Carmilla Weekly

Carmilla posting! Keep an eye on this space for updates. (my main is @forgetting-how-to-breathe)

[carmillaweekly]

Carmilla Weekly

Intro + Image Info

[dyrewrites]

At least there's horror -- ebook sale

The world seems to have fallen deeper into dystopia, but at least there's horror. It can't hurt you. Much.

So why not enjoy some fictional horror, for far less than it usually is, and distract yourself from the horrors of reality.

--

LINK

'Can't You See Me?' is about a ghost who would very much like her wife and kids to know she's dead.

'Don't Look' is about a criminal lack of affordable housing forcing a man to take an apartment despite all the red flags. //there's a scene of sexual assault in this one

'Snowblind' is about you. You're lost in the snowy wastes with a terrible hunger and a sweet voice in your ears.

'In The Marrow' is about Hazel and how she's fine. If she closes her eyes and focuses on her tasks, everything is just fine.

'The Portrait' is about how Miriam should be happy with what she's got and stop obsessing about the portraits.

'In Fog' is about loneliness and belonging and nonbinary monsters being erotically murderous.

[dyrewrites]

I am running this sale again.

Because it is applicable.

Enjoy the cheap spoops.

[chromaticabrasions]

what if you were a vampire and you were killing some victim and they fucking bit you and sucked your blood. all you wanted was a snack and now you got this fuckass fledgling

[chromaticabrasions]

more vampire stories should play with the idea of the vampire’s blood being sucked against their will. the violation that is usually caused by the vampire being turned on it. or the violation that created it being repeated in undeath. some vampire fanatic tracking down a vampire and drinking its blood to become a vampire themself. awesome awesome awesome

[chromaticabrasions]

vampire who is of the tortured, self-loathing variety and thinks of vampirism as a curse. vampire obsessed freak who becomes infatuated with it and wants nothing more than to be turned and live out the centuries together. you could get really freaky with it

the human kidnapping the vampire, locking it up and starving it so that when they slice their wrist and shove the wound into the vampire’s mouth it can’t help but drink. the sick satisfaction of the human and the horror and repulsion of the vampire. even better if it’s a vampire who avoids human blood.

and once the vampire has been forced to suck the blood, just as it was forced to suck its sire’s blood way back when it was turned, then the human cuts into the vampire’s chest and the vampire is victim once again.

besides the physical violation, can you imagine the mental and emotional toll? the vampire, who had done so well not to hurt anyone, not to spread its horrid disease, has created this thing. a thing that reminds the vampire constantly that it created it.

“i put my wrist in your mouth, but you’re the one who kept it there. you drank from me with pleasure. it’s in your nature. it’s in our nature. everything you are, so now am i. your blood flows within me. we are one, and will live together for eternity. you wanted this. you wanted me.”

just. think about this with me. a vampire, a creature who has been victim before and never wants to hurt anyone in that way, not only reliving the violation of having the blood sucked from its body, but also having to face the fact that it has begotten another creature of darkness into the world

[addersmire-moved]

⚰️ VAMPIRE BURIALS, MASCHALISMOS, & OTHER APOTROPAIC BURIAL RITUALS 🪦

a morbid little collection of 25 historically certified ways of preventing the dead from rising as vampires, draugr, ghosts, or other undead beasties.

poster & 1 - 10 • 11 - 25 • zine & poster

[wolfofansbach]

I love how the last line of Carmilla manages to be creepy and heartbreaking at once. I assume Le Fanu intended both, but for me it's definitely more tragic than it is eerie. I choose to think Carmilla really did love Laura.

"Often from a reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing room door."

[theleakypen]

and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed.

I'm sorry it WHAT

[thatstudyblrontea]

Under a narrow, arched doorway, surmounted by one of those demoniacal grotesques in which the cynical and ghastly fancy of old Gothic carving delights, I saw very gladly the beautiful face and figure of Carmilla enter the shadowy chapel.

Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla

No, but you don't understand just how much I love this sentence, this image. The opposition between the 'demoniacal' figure and Carmilla's beauty, reinforced by the adverb 'gladly'. The fact that it perfectly references the main themes – illusion and deception – of the novella, because Mircalla hides her horrifying nature underneath the disguise of her physical beauty, while the figure that the narrator describes as 'demoniacal', that has been designed to be scary, can't actually do any harm.

