tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91493078564435617972024-03-14T15:43:21.813+11:00Diary of an Amateur VampirologistAnthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.comBlogger276125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-85160864793614557652011-09-21T00:53:00.004+10:002011-09-21T02:52:13.760+10:00End of an era<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">After more than three years and 276 posts (including this one), I've decided to call it a day. This is the last entry for </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Diary of an amateur vampirologist</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://www.donaldtyson.com/ourobor.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-naeXyBPtCDc/TnjEfGjB_OI/AAAAAAAAAeA/-BwlFi3p42c/s320/ourobor1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654485370776190178" border="0" /></a><br />Sudden, I know, but it's been on my mind for a while. It's been a good run, but I feel it's time to move on. I'm proud of what I've achieved with it. I'm proud of the readership and followers I've accrued since <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2008/07/just-quick-one.html">kicking it off</a>. You guys honour me with your presence.<br /><br />I've had the privledge of contributing guest blogs, elsewhere. <a href="http://vampirebooks.blogspot.com/2009/10/vampires-converge-on-halloween.html">One</a> for <span style="font-style: italic;">Reading with bite</span>; two for <span style="font-style: italic;">VampChix</span> (<a href="http://vampchix.blogspot.com/2009/10/vampirologist-anyone.html">this one</a> and <a href="http://vampchix.blogspot.com/2010/02/so-you-want-to-be-vampirologist.html">this one</a>). Niels <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/09/thanks-niels.html">mentioned my blog</a> in a paper he presented to the 2009 Vienna vampire conference. Considering the influence he's had on my online writings, not to mention the respect I hold his work, that was incredibly flattering.<br /><br />Another incredible honour, was the blog's inclusion on Carrie Carolin's '<a href="http://www.darklinks.com/2010/08/best-of-dark-side-13-great-vampire.html">Best of the Dark Side: 13 great vampire blogs</a>'. Even more so, as we had never been acquainted before!<br /><br />While writing thing thing, I also joined a vampire 'club' for the first time: the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (I'm still a member). <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/02/unearthing-nosferatu.html">The first article I've ever had published</a> (in print form), was for their newsletter, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Borgo Post</span>.<br /><br />How about a round for my '<a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/search/label/Q%20and%20A">Q & A</a>' participants? Niels K. Petersen, Martin V. Riccardo, Bruce A. McClelland and Thomas J. Garza. They were all great. I didn't know what to expect from their answers, but each and everyone was insightful, open and interesting. Great work, guys!<br /><br />I've also enjoyed the interaction with my commentators. Our 'discussions' often prompted elaboration and exploration via blog entries. Erwin tipped me off on the <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2008/12/hats-off-to-edwin.html">source of a so-called 'vampire' picture</a>; I <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/02/hi-angela.html">consoled</a> Angela Cameron, after she felt the vampire thing was 'overdone'; I <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/07/manchester-vs-miller.html">vindicated</a> Elizabeth Miller; and Jonathan <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/09/importance-of-paper-trails.html">forced me to re-examine</a> my conclusions on Peter Haining's source for the <span style="font-style: italic;">nosferatu</span>.<br /><br />Meanwhile, bshistorian triggered a <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/tracking-first-true-vampire.html">search for the 'first' vampire</a> and <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-timing.html">another one</a> for the vampire of Croglin Grange. In doing so, I discovered a coupla pre-Hare sources. I also <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/aww-my-first-criticism.html">dealt with</a> a commentator who was kinda pissed off in the way I 'dismissed' Theresa Bane's <span style="font-style: italic;">Actual factual, Dracula: a compendium of vampires</span> (2007). Bane, herself, <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/07/theresa-bane-responds.html">wasn't too pleased</a>, either. Understandable, but I had my reasons. That said, I certainly respect her work. On a lighter note, Fra Moretta <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/slobbo-cops-staking.html">directed my attention</a> to a modern manifestation of the vampire belief.<br /><br />It's also been interesting seeing what draws readers to this blog. I had no idea my <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/07/scoop-on-vampire-hunting-kits.html">discussion on so-called antique vampire killing kits</a> would be so popular. Honestly. I'd also like to think those who've found my writings on the FVZA, specifically their <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/fake-books.html">fake books</a>, have now 'seen the light'. Rest assured, it's <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/fvza-is-not-factual-resource.html">not a factual resource</a>, guys.<br /><br />A lot of others have been lured to the revelation that Johann Ludwig Tieck <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/02/not-tiecks-vampire.html">wasn't the author</a> of 'Wake not the dead', despite popular attribution. I was surprised to find that out, too. Oh, and I'm still amused that others are drawn here by, well, searches for <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/x-rated-twilight.html">explicit entertainment relating to a certain, popular saga</a>. You know the one.<br /><br />Well, all good things, as they say, must come to an end. Here's the final stop. Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for reading, for commenting and participating on this blog. I've learned that having your own blog's a great networker, scores you free merch (<a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/02/breathing-life-into-romanian-folklore.html">thanks again, Justin</a>!)—and a lotta spam and <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/blogging-ethics.html">requests to review things</a>—as well as great interaction <span style="font-style: italic;">via</span> comments. Ok, not <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> comments (I'm looking at you, Melody!), but most.<br /><br />For those worried about all this stuff 'disappearing': don't. I'm not shutting this blog down, but I <span style="font-style: italic;">am</span> closing off comments. You can still wend your way through the goodies inside, but there'll be no more entries here.<br /><br />I hope you've been enlightened, entertained and, most importantly, inspired in your quest to 'get' vampires. I've pointed you in some pretty good directions, and they've been pointed right back at me! I also hope you'll see that studying the undead doesn't need to be a stuffy pursuit. It <span style="font-style: italic;">can</span> be fun! This is Anthony Hogg, amateur vampirologist, signing off.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br /><a href="http://thevampirologist.blogspot.com/"></a><a href="http://thevampirologist.blogspot.com/2011/09/testing-testing.html">But not for good</a>...<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-83480113178247977042011-09-19T14:48:00.006+10:002011-09-19T15:44:20.522+10:00Q & A with Thomas J. Garza<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">After a <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/discussion-of-dates-and-interesting.html?showComment=1314748118772#c5533354612592815877">discussion</a> with one of Thomas J. Garza's students (he teaches 'The vampire in Slavic cultures' at the University of Texas at Astin), I decided to contact the man, himself, for an interview.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />I've briefly covered some of his writings found on the 'net and one of them, in particular (see the question on xenophobia), stood out to me. I've also been impressed by his devotion to the Slavic vampire, following in the footsteps of Jan L. Perkowski and <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/04/q-with-bruce-mcclelland-part-1.html">Bruce A. McClelland</a>.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vTzr2kpenao/TnbPrWQH3OI/AAAAAAAAAdw/Y_GjRVb4a-E/s1600/Bava%2B%2526%2BGarza.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vTzr2kpenao/TnbPrWQH3OI/AAAAAAAAAdw/Y_GjRVb4a-E/s400/Bava%2B%2526%2BGarza.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653934725824765154" border="0" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FsLFOeElDYE/TnbOF6722tI/AAAAAAAAAdo/VeaJumyf5OU/s1600/Bava%2B%2526%2BGarza.jpg"><br /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Thomas J. Garza in 'an appropriately bizarre photo from a newspaper article a couple of years ago'*</span><br /></div><br />I sent a request for an interview† and after he agreed‡, sent a long a bunch of questions.§ To his credit, he didn't shy away from the hard stuff, as his responses reveal.<span>‖ Without further ado, heeeeeeeere's Garza!</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Anthony Hogg:</span> You have an <a href="https://webspace.utexas.edu/garzatj/cv.html">impressive proficiency</a> with Slavic languages, so how'd you go from that to teaching a course on vampires? Is your vampire course 'bait' for students to delve deeper into Slavic language and culture?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thomas J. Garza:</span> My interest in vampires certainly goes back to watching -- and loving -- the old Tod Browning's "Dracula" back in the '60s. But it was my work in Slavic languages that took me to the Foreign Service Institute in the late '80s after finishing my doctorate at Harvard. While working with the FSI, I was working in Hungary in the summer of 1988, retraining Hungarian teachers of Russian to teach English (anticipating the political changes there). As my birthday fell on a national holiday, St. Stephen's Day, some colleagues suggested that we drive up to the Romanian border and into Dracula country. Back then, the roads in Sighisoara were terrible, and the final leg of the trip -- up the ravine to the castle remains -- had to be be donkey. But the trip was worth it, and the affect of standing in the ruins was incredible, a kind of transformative experience of being in such a place, as with Stonehenge or Machu Pichu. I distinctly remember thinking then that when I returned to teaching, I would use this "hook" of the vampire story to get students interested in this part of the world. So, in 1997, a year after getting tenured at the university of Texas, I offered the vampire course for the first time. I certainly use the the theme of the vampire as "bait," as you say, to get them into the course that covers the history, geography, religion, literature, and film of the Slavic world, but significantly, it is that same hook that keeps them interested, I think, throughout the semester! I always have a sizable quotient of students who go on to take a Slavic language or culture course after the vampire class, and that's very rewarding.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> Speaking of Slavic roots - from a mythic/folkloric perspective - what's your take on the 'universal' vampire? Do you believe vampires are found across the globe, or are they a local, Slavic revenant with unique attributes?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> Vampires, in my experience, are absolutely a global phenomenon, from Asia to Europe, across Africa, and throughout the Americas. The story may vary in details, modes, and/or substance, but there is a "universal" core of the story -- at least in the West: the vampire is creature that has returned from the dead (a revenant), and who takes sustenance from a host, who in the process is weakened or killed by it. Slavic vampires have their own characteristics, which vary from Slavic region to another. In the Balkans, for example, vampires and werewolves began in the lore as rather similar entities, and evolved historically into enemies. In Russian, the werewolf stories were very rare, and the vampire has always taken center stage. S/He is characterized not only as a blood drinker, but also since the nineteenth century as a "contagion," capable of spreading the vampire "disease" to an entire village or community.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> <a href="http://www.austin360.com/movies/content/movies/stories/2008/11/1121garcia.html">You've said</a>, 'As long as we can tap into our xenophobia, then we get into the kind of vampires that make us squeal and jump.' Why is xenophobia essential for this process? Does this process still have a 'place' in our postmodern age?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> It may not be essential, but xenophobia certainly <span style="font-style: italic;">insures</span> that human beings are predisposed to being afraid of anything that's different from us: The Other. In spite of globalization and a seemingly ever-shrinking world, we are nonetheless terribly complacent in our own lives and tend to be very suspicious of non-conforminty -- especially when it's in the form of another culture. Postmodernism has actually given use a better and more effective lexicon to talk about Othering, especially in the context of the post-colonial breakup of empires. So, while a blood drinking creature will, indeed, always be inherently frightening, s/he takes on a special horror when we think don't understand it. That's why the vampires in, say, <span style="font-style: italic;">30 Days of Night</span> are particularly horrific; they are tribal, pack creatures, who speak a very different language, whereas some the new "integrated" vampires in Twilight, for example, might make some of squeal for very different reasons. I find the vampires and story in "True Blood" particularly interesting in this regard because, although they are also "modern" vampires in a "modern" setting, they have a "back story" -- a history -- that places them in the larger vampire mythos; and in a place like Bon Temps, which is inherently "créolité," difference is more likely to be accepted, and "coming out of the coffin" is possible.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> What other elements make vampires scary? Why should we revert to the 'scary' type at all?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> Besides being creature that we don't understand, I think the best vampires in literature and film fall squarely into the age old "thing-that-go-bump-in-the-night" category. Here I mean the element of the unexpected or the uncanny that makes our blood run cold and the hair on the back of our necks stand up. In the original Murnau <span style="font-style: italic;">Nosferatu</span>, it's the anticipation of the arrival of the monster, epitomized by mere shadow of his hand creeping along wall and the accompaniment of live music intensifying our horror; or in Coppola's <span style="font-style: italic;">Bram Stoker's Dracula</span>, it might be the entrance of Dracula into Mina's room as mist, and then moving under her bedclothes while she sleeps, and waiting for her to notice that she is no longer alone; or the vampire Armand in <span style="font-style: italic;">Interview with the Vampire</span> simply running his finger through the flame of a candle -- unaffected. Scary doesn't always (often?) involve blood and guts. I think the vampire in lit and film has historically presented us with a much more complex creature of horror than, say, Freddy, Pinhead, or Chucky, and thus can be much more subtle and effective in the delivery of horror.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> I've got your 2010 book, <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Slavic culture</span> on my to-get list, but could you tell us...why is it so expensive? Its publisher, Cognella, is selling it for $129.95 and Amazon, $169.95.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> Aurgh! Yes, I would also like the book more accessible and I know the price is high. It is, though, a compilation and as such requires that the publishers acquire the rights and clearances to use all of the texts, the prints, and the lyrics that are included in the book. I had hoped that the price could be kept under $100, but after I added the Russian songs to the volume, it went over. I'm hoping that as more of the texts that I've included in the book become readily available digitally, the price will go down accordingly. Sorry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> A student of yours and I have been discussion on <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Slavic culture</span>'s edition statements and we're coming up with some contradictory results. There seems to be more than one. Are there other editions of the book?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> There have been two: the original is through University Readers in 2009, and an updated, slightly expanded version by Cognella (a subsidiary of University) came out in 2010.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> Which works/authors have influenced your writings on the undead. Which would you recommend as essential reading?