the erotic horror comics of Carmilla. They're good...not great, but they don't deviate too much from the story line. TOO much. XD)
Save yourself the trouble--never, ever, ever (even if you love the story), read its "sequel." It broke my heart, and the day I finished, I vowed this: one day, I WILL write a novel based on the story of Carmilla, one that is passionate, makes sense (what a concept), and will hopefully be an homage to the greatness that Le Fanu left us. If it has even an ounce of what the original has, I'll be able to die content. :)
"How romantic you are, Carmilla," I said. "Whenever you tell me your story, it will be made up chiefly of some one great romance."
She kissed me silently.
"I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love; that there is, at this moment, an affair of the heart going on."
"I have been in love with no one, and never shall," she whispered, "unless it should be with you."
How beautiful she looked in the moonlight!
(From Carmilla)