And the implicit contrast between the 'shadowy chapel' and the light of day from which Carmilla is coming from. And yet, Carmilla is also entering the shadows, the dark is paradoxically about to enlighten her true nature. The moment she walks through that door, despite the visual contrast, she actually aligns with the demoniacal.

[theleakypen]

"I have been a woodman here,” he answered in his patois, “under the forester, all my days; so has my father before me, and so on, as many generations as I can count up. I could show you the very house in the village here, in which my ancestors lived.”

Full credit to Le Fanu for telling us the man is speaking in dialect without trying to phonetically describe the accent. Granted, this is undoubtedly because the language they are all speaking is not English, but still.

Also:

From this point he watched until he saw the vampire come out of his grave, and place near it the linen clothes in which he had been folded, and then glide away towards the village to plague its inhabitants.

The stranger, having seen all this, came down from the steeple, took the linen wrappings of the vampire, and carried them up to the top of the tower, which he again mounted. When the vampire returned from his prowlings and missed his clothes, he cried furiously to the Moravian, whom he saw at the summit of the tower, and who, in reply, beckoned him to ascend and take them.

Love this worldbuilding that vampires can't return to their graves without their shrouds.

[syyskirjat]

"These rustics preserve the local traditions of great families, whose stories die out among the rich and titled so soon as the families themselves become extinct.”

Oh my god, a character who actually asks the locals for help and maybe even has some respect for their knowledge?

[syyskirjat]

Carmilla ch 12

"‘You shall know me,’ she said, ‘but not at present. We are older and better friends than, perhaps, you suspect. I cannot yet declare myself. I shall in three weeks pass your beautiful schloss, about which I have been making enquiries. I shall then look in upon you for an hour or two, and renew a friendship which I never think of without a thousand pleasant recollections. 

This really is a clever trick, who could ever resist? And the excuse is baked into the mystery: oh we are very good friends from a long time ago, I'm sure you'll remember me any time now!

It's devious.

"At another time I should have told her to wait a little, until, at least, we knew who they were. But I had not a moment to think in. The two ladies assailed me together, and I must confess the refined and beautiful face of the young lady, about which there was something extremely engaging, as well as the elegance and fire of high birth, determined me; and, quite overpowered, I submitted, and undertook, too easily, the care of the young lady, whom her mother called Millarca.

And then "Millarca" charms poor Bertha to become an accomplice.

I also find it interesting how aristocracy plays into this: as a countess, the mother has power. Even if she weren't a vampire she could pull this off.

Which also makes me think about the whole class element of this, since the General described himself as a "nobody", that presumably means that while both Laura's father and the General are definitely gentlemen, they're not aristocrats. And neither are their daughter and niece respectively. Carmilla on the other hand is a countess, so very much a noblewoman.

She clearly has no interest in peasants, except as food, but based on this admittedly low sample size of two... she doesn't seem to go for noble girls either. She's looking for respectable, landowning gentlewomen. Or so it seems.

Is it a power thing? idk

I really have no idea of any of this but I find it interesting

[laureleafsage]

Carmilla Weekly Chapter Four

“You are afraid to die?”

“Yes, every one is.”

“But to die as lovers may—to die together, so that they may live together.

[carmillaweekly]

Sundry Sunday

I'm beginning to realize how many of these Sundry Sunday posts are just me chatting about vocab words that I looked up because they're a little unfamiliar, even when the make sense in context.

What is an ague?

An acute or high fever, or a disease characterized by one, especially when its reoccuring. (Thanks OED) Think malaria, apparently.

Oupires

Just a reminder that you can basically read this as "vampire". Oupire is more of a Slavic-folklore specific term, and is the origin of the english word vampire. Also, upior is the term to search if you'd like to do some reading. Some of the remedies have proved especially interesting to me. If you can read Polish, there's also a book titled Upiór that is supposedly a very good work on the subject. Unfortunately, I do not know a bit of Polish and cannot find it in any language I have any degree of confidence in.