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> Certainly my Slavic-centric focus on the vampire story has been greatly influenced by the works of Prof. Jan Perkowski, who teaches a vampire course at the University of Virginia, and originally taught that course here at the University of Texas back in the 1970s. From the nineteeth century, I'm particularly fond of the works of AK Tolstoy (a relative of Leo Tolstoy), including the stories "The Family of the Wurdalaks," and "The Vampire." Especially the latter embraces the specifics of the Slavic vampire wonderfully, and was made into a very slick, dark film in Russia in 1991 called <span style="font-style: italic;">Blood Drinkers</span>. But my take on the <span style="font-style: italic;">contemporary</span> vampire is very strongly influenced by the Russian/Ukrainian writer Sergei Lukyanenko, who authored the <span style="font-style: italic;">Watch</span> series (<span style="font-style: italic;">Night Watch, Day Watch, Evening Watch,</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Last Watch</span>) in the late 1990s and 2000s. All of these are now available in English translations. I think this series is very good, indeed, in not only bringing vampires into the new millennium, but in giving them a role in the greater historical saga of the battle of Good and Evil on Earth.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AH:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Slavic cultures</span> is, essentially, a university reader. Considering what I've read from you so far, you clearly have some interesting things to say on the subject, yourself. Do you plan on writing your own work on the subject?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TJG:</span> If only there were more hours in the day! I have done a couple of articles that talk about the contemporary Russian vampire in terms of Othering of the Chechens, Caucasians (people of the Caucasus), and Central Asians in Russia, but I would love to do something longer and more substantial in the area of mapping the vampire in Russia. Stay tuned; I promise that there's more to come!</blockquote>I'd like to thank Prof. Garza for his participation, and forthright, insightful responses. His book, <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Slavic cultures</span> (2010), is available through <a href="https://titles.cognella.com/the-vampire-in-slavic-cultures.html">Cognella</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Slavic-Cultures-Thomas-Garza/dp/1934269670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316411015&sr=8-1">Amazon</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Garza's caption ('Re: A brief interview?', Thursday, 15 September 2011 11:51:44 PM).<br /><br />† 'A brief interview?', Thursday, 1 September 2011 7:53:15 AM.<br /><br />‡ 'Re: A brief interview?', Thursday, 1 September 2011 8:46:50 AM.<br /><br />§ 'Re: A brief interview?', Wednesday, 7 September 2011 5:07:58 AM.<br /><br />‖'Re: A brief interview?', Wednesday, 14 September 2011 8:34:59 AM.</span></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-12848602002211722212011-09-15T13:50:00.004+10:002011-09-15T16:06:29.517+10:00Croglin vampire gets around<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/heeding-summers.html">previous entry</a>, I said, 'As it stands, Hare's recount of Fisher's tale </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">is</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> the original version' of the Croglin vampire tale. That's a reference to the version printed in the fourth volume of Augustus Hare's autobiography, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The story of my life</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> (1900). But, as it turns out, the story was doing the rounds before then...</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread459122/pg1"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r0b99VwwkTw/TnGVlAbj1II/AAAAAAAAAdg/DAMrGLwu_lw/s400/d3f5509d446e.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652463470329975938" border="0" /></a><br />As mentioned, Hare's biography is composed of material taken from his journals, letters, et. al. The Croglin vampire story, as told to him by Edward Fisher-Rowe, features in a journal entry dated 24 June 1874. If we take Hare on his word (his autobiography isn't composed of facsimiles), then the earliest-known version of the story still stands at 1874.<br /><br />However, thanks to Google Books, I can tell you that the story was doing the rounds <span style="font-style: italic;">before</span> Hare included it in <span style="font-style: italic;">The story of my life</span>. So who was spreading it? None-other than Hare, himself. And I'll tell ya, he <span style="font-style: italic;">loved</span> creeping people out with it. Here's how Clifford Harrison described Hare, his penchant for ghost stories, and the vampire tale:<br /><blockquote>Everybody who knows Augustus Hare–and everybody does know Augustus Hare!–knows how wonderfully he tells a ghost-story. He has a fine collection of ghosts. They are all labelled and certified with names, dates and references–the most authenticated and documented ghosts I know. A ghost-story gains greatly by dramatic telling. Written down, it loses some of its 'creepiness.' Augusutus Hare tells a story of a vampire which, in his hands, owes a good deal to the 'points of circumstance' with which he tells it. I have heard the tale also from a descendent of the possessors of Crogley [sic] Grange, in which house the grisly incident occurred, and the tale is undoubtedly full of curious and somewhat unanswerable questions (1892, p. 190–1).</blockquote>A very frustrating reference, as it doesn't relate the particulars of the story, nor does it say who the 'descendant of the possessors of Crogley Grange [Croglin Grange]' was. But it <span style="font-style: italic;">does</span> show that Hare wasn't the only one who knew about it. Nonetheless, it's great seeing a reference to the story published before 1900.<br /><br />But the fun doesn't stop there. I've actually turned up an <span style="font-style: italic;">earlier</span> reference to the story. Here's Andrew Lang, discussing contemporary vampire literature:<br /><blockquote>That work [J. Sheridan LeFanu's 'Carmilla'] will give you the peculiar sentiment of vampirism, will produce a gelid perspiration, and reduce the patient to a condition in which he will be afraid to look round the room. If, while in this mood, some one tells him Mr. Augustus Hare’s story of Crooglin [sic] Grange, his education in the practice and theory of vampires will be complete, and he will be a very proper and well qualified inmate of Earlswood Asylum (1885, p. 20).</blockquote>The article was probably written in 1884, as the volume I consulted (Nov 1884-Oct 1885), doesn't do the best job indicating which articles are from which issues. It's also unfortunate that Lang's reference to the story is vaguer than Harrison's. He doesn't even say <span style="font-style: italic;">how</span> he heard it. But it's possible another reference might be found somewhere amidst his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang">prolific output</a>.<br /><br />It's pretty obvious Hare was a popular bloke and keen on the story, as I've found <span style="font-style: italic;">another</span> reference to him telling it. While this reference was published in 1957, the author recalls it from his childhood: he was born in 1881. The author in question? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._L._Wood,_1st_Earl_of_Halifax">E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax</a>:<br /><blockquote>And I remember, but I think he usually came in either summer or autumn, Augustus Hare making all our flesh creep with his story of the vampire at Croglin Grange, which he could only tell when he wore a very much ribbed shirt, so that picking his shirt with his nail, he could represent the vampire picking the mortar from the window pane to get in (The Earl of Halifax 1957, p. 34).</blockquote>Hare certainly got around, didn't he? Incidentally, E.F.L. Wood's father was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wood,_2nd_Viscount_Halifax">Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax</a>, of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lord Halifax's ghost book</span> (1936) fame. Unfortunately, <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> book doesn't feature the Croglin vampire.<br /><br />In the meantime, I've been delving into the Fishers. The only clue we have to when the story took place, is when the Fisher family moved to 'the south, to reside at Thorncombe near Guildford'. It was then leased to an unnamed family of two brothers and a sister, who Valentine Dyall named Michael, Edward and Amelia Cranswell. Edward Fisher (1832-1909) was <a href="http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2870842&id=I01470&ti=5544">born at Thorncombe</a>, as was his father, <a href="http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2870842&id=I01506&ti=5544">Thomas Fisher</a> (1790-1870). For now, that's where the trail ends.<br /><br />However, F. Clive-Ross' local consultant, a Mrs. Parkin, told him that the story 'dates definitely from between 1680 and 1690', and also noted 'that in the deeds of Croglin Low Hall the name Croglin Grange was used until about 1720' (1963 p. 108). People familiar with Croglin Low Hall–a <a href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-73504-croglin-low-hall-kirkoswald">Grade II heritage listed building</a>–and its layout will note it's a <span style="font-style: italic;">two</span> storey house, while the house of Fisher's tale is a one storey. Clive-Ross has an answer for that: 'the house was raised by one storey, <span style="font-style: italic;">circa</span> 1720' (p. 109), around the same time the window the vampire was supposed to have crept through, was blocked. Hmm...<br /><br />In the meantime, here's an article on Edward. Specifically, <a href="http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=MEX19100103.2.45">his death</a>. Quite a tragic figure.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">References</span><br /><br />Clive-Ross, F 1963, 'The Croglin vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;">Tomorrow</span>, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 103–9.<br /><br />The Earl of Halifax (EFL Wood) 1957, <span style="font-style: italic;">Fulness of days</span>, Collins, London.<br /><br />Harrison, C 1892, <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/strayrecordsorpe01harruoft"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stray records; or, personal and professional notes</span></a>, vol. 1, Richard Bentley and Son, London.<br /><br />Lang, A 1885, 'Some Japanese bogies', <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/magazineofart08londuoft"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Magazine of Art</span></a>, vol. 8, pp. 15–20.</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-79984185172791278682011-09-14T15:10:00.009+10:002011-09-14T18:05:50.046+10:00Heeding Summers<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I've been <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-search-of-cranswells.html">discussing</a> the strong possibility that Valentine Dyall 'invented' the Cranswells of Croglin Vampire fame. Seems he did a little pinching from one of his sources, too.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://watchinghammer.blogspot.com/2010/04/come-up-and-see-my-maps.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3k7fx62itW4/TnBaLWJBD5I/AAAAAAAAAdY/3BcKRKUE70A/s320/RTL6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652116683318431634" border="0" /></a><a href="http://watchinghammer.blogspot.com/2010/04/come-up-and-see-my-maps.html"><br /></a>As previously noted, there's no indication Dyall did any field work for 'Vampire of Croglin Hall' (1954). He said, 'The strange tale must be pieced together from the works of independent writers–notably Augustus Hare, in "Story of My Life"; Charles G. Harper in "Haunted Houses," and the Rev. Montague Summers in "The Vampire in Europe." (p. 99). These are the only sources he listed and <span style="font-style: italic;">none</span> of them as as rife with 'detail' as he provided.<br /><br />Hare's <span style="font-style: italic;">The story of my life</span>, vol. 4 (1900) is the earliest known source of the tale, as told to him by Edward Fisher (1832-1909). Dyall doesn't cite a specific edition of Harper's book, but the first edition, <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/hauntedhousesta00harpgoog"><span style="font-style: italic;">Haunted houses: tales of the supernatural, with some account of hereditary curses and family legends</span></a> (1907) starts off with a reproduction of Fisher's account from Hare (pp. 67–73) before concluding with Harper's observations:<br /><blockquote>It is to be added, from personal observation, that there is no place styled Croglin Grange. There are Croglin High Hall and Low Hall. Both are farm-houses, very like one another, and not in any particulars resembling the description given. Croglin Law Hall is probably the house indicated, but it is at least a mile distant from the church, which has been rebuilt. The churchyard contains no tomb which by any stretch of the imagination could be identified with that described by Mr. Hare (pp. 73–4). </blockquote>Harper's sketch of Croglin Low Hall is sandwiched between pp. 72–3. Summers reproduced the sketch in his 1929 book, <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=lXIVbfVuXKYC&dq=%22the+vampire+in+europe%22+%22croglin%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Europe</span></a>, which also serves as Dyall's final source. Once again, Fisher's account <span style="font-style: italic;">via</span> Hare is reproduced (pp. 111–15). No Cranswells there. Of the case itself, Summers had this to say:<br /><blockquote>That a large number of cases of vampirism must be accounted certain only the most prejudiced will deny.<br /><br />Even in many other relations which cannot be pressed in detail it seems beyond a doubt that the main facts are true whilst the accessories have been embellished for the sake of the narrative. Such a history is that of the vampire of Croglin Grange. Mr Charles G. Harper, who investigated the exact locality, assures me that Mr Augustus Hare was undoubtedly lavish in his colouring. Actually there is no place styled Croglin Grange. There are Croglin High Hall and Low Hall, the latter of which is probably the house indicated. Mr Harper adds: "But it is at least a mile distant from the church, which has been rebuilt. The churchyard contains no tomb which by any stretch of the imagination could be identified with that described by Mr. Hare." (p. xviii)</blockquote>Despite these reservations, Summers believed the events described by Fisher actually took place: 'These discrepancies do not, of course, militate against the essential truth of the tale' (ibid). Interestingly, Dyall implies his own belief in the tale, but did so by ripping off Summers' comments: 'There are <span style="font-style: italic;">discrepancies</span> in these three versions, but they do not necessarily<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">militate against the essential truth</span>' (my emphasis, 1954, p. 99). Aping Summers' comments about 'discrepancies' in the story took Summers' mention out of context: the discrepancies <span style="font-style: italic;">he</span> was referring to, were the name and location of the house.<br /><br />Dyall further injured his case by adding 'dates and names are uncertain, and beyond doubt details have been embellished for the sake of shudder and thrill, but to the fair-minded researcher the main facts are clear' (ibid). Not only did Dyall provide dates, anyway (which are inaccurate*), of the four sources–Hare, Harper, Summers and himself–he was the <span style="font-style: italic;">only one to name the tenants</span>.** One must ask exactly which 'main facts' are left after such 'embellishments'!<br /><br />But who was responsible for them? Which ones was Dyall alluding to? Harper and Summers followed Fisher-via-Hare's account quite closely. Their versions contain <span style="font-style: italic;">no</span> embellishments. If their source, Hare, was indeed, 'lavish in his colouring', we have no earlier source to defer to. At least, none that Harper, Summers or Dyall mentioned. As it stands, Hare's recount of Fisher's tale <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> the original version. Meanwhile, Dyall's account opens with this:<br /><blockquote>March winds were howling dismally through the Cumberland hills and the dawn light was a feeble glow behind heavy cloud as Edward Cranswell, master of Croglin Hall***, and his younger brother Michael led their small party of farmers and landworkers into the cemetery.<br /><br />Silently, that morning in 1876, they filed past the rows of tombstones–vague, shadowy figures in the eerie greyness, muffled in heavy topcoats, carrying flickering lanterns (p. 96).</blockquote>Compare that with Hare, Harper and Summers' versions. In stealing Summers' 'militate against the essential truth of the tale' bit, Dyall should've paid closer attention to what Summers followed it up with:<br /><blockquote>but it should be borne in mind that a narrator who thus mingles imagination for effect's sake with fact incurs a serious responsibility. He gives a fine opening to the sceptic and of this every advantage fair and unfair will be taken (p. xviii). </blockquote>Damn straight. It also turns out that Dyall's 'shudder and thrill' line was also taken from Summers, who continued: 'If a yarn is to be told for the shudder and thrill, well and good; let the ruddle be thick and slab. But write the rubric without ambiguity that this is a high romance to follow' (ibid). Loosely translated: if you're gonna make shit up, <span style="font-style: italic;">say so</span>. But save it for a novel: don't mix it in with details of an existing case, otherwise, how are readers supposed to know which details are right and which ones are wrong? It leaves the door wide open for sceptics (like me) to wade in and slash away at the case's credibility.<br /><br />Dyall <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> should've taken Summers' advice. In the meantime, it's possible that after all this, Dyall's 'Cranswells' <span style="font-style: italic;">could</span> be vindicated, thanks to F. Clive-Ross' discussions with locals (*shakes fist at him!*). It's just that Dyall <span style="font-style: italic;">didn't bother</span> mentioning where he got the name from, nor <span style="font-style: italic;">explicitly</span> saying 'Hey guiz! I made it up! Lol!'