Carmilla Weekly

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.

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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.

Because it is applicable.

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.”

⚰️ 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.

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.

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.

"‘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

“You are afraid to die?”

“Yes, every one is.”

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.