[carmillaweekly]

Sundry Sunday

(very late edition, sorry!)

Some funny vocab again this week,

A cortège is a procession of people or attendants. Sometimes it also refers to a funeral procession.

How far is a league really? (Personally, I had no idea.) Apparently, it's 3 miles, or about 4.8km.

Cleopatra and the asps at her bosom

An eye-catching line. There's some debate over Cleopatra's cause/method of death. Sources more contemporary state she poisoned herself (either of her own will or under duress of a political rival). There's some theories that she was murdered. So, if there were asps, who knows if they were at her bosom. It makes for good eroticized art, though. I'll include some of my favourites here. Cleopatra is supposedly buried alongside Mark Antony, but their tomb hasn't been located. There's been some buzz lately about new and better estimations about it's location, there's a dig ongoing, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[nothing-wrong-with-me]

Did this Lady really just leave her daughter with a bunch of strangers? And says she won't be back for three months??? Was this normal in that time period because that sounds insane to me.

[carmillaweekly]

Hi! Full transparency, most of my familiarity with guest culture is both older and in different regions, I did a bit of browsing and things look fairly similar! If someone with more specialized knowledge than me comes by and wants to correct things, that would be awesome!

From what I understand, lodging with near strangers wouldn't have been too unusual, especially in more rural/remote regions. The ideal scenario is more of a friend-of-a-friend one, but really anyone who's aristoratic or has their own land (or schloss, in this case) is generally of high enough status that they can be called on for hospitality that includes more than just a nights stay. (Not just anyone would have done the calling, this was more a practice among upper class folks.) Entertaining guests as they travel through the area of your home was a good way to network, and was seen as a matter of honor and status.

What makes this Lady seem a little off her rocker: three months is quite a long time, she doesn't attempt to verify his status very much (one would generally expect some questioning), and there's no real worry about writing or even waiting long enough for her daughter to rouse and be informed of the situation. The fact that she's leaving her daughter with a man who appears to be unmarried, no matter how many women in their household, might be a little odd, but is ultimately permissable since there are governesses.

Again, I'm not familiar with this particular time period and region, but staying with strangers while traveling isn't in and of itself odd, but just dropping off your unwed daughter with a man you've met for three minutes definitely is.

[carmillaweekly]

Sundry Sunday

Just a quick chat about some vocab that caught my eye this week!

Futurity!

We have Shakespeare to thank for this one, apparently. The OED marks its apperance in Othello as the oldest extant usage. In Act 3, Scene 4, Cassio begs Desdemona as follows:

Madam, my former suit. I do beseech you

That by your virtuous means I may again

Exist, and be a member of his love

Whom I with all the office of my heart

Entirely honor. I would not be delayed.

If my offense be of such mortal kind

That nor my service past nor present sorrows

Nor purposed merit in futurity

Can ransom me into his love again,

But to know so must be my benefit.

So shall I clothe me in a forced content,

And shut myself up in some other course

To fortune’s alms.

(Folger's lines 128-140 for anyone curious) Nothing too odd going on with the meaning for this one. Future + ity, so it refers to the future, as well as events, behaviours, and things in the future.

Postilions!

Suprisingly multi-purpose vocab word. For our purposes, we can think of this pretty synonymously with the more familiar term "coachman". But it can also refer to forerunners of coaches, postman, or other messengers, as well as a postman or messenger.

One of the definitions given, and the one still used a bit modernly, reads that a postilion is:

"A person who rides the (leading) nearside (left-hand side) horses drawing a coach or carriage, especially when one pair only is used and there is no coachman."

This now usually refers to riders that are "Attending a state carriage or ceremonial occasions."

[yousaytomato]

Old men in gothic novels love to say "something terrible is happening! But I'm too scared to tell you... I'll tell you later - I can't think of a single reason it would be relevant to you, the protagonist of this classic horror novel." and then they disappear into the night

[carmillaweekly]

Sundry Sundays

How much is that small income? Thanks to Prof Rodney Edvinsson and his website, we can get an idea! (note: these numbers are current for the USD as of 2015. For the same spending power as $1 in 2015, it would be about $1.29 now)