<br /><br />I'm <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/409.html">lookin' into it</a>.<br /><br />As a side note, it's interesting that Summers didn't draw obvious parallels between the attack on 'Amelia Cranswell' (as Dyall dubbed her) and Flora Bannerworth in the 1847 penny dreadful, <span style="font-style: italic;">Varney the vampire</span>. After all, both narratives feature an attack on a young lady in a bedroom; the vampire creeping in by picking away at the mortar in a window pane; the vampire entwining its victim's hair in its gnarled hand to expose the victim's neck for a bite...a victim who is <span style="font-style: italic;">also</span> saved by her screams rousing the gentlemen of the house...<br /><br />Summers was certainly familiar with <span style="font-style: italic;">Varney</span>: he quoted the bloody scene (pp. 105–11) <span style="font-style: italic;">right before</span> launching into the Croglin account. Oh, Monty!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Dyall said the vampire was hunted down in 1876 (p. 96), adding 'the Cumberland phenomenon can be definitely placed in the years 1875-76' (p. 99), even though Hare's recount of Fisher's tale was included in a journal entry dated 24 June <span style="font-style: italic;">1874</span>.<br /><br />** In fairness to Dyall, F. Clive-Ross' investigation, which was detailed in 'The Croglin vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;">Tomorrow</span>, vol. 11, no. 2, 1963 (pp. 103–9) found that the tenants' surname, Cranswell, <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> known locally (p. 108). However, there's the distinct possibility that the name was known <span style="font-style: italic;">due to</span> Dyall's version of events. See: '<a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-timing.html">Good timing!</a>'<br /><br />*** What happened to 'Croglin Grange'?</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-47682817772041205622011-09-13T14:52:00.009+10:002011-09-13T17:17:03.676+10:00On criticism<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I'm still waiting for my copy of the critical edition to Montague Summers' </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The vampire: his kith and kin</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> to arrive. In the meantime, I noticed Niels has already had a chance to review it.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />He's been waiting for critical overviews of Summers' work for <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2009/01/apropos-of-summers.html">some time</a>, so I can only imagine his heart skipped a beat when I forwarded him a link to the book, which was published in May this year with little-to-no fanfare. Hell, not even I knew about it: I <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/discussion-of-dates-and-interesting.html">stumbled across it</a> on Amazon.<br /><br />Long-time readers of Niels' blog, <span style="font-style: italic;">Magia Posthuma</span>, will know he's a man with (deservedly) high expectations. If those aren't met, he's not afraid to say it. Therefore, my heart started sinking when I began reading the opening paragraph of his review:<br /><b><i></i></b><blockquote><b><i>’A Critical Edition’</i></b> to me is an edition of a book that sets the work into its context, enabling the reader to better understand the work's genesis and sources, to get a grasp of how the book was received, and to assess its influence and importance then as well as now. At the same time, the word ‘critical’ in my opinion implies a re-evaluation of the work in terms of contemporary knowledge and understanding. In the case of a work of non-fiction this would include correcting errors.</blockquote>The <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/09/sustained-study-in-projection.html">rest of the review</a> is, well, <span style="font-style: italic;">brutal</span>. But in light of Niels' expectations, and the examples he gives, this approach is understandable. Personally-speaking, I'm happy with the fact that the book's a facsimile and its supplementary material, alone, makes it a bargain at $22.95.<br /><br />That said, I shouldn't downplay the <span style="font-style: italic;">critical</span> element of the book's title. By emphasising that aspect, it's automatically endowed itself with certain 'responsibilities' and its value as a critical work, hinges on its ability to uphold them. Until my copy arrives, I can only defer to Niels' commentary...which has not gone 'unseen'.<br /><br />The book's editor, John Edgar Browning, has read Niels' book review. His <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/09/sustained-study-in-projection.html?showComment=1315784122125#c4666305455389237906">response</a> is a testament to his professionalism and integrity:<br /><blockquote>Thank you, Mr. Petersen, for your very thorough elucidation of the contents of this edition. Of course, the "argument" here--that is, the matter at hand--has less to do with the particular contents chosen for inclusion and more to do with how one arrives at the definition of a "critical edition," a subject which continues to spawn fairly lengthy debates among textual criticism scholars. The description you gave, while good, is but one of several approaches to producing a "critical edition," another being concerned primarily with cross-examining and cross-referencing all the major editions of a particular text (though this is generally typical of hand-written texts). The third and most prominent approach is the one we have chosen, similar in design to the quite popular "Norton Critical Editions" series--the major difference here being that we chose contextual documents which provided insight not only into the work itself but the author as well, since in this case the work in question, its writing, and the author himself are so closely intertwined, in our opinion.<br /><br />The contributors and I made every attempt to give no false impression of what was contained in this critical edition, particularly since the contents were clearly stated on the back cover and in the description given for the book at various websites; if you didn’t have access to this information, then I am very sorry. I, for one, am reluctant to purchase any book whose front and back cover I have not studied thoroughly. In short, we did not promise anything which we did not deliver--nothing more, nothing less.<br /><br />I appreciate your review. And, what is more, I encourage you to edit such an edition as the one you describe here.</blockquote>Niels thanked him for his response, and said he intended to write more on the book. Now these are the kinds of 'reactions', I love: intelligence discourse born from criticism. Intellectual bickering, if you will. Heh heh. But, more importantly, it provides an insight into the respective writers' intent.<br /><br />Criticism–good criticism, that is–is not purely born of malice, but genuine desire for quality in the respective field. If this is not met, then it's 'called out' to keep an author on their toes and to make clear that no substitutions for quality will be accepted. A good writer–aware of their flaws–will <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/rondina-responds.html">take it on the chin</a> and 'fix it', next time 'round. Naturally, every writer and critic has an inherent criteria and intent for their respective writings, so it's important, for the sake of context, to make that clear in the subject they're dealing with or the work they're criticising.<br /><br /><a href="http://luxmentis.com/blog/?p=981"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 248px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2E_hNlolWy8/Tm8DBUXDj7I/AAAAAAAAAc4/XMmgvqML_yE/s400/MontagueSummers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651739378553425842" border="0" /></a><br />The fact remains that as influential as Summers' works have been, they're not gospel. They're not the Unerring Final Say on Vampires. They <span style="font-style: italic;">deserve</span> criticism. He made mistakes. He was a <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2007/08/veritable-bombshell.html">product of his beliefs and times</a>; or, at least, a deliberate throwback to an <span style="font-style: italic;">earlier</span> time. Summers certainly wasn't above having a go at his contemporaries, either. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/goth/vkk/vkk02.htm">Here's what he had to say</a> in <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire: his kith and kin</span>, about Dudley Wright's writings on the subject:<br /><blockquote>In English there is a little book entitled <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires and Vampirism</span> by Mr. Dudley Wright, which was first published in 1914; second edition (with additional matter), 1924. It may, of course, be said that this is not intended to be more than a popular and trifling collection and that one must not look for accuracy and research from the author of <span style="font-style: italic;">Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry</span>. However that may be, it were not an easy task to find a more insipid olio than <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires and Vampirism</span>, of which the ingredients, so far as I am able to judge, are most palpably derived at second, and even at third hand.</blockquote>But in deeming his own work 'the first serious study in English of the Vampire, and kindred traditions from a general, as well as from a theological and philosophical point of view', he set himself up with certain expectations, too. And by those, he should be held accountable.<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-39956568138013654622011-09-13T13:55:00.006+10:002011-09-13T14:41:12.419+10:00Hugo Pecos, revealed!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I stumbled across an interview in one of my </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-timing.html">recent purchases</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">, which was conducted with the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency Director, <a href="http://www.fvza.org/hugohome.html">Hugo Pecos</a>.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://www.sellingbooks.com/bertena-varney-m-a-lure-of-the-vampire/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 252px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9yfTwOWot8w/Tm7eRag6TWI/AAAAAAAAAcw/kdbpM7cE5dg/s400/Lure-of-the-Vampire.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651698973153054050" border="0" /></a><br />Bertena Varney's <span style="font-style: italic;">Lure of the vampire: a pop culture reference book of lists, websites, and "very telling" personal essays</span> (2011) is very telling indeed, as it contains an 'Interview with Hugo Pecos creator of The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency' (pp. 116–18).<br /><br />Varney provides an intro to the interview, stating, 'The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency is an alternative history site founded by Richard Dargon.' His connection to Pecos is made clear: 'Richard created the role of Hugo Pecos as a creative outlet for all the questions that he had in regards to what if vampires and zombies were real' (p. 116).<br /><br />Varney describes his (actual) occupation as 'a paid writer with interests in dramatic writing, screenplays and, stage plays. He also has a background in biochemistry hence the love for science fiction' (p. 116). Which also perfectly explains his pseudo-scientific explanations for the undead, and why so many are duped by their 'plausibility'.<br /><br />That's all from Varney's intro, but here's a word from the man himself: 'The best part of having an 85-year-old alter ego is that I don't have to make apologies for my poor web design skills!' (p. 117). I can't be mad at Dargon for the ruse. After all, he's ensured the FVZA site has enough 'tells' (including disclaimers) that the material featured there, is fictional.<br /><br />What disappoints me, however, is the way his material is seeping into non-fictional narratives through writers who've made little-to-no-attempt to look beyond the site's warped version of history, <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/ludovico-fatinelli-exposed.html">fictional personages</a> and <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/fake-books.html">books</a>, and been dazzled by its 'scientific' explanations for vampirism. And most disturbingly, it's starting to appear in non-fiction vampire books by authors like <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/fvza-is-not-factual-resource.html">Theresa Cheung and Charlotte Montague</a>. And it's all so <span style="font-style: italic;">obviously fake</span>. That's what I find most infuriating. Pecos/Dargon, somewhat diplomatically, says:<br /><blockquote>There has been an interesting set of reactions to the site. I've heard from would-be vampires and would-be hunters. I've heard some crackpot theories. One person even complained about his tax dollars going to waste funding such an agency (p. 117).</blockquote>If you want to read more about the machinations behind the creation of Dr. Hugo Pecos and the FVZA, grab a copy of Varney's book.<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-27301619486140509242011-09-13T01:02:00.005+10:002011-09-13T02:47:21.051+10:00In search of the Cranswells<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Despite Clive-Ross' vindication of the Cranswell family's existence, as covered in the </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-timing.html">previous entry</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">, I'm still leaning towards the idea that they were 'created' by Valentine Dyall (1908-1985).</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Clive-Ross cited Dyall's <span style="font-style: italic;">Unsolved mysteries</span> (1954) as a source, conceding it 'offers much additional information [on the case], mostly without any stated authority, and unfortunately of such an unreliable nature as to be almost worthless.'<br /><br />As of this writing, I don't have that book, but I do have the next best thing: Dyall's article, 'Vampire of Croglin Hall' for <span style="font-style: italic;">Fate</span> (April 1954), pp. 96–104.*<br /><br /><a href="http://fatemag.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_42&products_id=720"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 279px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wuBJvGnXTJQ/Tm4iD7DDS8I/AAAAAAAAAco/mCsx_xEIQKg/s400/1954-04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651492033181993922" border="0" /></a><br />So what makes me think Dyall conjured the Cranswells? For starters, he repeatedly gets the dates wrong. The earliest known source of the Croglin Vampire story is Augustus J.C. Hare's <span style="font-style: italic;">The story of my life</span>, vol. 4 (London: George Allen, 1900). Hare recounted the story, as told by one Captain Fisher** in a journal entry for 24 June 1874. Yet in Dyall's version, the vampire is found one morning in March 1876 (pp. 96, 102). Impossible.<br /><br />And this is no mere misprint. Dyall said that the 'Cumberland phenomenon can be definitely placed in the years 1875-76', noting that the attack occurred in 'the summer of 1875' (p. 99). In terms of leasing the house to the unfortunate Cranswells, Dyall claimed this occurred in 1873 (ibid). Yet, Fisher's version, as recounted by Hare, makes no such allusion.<br /><br />Indeed, Dyall's version is rife with nuggets not found in <span style="font-style: italic;">any</span> previous version of the story. For example, the names of the victims, i.e. the Cranswells, composed of brothers Michael and Edward, and their sister (the victim of the vampire's onslaughts) Amelia. But not only them, as we're also introduced to Jem Croswell, 'a young gamekeeper' (p. 97), one of the seekers of the vampire's tomb, who 'had fled' the scene 'half out of his mind!' (p. 98). Again, Fisher makes no mention of this. Neither does Dyall's sources.<br /><br />And what of Dyall's sources? Thankfully he listed them: 'The strange tale must be pieced together from the works of independent writers–notably Augustus Hare, in "Story of My Life"; Charles G. Harper in "Haunted Houses," and the Rev. Montague Summers in "The Vampire in Europe." (p. 99). Unlike Clive-Ross, at no point did Dyall indicate he'd done any field research. This makes Clive-Ross' 'vindication', in that their names were 'known locally' as the Cranswells, all the more suspicious.<br /><br />It gets better as Dyall slowly unravels the jumping point from his sources: 'There are discrepancies in these three versions, but they do not not necessarily militate against the essential truth: <span style="font-weight: bold;">dates and names are uncertain</span>, and beyond doubt <span style="font-weight: bold;">details have been embellished for the sake of shudder and thrill</span>, but to the fair-minded researcher the main facts are clear (my emphasis, p. 99).<br /><br />It's hard to say–with absolute certainty–whether Dyall was being naive or taking the piss, especially as he was obviously one of the perpetrators of the embellishments. After all, if, indeed, 'names and dates' are uncertain, why did Dyall go out of his way to provide specific (incorrect) dates and <span style="font-style: italic;">where on earth</span> did he gets those names from?<br /><br />Without an honest-to-goodness lease document confirming that the family were the Cranswells (and, if you read Clive-Ross' article, you'll find that certain details in the story push the events back to the <span style="font-style: italic;">17th</span> century***), I think it's highly plausible that locals were relying on Dyall's version of the story (or recounts of it), and synthesised it with local legend. And, to me, <span style="font-style: italic;">that's</span> how the Cranswells were 'known locally': names for the unnamed.<br /><br />It seems few were familiar with Hare's version via Fisher. Even Dyall, who cites it, went completely off track with the dates–and the method of the vampire's demise. According to Fisher, the vampire was simply 'burnt' after its discovery. But in Dyall's version, the villagers 'drove a stake through its heart', too (p. 98). But not before a bullet is pried out from the vampire's leg, which Edward Cranswell recognises as 'one he had bought in Switzerland' (p. 104). Meanwhile, in the Fisher version, the participants of the hunt simply see 'the marks of a recent pistol-shot in the leg'. No one tries to pry it out.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* The article, in turn, was 'Reprinted from </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Everybody's Magazine</span><span style="font-size:85%;">' (p. 96). Unfortunately, the reprint provides no further publication details (issue, year).<br /><br />** Captain Fisher can be positively identified as <a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=conqueror&id=I48612">Edward Rowe Fisher-Rowe</a> (1832–1909). Hare mentions that Fisher was 'engaged to be married to Victoria Liddell' (p. 201) in the 24 June 1874 entry and later mentions, 'Lady Victoria Liddell married Captain Edward Fisher, now Rowe' (p. 232). According to '<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/53128188">Final act of devotion</a>', <span style="font-style: italic;">The Morning Bulletin</span> (Rockhampton, Qld), 30 December 1909, p. 4, Fisher-Rowe met his death through poison.<br /><br />*** However, as noted by Scott Rogo in 'Second thoughts on the vampire of Croglin Grange', <span style="font-style: italic;">Fate</span> (June 1968), pp. 46–7, the vampire's attack on the sister bears an <span style="font-style: italic;">uncanny</span> resemblance to the opening scene of <span style="font-style: italic;">Varney the vampyre</span> (1847).</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-31577595891003217972011-09-12T13:18:00.005+10:002011-09-12T16:52:13.957+10:00Good timing!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I recently got into a </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/brush-with-fate.html?showComment=1313607589641#c8903716911663514264">discussion</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> with one of my readers about the name of the family afflicted in the Croglin vampire case. There was a source I wanted to consult, to double-check my supposition that the 'Cranswell' name was an invention of Valentine Dyall.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />That source arrived today. The source in question? F. Clive-Ross' 'The Croglin vampire', which was published in <span style="font-style: italic;">Tomorrow</span>, vol. 11, no. 2 (1963), pp. 103–9. That article ain't easy to get, so I went ahead and ordered a copy of the journal.*<br /><br />After discussing early sources for the tale, namely, Hare, Harper and Summers, Clive-Ross said the following about Dyall's contribution: 'A later writer, Valentine Dyall, in his book <span style="font-style: italic;">Unsolved Mysteries</span>**, devotes a chapter to "The Croglin Hall Vampire," and offers much additional information, mostly without any stated authority, and unfortunately of such an unreliable nature as to be almost worthless' (p. 105).<br /><br />However, Dyall's use of the Cranswell name is actually <span style="font-style: italic;">vindicated</span>. According to Clive-Ross, who visited the area, 'It is interesting to note that the name of the brothers and their sister is still known locally, Cranswell, and it is also said that they were not local people' (p. 108). But Clive-Ross didn't disclose what their first names were, unlike Dyall.<br /><br />The question is, why didn't Hare, Summers or Harper disclose their names? Were they ensuring the victim's anonymity? If so, why? Is it possible that the local tales were, at least in part, spurred on by the vampire's popularity? When Clive-Ross visited the local post office to find the way to Croglin Low Hall, the woman in charge asks him, "Are you looking for the vampire?" (p. 107). Is it possible Dyall's recount of the story actually <span style="font-style: italic;">tainted</span> local legend? After all, he only says their names were 'known locally', not that there was any such record of their names. Indeed, Clive-Ross mentioned a variation on the legend:<br /><blockquote>Another tradition connected with the vampire involves Croglin Low Hall, and the two stories were generally repeated together. This story relates that at the time the tenants there had a three-year-old child. From being a happy, healthy child she became frightened, sickly and pale, and the parents noticed what they thought were rats teeth marks on her throat. After Miss Cranswell had been attacked new light was thrown on the child's plight, and the father was one of those who took part in the laying of the vampire (p. 108).</blockquote>To confirm this thread, we need to go back to the original source, which was Augustus J.C. Hare's <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/storyofmylife04hare"><span style="font-style: italic;">The story of my life</span></a>, vol. 4 (London: George Allen, 1900), pp. 203–8. There is no mention of a child afflicted in this manner, the residents of the house are two brothers and their sister (the victim of the tale) and the vampire is despatched by 'all the tenants of Croglin Grange' by burning the vampire (p. 208).<br /><br />Clive-Ross' article gives further background on the case, pushing it back further than the 1875 date it's commonly associated with ('Had the story really originated in 1875, as claimed by Mr. Dyall . . .' (p. 109). However, that's one myth I <span style="font-style: italic;">can</span> bust. All you need to do is cast your eyes over to the top left-hand corner of the page:<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yt_-kBtv1t4/Tm2Mn8h6e-I/AAAAAAAAAcg/kghBCkPVgbo/s1600/p.%2B203%2Bcropped.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 222px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yt_-kBtv1t4/Tm2Mn8h6e-I/AAAAAAAAAcg/kghBCkPVgbo/s400/p.%2B203%2Bcropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651327725310999522" border="0" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-93MTSiQxe6g/Tm2LRz3uoTI/AAAAAAAAAcY/b2B08WXaqNw/s1600/p.%2B203%2Bcropped.jpg"><br /></a>See that date? 1874. Hare's book consists of reproduced journal entries, letters, etc. and Fisher's tale is recounted in the midst of his entry for 24 June 1874 entry (pp. 201–8). That doesn't mean the event took place that year, as Hare's source, Fisher, gives no clear date for which the events transpired. The main clue we have, is that the place was leased to the (unnamed) brothers and sister, after the Fisher family moved to 'the south, to reside at Thorncombe near Guildford' (p. 203).<br /><br />Clive-Ross' article gives us a thirdhand source, 'Mrs Parkin tells me that she spoke with one of the Fisher family, who was born in the middle-eighteen-sixties, and that he told her he had known the vampire tale all his life, and originally heard it from his grandparents' (p. 108). But what was <span style="font-style: italic;">his</span> version of the tale? Did it uphold Fisher's details? Was his version of the tale coloured by various recounts? Unfortunately, Clive-Ross doesn't say. We don't have that Fisher's name, and considering his birthdate, he'd be long-dead by now. As it stands, Hare's recount of Fisher's tale is the earliest known source of the legend, effectively serving as our default primary source.<br /><br />That said, Clive-Ross' investigation has given us some fascinating details to work with, and says a lot about field research, including, 'Mrs. Parkin states that in the deeds of Croglin Low Hall the name Croglin Grange was used until about 1720' (p. 108). If you can get a hold of it, I highly recommend Clive-Ross' article to those interested in the Croglin Vampire case.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br />So, why 'Good timing!'? Well, a few hours ago, I went to check the mail - after already checking it this morning - to see if the mag had arrived. It was waiting for me in the letter box, so must've been delivered later in the day. Usually, I would take such items inside and carefully rip 'em open, but this time, I decided to open it in the front yard. While I was doing so, a post van drove up the driveway and a postie came out with an Amazon box. Yep, he handed me a box 'o books I'd been waiting on.<br /><br />The funny thing about that is, I checked the tracking info for 'em, this morning, to see where they were. According to Amazon, they're 'in transit' and the 'latest event' gave an arrival scan for Carlstadt NJ, August 31, 2011 8:31:08 AM. To get my copy of <span style="font-style: italic;">Tomorrow</span> and the Amazon box in that situation, was, to say the least, good timing.<br /><br />In terms of what was in the box, let's take a look-see.<br /><br />This particular Amazon spree was triggered after <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/discussion-of-dates-and-interesting.html">'discovering' the critical edition</a> of Summers' <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire: his kith and kin</span>. I don't see the point in ordering one book at a time from there, as separate shipping fees only add to the cost. One reason why I don't use eBay as much as I used to. That's one benefit Amazon has: I can order in bulk. You should see my wish lists.<br /><br />Anyway, including Summers' book, I wound up ordering <span style="font-style: italic;">fourteen</span> on August 29th. There was a bit of a religious undertone, this time 'round, inspired through reading of Susannah Clements' <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire defanged</span> (2011). I enjoy such takes, as they touch on my own spiritual background. On the flipside, there's also some skeptical and occultic works in the mix. Here's what arrived today:<br /><blockquote>Raven Kaldera, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0578007908"><span style="font-style: italic;">The ethical psychic vampire</span></a>, 2nd edn, Ellhorn Press, Hubbardston, Mass., 2008. Price: $17.81. Dammit, I didn't realise this was a second edition. Gah. Gonna have to chase up the first one, too.<br /><br />Bertena Varney, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615501567">Lure of the vampire: a pop culture reference book of lists, websites, and "very telling" personal essays</a>, The Author, Lexington, Ky., 2011. Price: $9.99.<br /><br />Steve Wohlberg, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0768432375"><span style="font-style: italic;">The trouble with Twilight: why today's vampire craze is hazardous to your health</span></a>, Destiny Image-3ABN Books, Shippensburg, Pa., 2010. Price: $10.19. Spiritual health, that is.<br /><br />Joe Nickell, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813122104"><span style="font-style: italic;">Real-life x-files: investigating the paranormal</span></a>, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., 2001. Price: $29.95. Bugger-all on vampires, but, going on Nickell's other stuff, should be an interesting insight into scientific paranormal investigation.<br /><br />Joe Nickell, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813123186"><span style="font-style: italic;">The mystery chronicles: more real-life x-files</span></a>, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., 2004. Price: $26.60. Same as above. Though I specifically got the Nickell books because he cites them in <span style="font-style: italic;">Tracking the man-beasts</span> (2011).<br /><br />Gary Hoppenstand & Ray B. Browne (eds), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087972708X"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Gothic world of Anne Rice</span></a>, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Bowling Green, Ohio, 1996. Price: $21.95. An anthology cited in Clements' work. Should be an interesting insight into Ricean vampires.<br /><br />Lady CG (Barbara Clarke), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1411642996"><span style="font-style: italic;">Practical Vampyrism for modern Vampyres: the first handbook for modern Vampyres</span></a>, Lulu, 2005. Price: $29.74. Is it? I doubt it. I got this one for novelty value as much as an insight into the 'Scene'. Also, I don't think she says 'Vampyres' enough in the title. Vampyres, Vampyres, Vampyres.<br /><br />Michelle Belanger, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1442118083"><span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire ritual book: the lost rites of the Sanguinarium</span></a>, The Author, Lexington, Ky., 2003. Price: $19.95. A spell book, essentially. I don't intend on casting any, that's for sure, so mark this one up to novelty value and building on a collection of Belanger's other works. Oh, and isn't Lexington a popular place today! Wow. One main issue I'm finding with these self-published works (Varney, Lady CG, this one), is how hard it is to source their publication details. These books would be a nightmare for cataloguers and people wanting to cite them (like me). Traditionally, publication details go on the title page. Self-publishers take note.<br /><br />Angela Grace, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592334571"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dark angels revealed: from dark rogues to dark romantics, the secret lives of the most mysterious & mesmerizing vampires and fallen angels from Count Dracula to Edward Cullen</span></a>, Fair Winds Press, Beverly, Mass., 2011. Price: $15.59. Dark, dark, dark, dark. That title, yikes. Obviously a populist book, but may provide some insights into the whole 'bad boy' appeal with vampires.<br /><br />George Beahm, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599290413"><span style="font-style: italic;">Bedazzled: a book about Stephenie Meyer and the</span> Twilight <span style="font-style: italic;">phenomenon</span></a>, Underwood Books, Calif., 2009. Price: $9.56. No, I haven't turned into a Twi-Hard, but I am fascinated as to why these books have caught on as much as they have. Beahm tends to ride the pop culture train. His other books of note relate to Stephen King and Harry Potter.<br /><br />Beth Felker Jones, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601422784"><span style="font-style: italic;">Touched by a vampire: discovering the hidden messages in the Twilight saga</span></a>, Multnomah Books, Colorado Springs, Colo., 2009. Price: $11.07. For all the talk on teenage angst, there's an angle which shouldn't be forgotten: the stories are written by a devout Mormon housewife.<br /><br />Kurt Bruner, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J8HZNO">The Twilight phenomenon: forbidden fruit or thirst-quenching fantasy?</a>, Destiny Image, Shippensburg, Pa., 2009. Price: $6.00. It's interesting to see how many Christian writers have hopped on board the franchise, themselves, even if to warn against it - or uphold its supposed spiritual values. <span style="font-style: italic;">That's</span> how mainstream Meyers has made vampires. It's almost unprecedented.</blockquote>Still waiting on two more books, one of them, ironically, is the critical edition of Summers' work, which triggered off this spree in the first place.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Ordered on August 26th, $9.99. Fortunately, a private seller had it for sale on Amazon.<br /><br />** Another source I'm gonna have to chase up. Clive-Ross notes its publication details: 'Hutchinson, 1954' (p. 105, fn. 1).</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-71769816801842112552011-09-08T13:08:00.011+10:002011-09-08T15:16:20.498+10:00Ludovico Fatinelli, exposed!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I've noticed that I score a few hits to my blog, based on searches for this guy. Some readers might recognise him from the FVZA website, which should be </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/fvza-is-not-factual-resource.html">setting off alarm bells</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://www.fvza.org/fatinelli.html">According to the FVZA</a>, Fatinelli was a Florentine scholar, who studied under Galileo Gallilei, and was tried by the Inquisition for refusing to retract the findings in his 1616 work, <span style="font-style: italic;">Treatise on vampires</span>, in which he claimed that 'microscopic entities, not moral failures, that were the real source of vampirism.' That same year, he was burned at the stake on April 23rd in Florence's Piazza Signoria. Here's their picture of the unfortunate gentleman:<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DxFKaU2XMFc/Tmg1kXmwEwI/AAAAAAAAAbg/f5V01kUa5y4/s1600/fatinelliscreencapped.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 124px; height: 128px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DxFKaU2XMFc/Tmg1kXmwEwI/AAAAAAAAAbg/f5V01kUa5y4/s320/fatinelliscreencapped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649824631464399618" border="0" /></a><br />Or is it? Thanks to the assistance of <a href="http://www.tineye.com/">TinEye</a>, a 'reverse image search engine', I can tell that no, that ain't Ludovico. That's 'Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer', <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno">Giordano Bruno</a>.* Here's his picture:<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giordano_Bruno.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JLhuyRt1XDY/Tmg4QckT_CI/AAAAAAAAAbo/QgOXMNacSu4/s320/Giordano_Bruno.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649827587733847074" border="0" /></a><br />Bruno would've had great difficulty publishing his findings in 1616—and being burned, for that matter—considering he was dead at the time (d. 17 February 1600). Bruno was<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> burned at the stake for heretical views, however, it had nothing to do with examinations of vampire physiology.<br /><br />Ok, so maybe the FVZA made a mistake. Maybe they got their pictures mixed up. Sure, that's obviously Bruno, but what about the <span style="font-style: italic;">other</span> pictures they used? Like the painting of his trial, for instance?<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-305pzW1-_ec/Tmg7AbSNCcI/AAAAAAAAAbw/7cjjGt1xYyc/s1600/trial2screencapped.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 208px; height: 130px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-305pzW1-_ec/Tmg7AbSNCcI/AAAAAAAAAbw/7cjjGt1xYyc/s320/trial2screencapped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649830611046435266" border="0" /></a><br />Pretty hard to make out any faces in that pic, considering how small it is. But that's probably because if you did see a larger image, you'd find that it <span style="font-style: italic;">actually</span> depicts the trial of Fatinelli's 'mentor', <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei">Galileo Galilei</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.galilei-online.de/pages/prozess.php"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2J-u-5z6z0A/Tmg_7qgWabI/AAAAAAAAAb4/nWdLmQDwvoo/s320/prozess1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649836026791094706" border="0" /></a><br />Maybe Fatinelli was in the docks, giving moral support? Nope. The trial took place in 1633, seventeen years <span style="font-style: italic;">after</span> Fatinelli's 'death'. Unlike Bruno, Galilei was spared the stake. He died on 8 January 1642 of heart complications.<br /><br />There's one more picture from Fatinelli's FVZA page. It depicts his execution, and true to Fatinelli's fate, the person is being burned at a stake. Hell, it's even taking place at Florence's Piazza Signoria! I'd recognise it anywhere! Surely, that's gotta be him!<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fsqvUQ9vX-4/TmhAlkBQn7I/AAAAAAAAAcA/qLN5YwcM2RQ/s1600/burningscreencapped.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 157px; height: 188px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fsqvUQ9vX-4/TmhAlkBQn7I/AAAAAAAAAcA/qLN5YwcM2RQ/s320/burningscreencapped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649836746604584882" border="0" /></a><br />'Fraid not. Sure that's Florence's Piazza <span style="font-style: italic;">della</span> Signoria, but the dude barbecuing on the stake isn't Fatinelli. It's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girolamo_Savonarola">Girolamo Savonarola</a>, 'an Italian Dominican friar, Scholastic'.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Savonarola_1498.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 279px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Aex8G90HfdI/TmhDQtF-L2I/AAAAAAAAAcI/FO51hvWDKCo/s320/688px-Savonarola_1498.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649839686797897570" border="0" /></a><br />He wasn't even Fatinelli's contemporary: Savonarola was executed on 23 May 1498. In case you <span style="font-style: italic;">still</span> believe Fatinelli's backstory, despite the FVZA's recourse to falsely captioning pictures of him, here's <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/fake-books.html?showComment=1270274759948#c6523040526672678777">a note</a> on the cultural significance of Fatinelli's name from Ezechiele Toti: 'indeed, ludovico fatinelli doesn't exist , the italian form is lodovico and not ludovico that's spanish, fatinelli is a surname from Lucca, but not Florence'.<br /><br />Need more proof? How about this from the site's <a href="http://www.fvza.org/index.html">homepage</a>: 'Please note: This site is for entertainment purposes only. Some material is not suitable for children or young teenagers. See the Disclaimer below for more information.' What does the disclaimer say? This:<blockquote>This site is fictional and is for entertainment purposes only. We are not affiliated with the U.S. Government in any way. Under no circumstances are you to harm anyone based on information from this site.</blockquote>Not enough? Then cast your eyes down to the copyright notice on Fatinelli's page: '© 2001-2008 Dango Productions, Inc.' <a href="http://www.manta.com/c/mmjhrd1/dango-productions-inc">Dango Productions</a> is a<br /><blockquote>private company categorized under Motion Picture Producers and Studios. Our records show it was established in 2001 and incorporated in New Mexico. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $99,000 and employs a staff of approximately 1.</blockquote>What a coincidence! Founded in the same year the FVZA site went online! Dango's owner and president is <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/laurie-volkin/8/713/435">Laurie Volkin</a>, a freelance editor and writer, 'specializing in medical writing and communications.' Medical writing, like, say, the 'scientific' explanations for vampire physiology in the FVZA pages? The same person with a Bachelor's Degree in Communications/Liberal Arts? I'll let you do the math.<br /><br />So, there's no need to <a href="http://www.ltboks.tk/ludovico-fatinellis-treatise-on-vampires">try and find a copy of Fatinelli's treatise</a>, as neither he, nor the book exists. If you're interested in tracking pre-20th century vampire works, I suggest using Melinda K. Haye's '<a href="http://www-lib.usc.edu/%7Emelindah/eurovamp/chronvam.htm">Vampiri Europeana: a chronological listing</a>' as a springboard.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* To give credit where it's due, one of my readers, Ezechiele Toti, had previously <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/fake-books.html?showComment=1270274759948#c6523040526672678777">noted</a> that Fatinelli's portrait was actually Bruno's.</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-13607073591699539032011-09-08T10:43:00.007+10:002011-09-08T12:44:33.824+10:00Let's get political<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The vampire-as-political metaphor is nothing new. But did you know mainstream interest in vampires might say something about which </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">type</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> of government is in power?</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Well, American political party, anyway. S Peter Davis wrote this compelling piece on '<a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_19402_6-mind-blowing-ways-zombies-vampires-explain-america.html">6 mind-blowing ways zombies and vampires explain America</a>.' The article is based on <a href="http://www.mrscienceshow.com/2009/05/correlation-of-week-zombies-vampires.html">data collated from <span style="font-style: italic;">Mr. Science Show</span></a>, in which a comparison table is drawn up between Republican and Democratic presidencies and the popularity of vampire and zombie films during those interims.<br /><br />The table kicks off with the presidency of Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1953. Davis's caption reads, 'And apparently all our apocalypses started with Eisenhower', as the article notes two zombie flicks released that year.<br /><br />That's an interesting comment, because the following year, a novel was released which would have a significant impact on fictional vampire <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> zombie portrayals. The novel in question? Richard Matheson's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_%28novel%29"><span style="font-style: italic;">I am legend</span></a> (1954), which deals with an apocalyptic <span style="font-style: italic;">vampire</span> plague. How significant was it? Put it this way: if it wasn't for that book, the marauding, flesh-eating zombies you know and love, <span style="font-style: italic;">would not exist</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/10/vampires-or-zombies-which-takes-over.html">As I've mentioned before</a>, the modern zombie genre stems from George Romero's 1968 film, <span style="font-style: italic;">Night of the living dead</span>, which is funny, because his creatures weren't intended to be zombies in the first place. Indeed, in the movie, they're called 'ghouls', a name <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul">derived from Arabic foklore</a>, for a demon that feasts on the flesh of the dead. The reason they weren't called zombies, is because zombies, traditionally-speaking, aren't undead, flesh-eating, infecting corpses. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie">They're undead slave labourers</a>, controlled by a <span style="font-style: italic;">bokor</span>; a sorcerer. Rather than shooting them in the head, feeding them salt will send 'em back to the grave.<br /><br />That's why (actual) zombie flicks released before 1968 stick to the zombie-as-slave trope. Take Victor Halperin's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Zombie_%28film%29"><span style="font-style: italic;">White zombie</span></a> (1932), Jacques Tourneur's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Walked_with_a_Zombie"><span style="font-style: italic;">I walked with a zombie</span></a> (1943) and John Gilling's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_the_Zombies"><span style="font-style: italic;">The plague of the zombies</span></a> (1966). Occasionally, modern representations of the sorcerer (read: mad scientist) were used, as in Jerry Warren's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Zombies"><span style="font-style: italic;">Teenage zombies</span></a> (1959). Even the cannibalistic overtones in Del Tenney's <span style="font-style: italic;">I eat your skin</span> (1964) are a misnomer: <a href="http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/reviews/I/eatskin.html">no skin is eaten during the movie</a>.<br /><br />Somewhere along the line, the 'ghouls' of Romero's flick were morphed into 'zombies', extant Voodoo lore to the contrary. Zombies didn't infect others with their 'curse', a major trope associated with modern zombie flicks. That's a vampire trope, i.e. one featured in Romero's 'inspiration', <span style="font-style: italic;">I am legend</span>. I use quotation marks for 'inspiration', because Romero, himself, <a href="http://newsblaze.com/story/20080214141307tsop.nb/topstory.html">admits</a> that he did a little more than simply be 'inspired' by Matheson's novel: 'Then I read I Am Legend and adapted - well, actually ripped off! - the first half. And made it into Night Of The Living dead.'<br /><br />Anyway, back to the political stuff. I was surprised to see the following image appear in Davis's article:<br /><br /><a href="http://my.billingsgazette.com/post/TheRealVicVenom/photos/obamavampire.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CuHxA9hqYAA/Tmgl_SCzWBI/AAAAAAAAAbY/fAmpgDFs5wU/s320/35B4EE00-6C04-4C67-8D61-54362EA5D20F.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649807501641865234" border="0" /></a><br />I wasn't surprised with the startling imagery of Obama as a vampire (<a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/10/president-bites.html">not the first time</a> I've seen that), but because the picture has been shamelessly 'vampirised' (heh heh) from Alex Ross's famous cover for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Village Voice</span>:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/54992637/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 245px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EAEzd-MKoBY/TmglYL-urcI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/tdIRIYdQru0/s320/54992637_6805d155a3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649806829999271362" border="0" /></a><br />Ross's image was used to illustrate Rick Perlstein's article, '<a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-10-12/news/the-end-of-democracy/1/">The end of democracy: losing America's birthright, the George Bush way</a>.' What we have here is a political tool called zoomorphism. Its purpose is <a href="http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=644&TTL=Major_Anti-Semitic_Motifs_in_Arab_Cartoons">highlighted by Joël Kotek</a>: 'To abuse one's adversaries, one dehumanizes them by turning them into animals.'* Funnily enough, this practice has been <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2011/07/sigh-another-impersonator.html">deployed against me</a>, during my investigations in the Highgate vampire case.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Kotek includes vampires in this category: 'The two other predominant anti-Semitic zoomorphic motifs are the blood-thirsty vampire and the octopus.'</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-61409649827719156572011-09-07T14:15:00.009+10:002011-09-07T15:44:00.033+10:00A bastard of a book to get<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Although I haven't mentioned, one book I've been trying to locate for my collection is Tony Faivre's </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Les vampires: essai historique, critique et littéraire</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> (1962). Hasn't been easy, but my copy arrived today.</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Tony-Faivre-Vampires-historique-litt%C3%A9raire/dp/B0014WQSHC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1315369704&sr=8-3"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 305px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kf1DiDkw5L0/Tmb3Lk7tM8I/AAAAAAAAAbI/n0K16l79-7c/s400/51KbAqpNCBL._SL500_cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649474560847590338" border="0" /></a><br />I'll tell ya, it's not an easy book to find. Try and find it on sale. Go on. See how many copies you stumble across. If you're lucky, one might fleetingly pop up on eBay. Even Niels <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2010/10/another-halloween.html">mentions</a> the difficulty in tracing a copy.<br /><br />I found my copy in an obvious source, Amazon.fr*, but it's not like it's always there. Indeed, I'd already tried that site before. Many times. Fortunately, a private seller had since listed a copy for EUR 44,99 (shipping: EUR 10,99). Snap.<br /><br />But before the copy arrived, I was stressing out. After all, I'd ordered it on August 3rd. By the 25th, the other books I'd ordered in the same 'hit'** had arrived. That same day, I received an e-mail notification to rate the sale. So...<span style="font-style: italic;">where was my damn book?</span> Had it been lost in transit? Was the seller yanking my chain? A fake? Had they shipped it all? Were my efforts to secure a copy, <span style="font-style: italic;">cursed</span>? All those thoughts raced through my head as I was daily greeted by a packageless letterbox. I was so close, so <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> close to contacting the seller today. No more delayed delivery blues.<br /><br />At this point, you might be asking, what's the deal about this book? Why so keen to get it? And to that, I'll say it's a very important book in the field. Firstly, it was published at a time where vampire books were quite rare. The only other major works at the time were Roland Villeneuve's <span style="font-style: italic;">Loup-garou et vampires</span> (1960), Ornella Volta and Valerio Riva's anthology <span style="font-style: italic;">I vampiri tra noi</span> (1960), Emilio de' Rossignoli's <span style="font-style: italic;">Io credo nei vampiri</span> (1961) and Volta's <span style="font-style: italic;">Le vampire</span> (1962).<br /><br />Volta's 1962 book, as well as Faivre's <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/vampires-in-france">kicked off</a> serious study of the subject. However, Faivre's contribution is given greater acknowledgement. How important was it? Massimo Introvigne, president of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula's Italian chapter, calls him the '<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=rNF0O3K2EQEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false">father of contemporary vampire studies</a>.' High praise, indeed.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Faivre">Antoine 'Tony' Faivre</a> is still kickin', too. He has made other contributions to vampire scholarship, including an essay for <span style="font-style: italic;">Les vampires: Colloque de Cerisy</span> (1993), but certainly nothing as significant as his 1962 book. He briefly discusses writing it in <a href="http://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/1487">this interview</a>.<br /><br />If you're keen on scoring your own copy, I can tell you there's <a href="http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/53696004/Faivre-Tony-Les-Vampires-Livre.html">three copies available on PrinceMinister</a>; as long as you know how to navigate yourself around a French website.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Which I ordered during one of my patented Amazonian spending sprees. I also purchased Michaël [Michael] Ranft's <span style="font-style: italic;">De Masticatione mortuorum in tumulis: de la mastication des morts dans leurs tombeaux 1728</span> (EUR 7,54) and Alain Pozzuoli's <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Bible-Dracula-Dictionnaire-vampire/dp/2842283864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315370473&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">La bible Dracula: dictionnaire du vampire</span></a> (EUR 20,62). But the book that actually triggered the spree was Daniela Soloviova-Horville's <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Vampires-Folklore-Slave-Litterature-Occidentale/dp/2296125034/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315370046&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Les vampires: du folklore slave à la littérature occidentale</span></a> (EUR 30,17). Finding Faivre's book was sweet serendipity.<br /><br />** See above.</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-1308852543981744942011-09-05T11:54:00.007+10:002011-09-05T12:57:53.212+10:00Facsimile or web version?<div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/discussion-of-dates-and-interesting.html">I've been wondering</a> whether the critical edition of Summers' <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire: his kith and kin</span> used web material as its source or referred to the original text. So, I went straight to the source: the book's editor, John Edgar Browning.
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />I contacted John on September 1, asking 'Did you use Summers' original book or did you use the online version of kith?' He responded the same day, 'Which would be better: That I used the online version; or, a facsimile of the first ed.?'
<br />
<br />That sounded ominous, until I read his comments on my Facebook status update about the book (August 29 at 9:20am). One of my Facebook friends, Kyle, complained about the book being expensive (September 1 at 1:44pm), to which John added:
<br /><blockquote>The new edition offers a complete, identical facsimile of the 1928 ed., front and back mater by renown vampire and Summers scholars, every known pic of Summers and then some, dozens of other contextual images, Greek and Latin translations for all those pesky passages, facsimiles of important correspondence between Summers, Wheatley, Censors Board, etc., and MORE. You can find other, cheaper editions, but they're usually OCRs cum errors, or facsimiles that offer no additional materials $22.95 is a steal, I think (Friday at 1:07am).</blockquote>What a relief! Also, <span style="font-style: italic;">dayum</span>! Couldn't agree more. All that for US$22.95. Bargain. My copy of the book's yet to arrive, but John did send me a brief pdf preview of the book's contents on Friday. While only a few pages long, I was very impressed with what I saw. For starters, it contained an image of Summers which I'd never seen before:
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<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qZ6oL8hc06k/TmQxqO6mPAI/AAAAAAAAAbA/2y6twdjtywA/s1600/TVHKAKACE%2Bpreview.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 307px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qZ6oL8hc06k/TmQxqO6mPAI/AAAAAAAAAbA/2y6twdjtywA/s400/TVHKAKACE%2Bpreview.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648694434257583106" border="0" /></a>
<br />It also features contemporary reviews of the book, as well as Summers' correspondence...with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Wheatley">Dennis Wheatley</a>, no less. We're also treated to a chronology of events in the mysterious Summers' life. As John noted (September 1 at 7:49am), I'm not the only person who's blogged about the book.
<br />
<br />I had a feeling I knew who he was referring to, and it was confirmed when I saw <a href="http://friendsofbishopseanmanchester.blogspot.com/2011/08/browning-version.html">his link to the FoBSM blog</a>. I noticed they'd pilfered some content from my blog entry (the parts showing which contributor wrote what). On the plus side, it's good to see the Friends of Bishop Seán Manchester take time out from their usual practice—<a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2011/04/hatchet-job.html">cyber-bullying Manchester's critics</a>—in order to plug the book.
<br />
<br />It's also refreshing to see something <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> written by Manchester or Peter Underwood (<a href="http://www.peterunderwood.org.uk/peter.htm">Life Member</a> of Manchester's Vampire Research Society) appear on their blog. Such is the esteem with which Summers is held by the Bishop and his friends. Of course, considering that Manchester views himself as something akin to a <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2010/07/church-vs-undead-pt-3.html">reincarnation of the late cleric</a>, it's not all that surprising.
<br />
<br />Anyway, I also took the opportunity to ask John whether there'd be a critical edition of Summers' follow-up vampire book, <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Europe</span> (1929). On Friday, he told me the book had 'been contracted and is expected out late this year/early next year'. Hell yeah.
<br />
<br />Can't wait to get my copy. If you're interested in scoring your own, it's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-His-Kith-Kin-Critical/dp/1937002179/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1315191199&sr=8-3">available through Amazon</a>.
<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-55076469246248021302011-08-29T05:07:00.010+10:002011-08-29T07:12:22.296+10:00Discussion of dates and an interesting find<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Props to funkyjane, for </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/09/bloody-hell.html?showComment=1314316648337#c1071991871489356456">tipping me off</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> on lower prices for Thomas J. Garza's </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The vampire in Slavic cultures</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> After discussing her comment, I'll also reveal an interesting find I unearthed on Amazon.</span>
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />Ms. Jane informed me of a 2010 edition of his book, which is for sale via the <a href="https://titles.cognella.com/the-vampire-in-slavic-cultures.html">publisher's website</a>. At the moment, the going rate for this book, on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Slavic-Cultures-Thomas-Garza/dp/1934269670/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1">Amazon</a>, is $162.95, which means it's actually <span style="font-style: italic;">increased</span> in price since it was <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/09/bloody-hell.html">published in 2009</a>. As it that wasn't exorbitant enough, check out the book's used prices.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Slavic-Cultures-Thomas-Garza/dp/1934269670/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I29R7KCETDAB35&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 168px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h5Pq1aKqWTI/TlqnxyNLErI/AAAAAAAAAao/00XfJq-x0Zc/s400/The%2Bvampire%2Bin%2BSlavic%2Bcultures%2Brip-off.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646009556594791090" border="0" /></a>
<br />The book available from the publisher's webiste, however, is <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> a new edition, but I can see why Ms. Jane thought it was.
<br />
<br />As noted, the book was published on 20 July 2009, going by Amazon's 'Publisher' info. However, the book's <span style="font-style: italic;">copyright date</span>, is 2010 (that is viewable in the pdf free preview I downloaded in 2009, as well as the [same] version <a href="https://titles.cognella.com/downloadable/download/sample/sample_id/273/">available now</a>). If you didn't know the book was published in 2009, you'd take the copyright date as the date of publication.
<br />
<br />And here's where it gets murky.
<br />
<br />The copyright date that appears in books is not necessarily the year the book was published. For example, the third edition of J. Gordon Melton's <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire book: the encyclopedia of the undead</span> is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Book-Encyclopedia-Undead/dp/157859281X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_6_russss1">listed</a> as being published on 1 September 2010 and it was certainly available for purchase last year. However, if you check its copyright date, it'll say '2011'.
<br />
<br />Same principle applies to Brad Steiger's <span style="font-style: italic;">Real vampires, night stalkers, and other creatures from the darkside</span>. Its publication date is listed as 1 September 2009, yet it features a 2010 copyright date. I wound up <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/11/coupla-follow-ups-in-publishing.html">contacting the book's publisher</a> about this 'discrepancy' and was told 'in publishing, the copyright year generally starts in September, which is when Real Vampire [sic] was published'. Note 'generally'. That also probably variates from country to country.
<br />
<br />That, of course, leaves us with a frustrating riddle: which year is the 'right' one? The copyright year of the year of publication? That depends on the style guide you consult.
<br />
<br />In terms of citation, <a href="http://www.aresearchguide.com/11guide.html#date">this research guide</a>, which breaks down the Modern Language Association style, mentions 'For a book, use the copyright year as the date of publication, e.g.: 2005, not ©2005 or Copyright 2005, i.e. do not draw the symbol © for copyright, or add the word Copyright in front of the year.' <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_guides">Other style guides</a> may have a different take, or none at all. Always make sure you use the most current version.
<br />
<br />It also depends on the <span style="font-style: italic;">context</span> you're using the year. For example, a book could (I would think) have its publication date mentioned in-text, while a citation for it using the copyright date, would (hypothetically) be ok.
<br />
<br />What matters is consistency, which, unfortunately, I haven't totally engaged in on here, as I occasionally alternate between a book's copyright date and publication date, when discussing it. Plus, the matter is further hindered by how much insight the researcher has into the book's publication date.
<br />
<br />After all, if we're relying on the book, itself, how do we <span style="font-style: italic;">know</span> what its exact publication date was, if the only info we have on hand is the copyright date? Should we start checking the publication dates of <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> the books we consult? Tricky stuff. I might delve into this issue at a later time.
<br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************
<br /></div>
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-His-Kith-Kin-Critical/dp/1937002179/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I387GERXEL1EDO&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 207px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jcu2aZJLsG4/TlqmlgcRV6I/AAAAAAAAAag/JLHQviTP7MM/s320/41KqcPXrL0L._SS500_cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646008246156220322" border="0" /></a>
<br />In other news, how the hell did I miss this? While trawling through Amazon to write this entry, I stumbled across <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-His-Kith-Kin-Critical/dp/1937002179/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp">a critical edition</a> of Montague Summers' <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire: his kith and kin</span>. 'Included in this critical edition are the authoritative text, rare contextual and source materials, correspondence, illustrations, as well as Greek and Latin translations. A biographical note and chronology are also included.'
<br />
<br />Oh, hell yes! Into my shopping cart you go!
<br />
<br />Check out the list of people involved in its creation: edited by John Edgar Browning (<span style="font-style: italic;">Draculas, vampires, and other undead forms: essays on gender, race, and culture</span>, 2009), an introduction by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (<span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires among us</span>, 1991; <span style="font-style: italic;">The complete vampire companion</span>, 1994; <span style="font-style: italic;">The encyclopedia of vampires, werewolves, and other monsters</span>, 2004/2011; <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires</span>, 2008), an afterword by Carol A. Senf (<span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in nineteenth century English literature</span>, 1988) and a foreword by J. Gordon Melton (<span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire book: the encyclopedia of the undead</span>, 1994/1999/2011). What a line-up!
<br />
<br />Fingers crossed they take on Summers' companion tome, <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Europe</span> (1929) next.
<br />
<br />Also, I hope they haven't relied on the online version of <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire: his kith and kin</span>. There have been many reprints of that book, which stem from Bruno J. Hare's <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/goth/vkk/index.htm">Internet Sacred Text Archive (ISTA) version</a>.
<br />
<br />The problem is, some of the text has been deliberately altered. You can tell which publishers have copy-n-pasted their reprints from ISTA (or other sites, which, in turn, have relied on the ISTA version), by seeing if they've included the following entry in Summers' bibliography: 'ERAH, J. Onurb. <span style="font-style: italic;">Key to Vampyrology, Witchcrafte & Dæmonologie for Guidance of ye Slayers</span>. The Watchers' Society, Cambridge, 1751.'
<br />
<br />The entry is not featured in the original Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. edition (1928), because <span style="font-style: italic;">Key to vampyrology</span> doesn't exist. The entry was fabricated by transcriber, Bruno J. Hare (Erah, J. Onurb), to undermine copyists.
<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-84060400181705464822011-08-18T04:28:00.009+10:002011-08-18T05:14:42.621+10:00Slobbo cops a staking<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Props to Fra Moretta for </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/vampires-paranormal-perspective.html?showComment=1313583255865#c3304290879963864702">sending along</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> a news item concerning a modern-day manifestation of the vampire belief.</span>
<br /></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/S/Slobodan_Milosevic.asp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 276px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TC3ArJ_uYFk/TkwQDjRJtQI/AAAAAAAAAaY/6aT6goX3gnc/s320/kscn165l.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641902086381221122" border="0" /></a>
<br />Many might of you might recall Serbia and Yugoslavia's former president, Slobodan Milošević (1941-2006) and his, uh, let's say, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87#Milo.C5.A1evi.C4.87.E2.80.99s_role_in_the_Yugoslav_wars">unsavory reputation</a>. He died of a heart attack while on trial for war crimes. But in 2007, he received a <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/06/milosevic_staked/">heart attack of a different kind</a>:
<br /><blockquote>Serbian vampire hunters have acted to prevent the very remote possibility that former dictator Slobodan Milosevic might stage a come-back - by driving a three-foot stake through his heart.</blockquote>A few interesting items of note. Firstly, the hunters used the same length of stake that Arthur Holmwood does on Lucy Westenra in <span style="font-style: italic;">Dracula</span> (1897). Yeah, that was a three footer, too. Second, as I've <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/tracking-first-true-vampire.html">pointed out before</a>, Serbia is the vampire's heartland. Third, they tried to drive a <span style="font-style: italic;">stake</span> through his <span style="font-style: italic;">heart</span>. In <span style="font-style: italic;">2007</span>. Yikes.
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<br /><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1795888/posts">Technically speaking</a>, Miroslav Milosevic (no relation) drove the stake through Slobodan's <span style="font-style: italic;">grave</span>. Not sure whether it 'hit the spot'. I'm sure he had good intentions. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the gesture was a bizarre political protest - by a member of the Resistance from Pozarevac, no less - or whether he <span style="font-style: italic;">genuinely</span> believed in the stake's purpose in accordance with vampire tradition. But interestingly enough, impaling the a vampire's grave to prevent it rising <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> founded in tradition, as is the choice of hawthorn for the stake...
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update:</span> ok, so I was right about the 'political protest' angle. Tanja, a contributor on a JREFF thread <a href="http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=76482">dedicated to the news story</a>, exposed it with her translation of a Bosnian news source. Miroslav was indeed making a (ahem) point. I love the local constabulary's reaction to Miroslav's intent to stake the Slobmeister. It's a pisser.
<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-22001946550036451202011-08-18T02:45:00.006+10:002011-08-18T04:14:16.182+10:00A brush with FATE<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Yesterday, I received photocopies of a bunch of articles I'd ordered from popular paranormal mag, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Fate</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">. Let's take a look at my swag.</span>
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<br /><a href="http://fatemag.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_34&products_id=228"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 273px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-62IUqV_S5YA/TkvxwcWcgqI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/kFryiErhQbs/s400/1993-02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641868772758028962" border="0" /></a>
<br />That didn't quite sound right. Anyway, I'm interested in various perspectives on vampirism. But one that particularly fascinates me (apart from folklore), is the <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/vampires-paranormal-perspective.html">paranormalist viewpoint</a>.
<br />
<br />I was able to track down several of the articles thanks to citations in Martin V. Riccardo's <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires unearthed: the complete multi-media vampire and Dracula bibliography</span> (1983). I can't emphasise the importance of such bibliographies to research. Without further ado, here's what I scored:
<br /><blockquote>Shay, VB 1949, 'James Brown, vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>November, p. 59.
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<br />Berger, S 1951, 'Do vampires exist?', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>November–December, pp. 79–82.
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<br />Dyall, V 1954, 'Vampire of Croglin Hall', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>April, pp. 96–104.
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<br />Hoeller, SA 1963, 'The lady was a vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>June, pp. 57–63.
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<br />Heiman, L 1968, 'Meet the real Count Dracula', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>March, pp. 53–60.
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<br />Rogo, S 1968, 'Second thoughts on the vampire of Croglin Grange', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>June, pp. 44–8.
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<br />Rogo, S 1968, 'In-depth analysis of the vampire legend', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>September, pp. 70–77.
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<br />Santore, V 1977, 'The vengeful succubus', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>September, pp. 43–6.
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<br />Riccardo, MV 1978, 'The persistent vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>July, pp. 74–81.
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<br />Thompson, PB 1985, 'The Highgate vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>May, pp. 74–80.*
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<br />'Scientist says no to vampire theory' 1986, <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>January, p. 73.
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<br />Guiley, RE 1993, 'Real vampires', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>February, pp. 48–60.
<br />
<br />Riccardo, MV 1993, 'Vampires–an unearthly reality', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>February, pp. 61–70.
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<br />Bjorling, J, 1996, 'A walk on the dark side', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>February, pp. 44–7.
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<br />Karagiannis, K 1996, 'Psychic vampires', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>May, pp. 40–3.
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<br />Miller, C 1997, 'The vampire prioress at Robin Hood’s grave', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>July, pp. 42–5.
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<br />D’Agostino, T 2001, 'Rhode Island: the vampire capital of America', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>October, pp. 19–21.
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<br />Guiley, RE 2004, 'Vampires sorcerers and witches', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>November, pp. 40–7.
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<br />Belanger, M 2005, 'The lord of vampires', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>January, pp. 24–30.
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<br />Redfern, N 2005, 'In search of the chupacabras', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>January, pp. 31–7.
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<br />Wood, DJ 2007, 'Vampires and disease: the bloodsucking corpse of English tradition', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>December, pp. 28–34.
<br />
<br />Wood, DJ 2008, 'The White Death of New England', <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>January, pp. 27–33.</blockquote>There's a couple which eluded me, namely, Ivor J. Brown's 'The unquiet grave of the vampire' (January 1967) and Guiley, Rosemary Ellen Guiley's 'Vampires from outer space' (2005 FATE UFO Special). The customer service rep suggested I might've cited them incorrectly**, so I'll be on the watch for those. Also, if any readers think I've missed any of <span style="font-style: italic;">Fate</span>'s vampire articles, drop me a line.
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<br />If you're interested in any of the articles, yourself, I'll warn you that they're US$5 a pop (plus postage). They gave me an exception on postage, though, on account of how many of the buggers I ordered. Very nice of 'em. Speaking of nice, their customer service was <span style="font-style: italic;">exemplary</span>. Props goes to Christine for responding promptly and always in a cheerful and helpful manner. Brilliant. So, if you're interested in ordering any, pop over to their <a href="http://fatemag.com/catalog/index.php">online store</a>. You can buy entire issues. I was just after specific articles.
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<br />Now, some brief notes on the articles. I'm wondering if V.B. Shay's 'James Brown, vampire' (November 1949) was an inspiration for Robert Damon Schneck's <span style="font-style: italic;">The president's vampire: strange-but-true tales of the United States of America</span> (2005). Can any readers confirm that? Haven't yet obtained a copy of the book, meself. Just curious. If I'm not mistaken, that book primarily deals with the James Brown case (no, not <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown">that one</a>).
<br />
<br />I've got a feeling that Valentine Dyall's 'Vampire of Croglin Hall' (April 1954) was the originator of the names of the family (Michael, Edward and Amelia Cranswell) afflicted by the Croglin vampire. After all, the family is unnamed in Augustus Hare's original recount (<span style="font-style: italic;">Story of my life</span>, vol. 4, 1900), nor are their names mentioned in Dyall's other sources, Charles G. Harper (<span style="font-style: italic;">Haunted houses</span>***) and Montague Summers (<span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire in Europe</span>). The rest of Dyall's rendering seems kinda embellished, too.
<br />
<br />The 'Scientist says no to vampire theory' (January 1986) news snippet is the earliest rebuttal I've seen of the deeply-flawed, yet popular <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/03/vampirism-and-porphyria.html">porphyria theory</a>. It quotes Dr. Karl Alexander, certainly a reliable source considering he served (<a href="http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/about-the-apf/scientific-advisory-board/dr-karl-anderson">and still serves</a>) on the scientific advisory board of the American Porphyria Foundation.
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<br />'Psychic vampires' (May 1996) was written by the author of a popular little tome called <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires: the occult truth</span> (1996). It's good to see his his full name - Konstantinos Karagiannis - attached to the article, as his usual pen-name (Konstantinos) makes me think of him as the vampire world's answer to Cher.
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<br />Thomas D'Agostino's 'Rhode Island: the vampire capital of America' (October 2001) looks like it might've been a precursor to his 2010 book, <span style="font-style: italic;">A history of vampires in New England</span>. I've got a copy, but haven't read it yet. Will it be as good as Michael E. Bell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Food for the dead: on the trail of New England's vampires</span> (2001)? Let's say it's a mighty high benchmark.
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<br />Lastly, the two articles by (disclosure: a mate of mine) Daniel J. Wood - 'Vampires and disease: the bloodsucking corpse of English tradition' <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>(December 2007) and 'The White Death of New England' <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>(January 2008) - might be teasers for his book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Realm of the vampire: history and the undead</span> (2011). It's great to see his book score <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Realm-Vampire-Daniel-J-Wood/dp/1931942862">wider distribution</a>, as it was <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/05/catch-up-time.html">previously only available</a> through <span style="font-style: italic;">Fate</span>'s online store. Make sure you score yourself a copy.
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Originally published in <span style="font-style: italic;">Pursuit</span>, vol. 16, no. 3. This was the journal of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU).
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<br />** 'Re: Enquiry from The Fatemag.com Online Store', Thursday, 4 August 2011 4:37:25 AM.
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<br />*** At least, not in the first edition (1907).</span>
<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-73554074660023081582011-08-16T17:41:00.005+10:002011-08-16T22:15:37.754+10:00Vampires: a paranormal perspective<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The idea that the vampire is a product of myth and superstition is something we take for granted. However, the vampire wasn't just conjured up as a campfire tale, but something people genuinely believed in...because they 'experienced' it.</span>
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<br /><a href="http://ignisart.com/camdenhouse/canon/suss.htm"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 382px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-57Dlu46uC7I/TkpcMwgLw6I/AAAAAAAAAaI/QyHwSWcwWKA/s400/suss-03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641422857483043746" border="0" /></a>
<br />In my <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/02/breathing-life-into-romanian-folklore.html">review</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">Across the forest</span> (2009), I noted the sincerity of belief which the documentary's subjects held for supernatural beings like the <span style="font-style: italic;">strigoi</span>. Some even claimed they were 'haunted' by them.
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<br />We often forget that, while largely debunked, the vampire 'experience' is something attested throughout history. Like ghosts. Famed French philosopher, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a>, would even remark 'There is not an historical fact in the world more fully attested, than that of the Vampires. It is confirmed by regular information, certificates of Notaries, Surgeons, Vicars, and Magistrates.'*
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<br />Rousseau was not simply referring to folktales, but various reports filtering out through Eastern Europe, in which suspected vampires were exhumed from their graves in the presence of local figures of authority. Witnesses. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paole">most famous example</a> was the <span style="font-style: italic;">Visum et repertum</span> (a coroner's report) written by an Austrian army surgeon. What's particularly interesting about these cases, is that they occurred during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a>, so subsequent writings made 'fast work' of these reports, conjuring various theories from premature burial to psychosomatics. More than just debunking 'peasant superstition', they were debunking <span style="font-style: italic;">paranormal phenomena</span>.
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<br />And what is paranormal phenomena? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal">According to Wikipedia</a>, it 'designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation"' and describes 'phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure'. I would suggest that one of the reasons vampires gained currency in the media - and provoked an <a href="http://www-lib.usc.edu/%7Emelindah/eurovamp/chronvam.htm">explosion of writings</a> on the subject** - was the implicit bewilderment expressed in the exhumation reports. In other words, if the attendant coroners couldn't actively dismiss what they were seeing (corpses in the 'vampire state'), then maybe something <span style="font-style: italic;">supernatural</span> was take place.
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<br />Belief - and experience - with vampires hasn't completely disappeared, either. In 2004, Petre Toma was <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article820842.ece">exhumed from his grave</a>, on the pretext that he was feeding off his relatives. London, 1973, a Polish immigrant named Demetrious Myicura, <a href="http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/vampire-mythology/">choked to death on a bulb of garlic</a> he rested on his mouth while sleeping, to keep vampires away. The 18th century cases, themselves, were characterised by the desecration of corpses through impalement, mutilations, beheadings and cremation - an indicator of how strongly the belief was (and sometimes, still is) held by the local populace. If that seems 'too distant' to our modern age, keep in mind a mass vampire hunt was held at Highgate Cemetery in 1970. Even today, some people <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/08/did-you-believe-in-vampires.html">still believe in the undead</a>.
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<br />In our tendency to offhandedly dismiss this belief, we forget the <span style="font-style: italic;">human</span> element. Not only did/do people believe in these things, but some claim to have <span style="font-style: italic;">personally</span> experienced it. Alleged visitations from the dead still occur today, as attested by various ghost sightings and a 'science' <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology">dedicated to investigating them</a>.
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<br />One could argue that viewing vampirism as a paranormal phenomena, first, allows us to have greater clarity on the subject - whether you believe it or not. After all, it makes us more receptive to 'eyewitness' accounts, more versed in the tropes, and allows us to treat them as we would any paranormal phenomena. If we are willing to 'accept' the 'reality' of vampirism - at least, one described as such - then we can investigate it from the bottom up, starting with the original 'claim'. Break it down, isolate its core components and seek explanations for the phenomena, consistent with what's being reported. That is, rule out <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> possible <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2011/08/presenting-amazingparanormal-escalator.html">natural explanations</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">before</span> confirming a paranormal conclusion. You can apply these principles just as easily to cases of yore to the cases of today.
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<br />While it doesn't deal with vampires, I highly recommend Benjamin Radford's <span style="font-style: italic;">Scientific paranormal investigation: how to solve unexplained mysteries</span> (2010). More about it on <a href="http://radfordbooks.com/SPI.php">his website</a>.
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<br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************
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<br />Incidentally, this blog underwent its third year of existence recently (July 30). Thanks again to all my followers, casual readers and commentators. Oh, and the folk who stumble across my blog searching for something else *cough* Twilight porn * cough*. Props to all of you.
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* This isn't to say that Rousseau was a believer. Far from it. His comments have often been taken out of context by those who haven't read the passages following it: 'And yet, with all this, who believes in the Vampires? And shall we be all damned for not believing? However well attested, even in the opinion of the incredulous Cicero, are many of the prodigies related by Livy, I cannot help regard them as so many fables, and certainly am not the only person who doth so.' JJ Rousseau, <span style="font-style: italic;">An expostulatory letter from J. J. Rousseau, citizen of Geneva, to Christopher de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris</span>, London, 1763, p. 56.
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<br />** See entry 54 onwards.</span>
<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-68562766468948668832011-08-15T01:52:00.005+10:002011-08-15T02:59:52.974+10:00Following the tracts<div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;">Stumbled across an interesting essay covering an aspect of vampire research you rarely see in English language works on the subject.
<br /></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-voFj_r9LDxg/Tkf-zjE92EI/AAAAAAAAAaA/ZWDwXZZoUPs/s1600/Mercure%2Bgalant%2BMay%2B1693.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-voFj_r9LDxg/Tkf-zjE92EI/AAAAAAAAAaA/ZWDwXZZoUPs/s320/Mercure%2Bgalant%2BMay%2B1693.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640757219847690306" border="0" /></a>
<br />That is, eighteenth century dissertations on the undead. Before Summers, those guys kicked off vampire research as a serious field of study. Their contributions to the genre can not be underestimated.
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<br />Koen Vermeir's <a href="http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/60/93/87/PDF/Vermeir_-_Vampires_as_creatures_of_the_imagination.pdf">essay</a> (opens as a pdf), 'Vampires as creatures of the imagination: theories of body, soul and imagination in early modern vampire tracts (1659-1755)' is essential reading. It also touches on the whole '<a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/tracking-first-true-vampire.html">who was the first true vampire</a>' thing I've been discussing here. I e-mailed him*, asking if it would appear in print form.
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<br />Vermeir let me know** that his final version of the paper will feature in <a href="http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503527963-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Diseases of the imagination and imaginary disease in the early modern period</span></a> (Brepols Publishers, forthcoming), edited by Y. Haskell.<span id="ProductDisplay1_lblAvailability" class="ProductDisplay_Availability">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br />* 'Vampires as Creatures of the Imagination', Thursday, 4 August 2011 4:53:39 AM.
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<br />** 'Re: Vampires as Creatures of the Imagination', Sunday, 7 August 2011 3:59:43 AM.</span>
<br /></span></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-43716539362590156272011-08-02T15:33:00.005+10:002011-08-02T17:06:42.813+10:00Bigfoot and the undead<div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"><span>I've noticed some interesting parallels between Bigfoot research and vampire categorisation (a subject I've been discussing </span><a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/bugbears-and-others.html">here</a><span> and </span><a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/tracking-first-true-vampire.html">here</a>). Time to wade back into that semantic quagmire.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a href="http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/bigfoot-lives-biscardis-blight-on.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vCnngtOpelY/TjedmS_ndsI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/ZHeVtFoUzjQ/s320/Beast%2BTrue%2BLove.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636146739936720578" border="0" /></a><br />It began with reading bshistorian's <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/native-american-myth-tradition-supports-bigfoot-a-critical-look/">coverage on the way Bigfoot is represented</a>, who, in turn reproduces a post by a JREF forum member, noting, 'It’s an interesting reminder of how history can be more easily co-opted to suit certain agendas by taking advantage of ignorance – ignorance of the past and of cultures and traditions alien to our own.'<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>I believe this principle applies to vampire categorisation, too. The 'vampire' is used as a term of convenience when discussing various mythical, legendary and folkloric beings. To get to the 'source', we have to revert back to the vampire's 'origin' point, that is, the earliest uses of the term in conjunction with the classic bloodsucking corpse type. After all, the word <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2009/06/when-did-vampires-enter-english.html">entered our language</a> to refer to this specific being.<br /><br />In terms of the Bigfoot issue, JREF forum member - kitakaze - is much more blunt: 'It is my assertion that Native American traditions do not support the existence of bigfoot and that what is put forth by bigfoot enthusiasts as evidence for the existence of bigfoot has been cherry-picked and misrepresented.'<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>I acknowledge the evolution of the word's usage since it was first published in the Western European press. It has lead to apt variations like 'vampirism' and makes sense when we apply it in an occultic context to refer to 'psychic vampires'. Sometimes, people use the word to describe themselves.<br /><br />The word's metaphoric context was first mined in Caleb D'Anvers' journal, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Craftsman</span>, which featured <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=kjAJAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover">an article discussing 'Political Vampyres'</a> (20 May 1732, pp. 120-9), which explicitly drew parallels with the Arnod Paole case and its associated characteristics.* However, the word's original usage has not been phased out.<br /><br />And that's the inherent 'problem' I see with the broad application of the word. In terms of vampire categorisation, its usage is so expansive, you really have to start asking where to draw the line. Here is a definition for vampires in Jonathan Maberry's <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampire universe: the dark world of supernatural beings that haunt us, hunt us, and hunger for us</span> (New York: Citadel Press, 2006):<br /><blockquote>Quite simply, vampires are supernatural beings that <span style="font-style: italic;">take</span> what is not theirs to takes [sic]—blood, life, breath, or some other vital part of their human victims; and they take it by force. It is the taking without permission that characterizes the vampire. Even in cases of vampire seduction, the vampire is using supernatural powers to seduce its victim, which is no more a consensual act than spiking a woman's cocktail with a "date rape" drug (p. x). </blockquote>Apart from raising questions on the nature of 'consent', many beings in myth, folklore and legend embody these characteristics from ghosts to witches to demons. However, even Maberry admits that his use of the term is 'for convenience' (ibid.).<br /><br />Compare this with what Joe Nickell says about Bigfoot research in <span style="font-style: italic;">Tracking the man-beats: sasquatch, vampires, zombies, and more</span> (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2011): 'There seems now to be a trend towards standardization, as the creature evolves into a mythical being—central to a belief shaped by planetary concerns' (p. 75). That was after noting 'What becomes apparent from all this data [of various 'Bigfoot' sightings] is the incredible variety of creatures reported (including many that are white, gray-blue, yellow, brown, reddish, black, etc.; that are horned and fanged, or not; that walk on all fours or upright; that have two to six toes and the like)' (ibid.).<br /><br />How can such supernatural diversity be reconciled under a single heading? In the quest for convenience, doesn't the cultural emphasis of such beings, their local names, become lost in the process, in order to synthesise these beings under a single 'type'? In terms of 'reconciling' various traits, isn't a 'new' being created?<br /><br />Occasionally, such 'reconciliation' is employed by paranormalists shoehorning various data to <a href="http://dawwih.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/spectral-consistency/">suit their own theories and 'experiences</a>', not limited to <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2011/07/victorian-era-sources-saga.html">presenting an 'alternate' history</a> to 'validate' comparatively modern 'phenomena'. Montague Summers <a href="http://ryerson.academia.edu/JasonNolan/Papers/250922/Unearthing_Medieval_Vampire_Stories_In_England_Fragments_From_De_Nugis_Curialium_and_Historia_Rerum_Anglicarum">did it</a>. So does the Vampire Research Society.**<br /><br />To come full circle, 'Bigfoot' scores a mention in Shane MacDougall's (Jonathan Maberry) <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire slayers' field guide to the undead</span> (Doylestown, Pa.: Strider Nolan Publishing), p. 142, while Janet and Colin Bord, in discussing the hysteria and subsequent cash-ins on sightings near Sister Lakes, Michigan, mention a monster hunting kit for sale: 'For $7.95 the keen hunter could buy a light, a net, a baseball bat and, to clinch matters, <span style="font-style: italic;">a mallet and a stake</span>' (my emphasis, cited in Nickel 2011, p. 73).<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">* The Arnod Paole case was so significant to vampire research, it introduced <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/08/vampire-or-vampyre.html">'Vampyre' (vampire)</a> into our language via the coverage given in <span style="font-style: italic;">The London J0urnal</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> (13 March 1732) which <span style="font-style: italic;">The Craftsman</span> article quotes from.<br /><br />** see my dissection of their so-called 'Vampirological testimony' parts <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2010/07/church-vs-undead-pt-1.html">one</a>, <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2010/07/church-vs-undead-pt-2.html">two</a>, <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2010/07/church-vs-undead-pt-3.html">three</a>, <a href="http://dawwih.blogspot.com/2010/07/church-vs-undead-pt-4.html">four</a>.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-55178874019087457392011-08-01T12:30:00.004+10:002011-08-01T13:56:24.672+10:00Did you believe in vampires?<div style="text-align: justify;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/07/do-you-believe-in-vampires.html">Last year</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">, I set up a poll asking readers whether or not they believed in vampires. Let's take a look at the results.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://www.life123.com/food/baking/pies/baking-homemade-pies.shtml"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0mTprNyrKwM/TjYjtB2FlxI/AAAAAAAAAZw/Y9Ch36-IPyE/s320/homemade-pie-crust-cherry-pie-sliced.s600x600.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635731240197134098" border="0" /></a><br />I <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/07/tweaking-poll.html">adjusted the poll</a> to reflect differing interpretations of vampires, which is a <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/bugbears-and-others.html">source of contention</a> in itself. The informal tone I used for the various 'types' (and reader belief) can be boiled down to the following options:<br /><ol><li>Traditional, yes ('Bloodsucking corpses? Sure!')</li><li>No ('No such thing. At all')</li><li>Undecided ('Mmm maybe...')</li><li>Themselves, yes ('Believe in them? I am one!')</li><li>Traditional, yes; psychic vampires, yes ('Yes, there are undead ones and psychic energy drainers')</li><li>Psychic vampires, yes; traditional, no ('Not in the bloodsucking kind, but the ones that drain psychic energy, sure')</li><li>Living vampires, yes ('Yes, they're living people who need to drink blood')</li></ol>Voters were allowed to select multiple answers, but I don't know who voted for what or how many options they chose. The poll received 99 votes before closing on 21 July 2011, 11.59pm.<br /><br />With hindsight, I probably should have split the polls into two, namely, whether or not a reader believed in vampires (a) and, if so, in what type (b). Nonetheless, the results were interesting in itself.<br /><br />I'll work in descending order here, so I can tell you that the majority of voters - twenty four (24%) - don't believe in vampires, at all, but 21 voters (21%) believe they're living people who 'need to drink blood'. Meanwhile, 18 of you (18%) were undecided, tying with another 18 (18%) who don't believe in the traditional variety, but <span style="font-style: italic;">do</span> believe in psychic vampires. However, 16 (16%) believed in both types and another fourteen (14%) believe in the traditional type. Lastly, thirteen (13%) believed that they, themselves, were vampires. Let's make those figures more palatable:<br /><ol><li>Traditional, yes (14%)</li><li>No (24%)</li><li>Undecided (18%)</li><li>Themselves, yes (13%)</li><li>Traditional, yes; psychic vampires, yes (16%)</li><li>Psychic vampires, yes; traditional, no (18%)</li><li>Living vampires, yes (21%)</li></ol>I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all who voted in the poll. Greatly appreciated. It's interesting to see how neck-a-neck the results were, not to mention the credence given to the living vampire type - and the bloodsucking corpse variety too, for that matter.<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-33563695553726510502011-07-28T15:34:00.004+10:002011-07-28T17:08:47.539+10:00Amazonian spending spree 2, pt. 2<div style="text-align: justify;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/amazonian-spending-spree-2-pt-1.html">As mentioned</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">, I went on an Amazonian book-buying spree recently. Time for a look at the next batch that arrived.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883729068"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zhe2lU7VGko/TjEK0K_Kp-I/AAAAAAAAAZo/VqYWbv95YvI/s320/512R41JVZVL._SS500_cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634296500235970530" border="0" /></a><br />On July 22nd, I received five books in the mail, which were ordered at different times through <span style="font-style: italic;">Amazon</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Amazon.co.uk</span>. Not all were explicitly about vampires, though, but have some bearing on the topic.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553282514"><span style="font-style: italic;">The uninvited</span></a>, True tales of the unknown vol. 2 (New York: Bantam Books, 1989)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Sharon Jarvis (ed.)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 14 July 2011<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> AUD 0.73<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> I was recently scrolling through Google News Archives for vampirologist articles. Found some stuff on vampirologist, Stephen Kaplan (1940-1995), which mentioned his contribution to this volume. For the record, his contribution - written by the editor (as all the other accounts were) concerned his attendance at a <span style="font-style: italic;">Dark shadows</span> convention (pp. 20-36) at which a 'real' vampire was supposed to be present. I was nonplussed to read that Kaplan had also contributed to the previous volume (p. xii), so I'll have to seek that one out, too. Yeah, I'm a completist. Other than that, there's little scholarly value to be had by books like this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883729068"><span style="font-style: italic;">Chupacabras and other mysteries</span></a> (Murfreesboro, Tenn. : Greenleaf Publications, 1997)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Scott Corrales<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 14 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> AUD 9.02<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra"><span style="font-style: italic;">chupacabra</span></a> (goat sucker) was big in the mid-90s. It was said to drain animals of their blood - hence its name - and is essentially a modern-day incarnation of the vampire myth. I also liked the the book's publication date was contemporary with reports and that its author examined both English and Spanish language sources. Also, it's not often you come across a book primarily devoted to the legendary beast.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1848776667/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;">Vampireology: the true history of the Fallen Ones</span></a> (Dorking, U.K.: The Templar Company, 2010)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Archibald Brooks (Nicky Raven)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 8 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> £9.38<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> Honestly? It's one of the few books out there with 'vampirology' in the title. More of a novelty than anything, because you won't find much of use in the book useful for serious research. It's practically a work of fiction, as its narrative recounts the studies and adventures of a vampire hunter and the mythology ('Fallen Ones') behind the vampires he encounters. Such 'handbooks' are almost a subgenre in themselves, even to the point of being 'written' by a fictional character - often a descendant or relative of Abraham Van Helsing, e.g. <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampyre: the terrifying lost journal of Dr. Cornelius Van Helsing</span> (2007) and Raphael Van Helsing's <span style="font-style: italic;">The vampire hunter's handbook</span> (2007). Or, in at least one case, Abraham Van Helsing, himself (<span style="font-style: italic;">Traité de vampirologie</span>, 2009).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849013365/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;">A brief history of vampires</span></a> (London: Robinson & Philadelphia: Running Press, 2010)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> M.J. Trow<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 8 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> £8.09<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> Had my eye on this one for <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/01/trekking-through-amazon.html">a while</a>. The title says it all, really. That said, an inordinate amount of the book's content (pp. 109-330) is devoted to (sigh) Vlad the Impaler. Authors! He was <span style="font-style: italic;">not a friggin' vampire</span>. As Elizabeth Miller has exposed time and time again, his contribution to vampire literature is minimal, at best, namely, his name and a brief biographical sketch. That's it. Enough with the Vlad, already!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1861894031/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;">From demons to Dracula: the creation of the modern vampire myth</span></a> (London: Reaktion Books, 2009)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Matthew Beresford<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 8 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> £9.72<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> I've borrowed a copy of this book before and I like the idea of tracing the vampire's evolution. However, this particular copy was a reprint, which I wasn't pleased about. The original was published in 2008. I wrote back to <span style="font-style: italic;">Amazon.co.uk</span> about it and...I'll write about that experience in a future blog entry (don't worry, it was a good one).</blockquote>There's two more entries in the 'Amazonian spending spree 2' series to go. Stay tuned!<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-63515940836718173762011-07-23T07:00:00.007+10:002011-07-23T10:43:43.362+10:00Tracking the first 'true' vampire<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I recently received an <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/bugbears-and-others.html?showComment=1310599065255#c2111168600029730560">interesting comment</a> from bshistorian, which gave me some food for thought: who was the first 'true' vampire?</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://m24digital.com/en/2010/10/30/on-the-eve-of-haloween-the-history-of-jure-grando-the-first-vampire-ever/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ygc1zPkLgvM/TioYmQ-OcHI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/Cl6zmBPMm40/s400/Jure-Grando.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632341329650282610" border="0" /></a><br />As I've mentioned many times in this blog, I'm a proponent of the 'modern' vampire theory, that is, vampires aren't as ancient or universal as many writers claim them to be. For starters, the word, 'vampire', is a <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/08/vampire-or-vampyre.html">relatively recent</a> addition to our vocabulary. Superficial on the surface, sure, but I'll elaborate on its significance later. First, here's the relevant portions from bshistorian's comment:<br /><blockquote>More directly on topic for your latest post, I've been reading Masters' 'A Natural History of the Vampire', which suffers badly from the 'lumping in' syndrome you describe. Taking his lead from Summers, *everything* becomes somehow evidence of vampire belief - revenants, ghosts, cannibals, serial killers, you name it. But this is an 'old' book - it's when we see this still going on today that I really despair.<br /><br />Though I said 'early 18th century), would I in fact be right in saying that the 'Jure Grando' incident of 1672 (reported by Valvasor in 1689) is the earliest instance of a 'true' (i.e. bloodsucking) vampire?<br /></blockquote>In case you're unfamiliar with our friend Jure, bshistorian is referring to a 'vampire' better known as Giure Grando. As bs alludes, [Johann Weichard von] Valvasor is believed to be the earliest source of this case, which he recorded in his 1689 book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain</span> (The glory of the Duchy of Carniola).<br /><br />Rob Brautigam <a href="http://www.shroudeater.com/avalvaso.htm">reproduced the relevant portions on the case</a> from Valvasor's book (untranslated), while Niels has noted that the town in which it originally took place, <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/01/vampire-tourism.html">has recently begun capitalising</a> Grando's vampire reputation. The question is, does Grando deserve his 'vampire tag? Was he truly - as his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jure_Grando">Wikipedia entry says</a> - 'the first classical vampire to be mentioned in documented records'?<br /><br />Let's boil down the core elements featured in Brautigam's extracts. He has <a href="http://www.shroudeater.com/ckranj.htm">an overview of the case</a> (in English), so I'll be relying on that in tandem with Google Translate for the extracts.*<br /><br />Firstly, Grando is supposed to have returned from death to torment the living. He visited their homes and members of the household would die shortly after. There is no mention of direct attacks, which draws parallels with the Greek <span style="font-style: italic;">vrykolakas</span>, which, in some cases, was said to knock on a resident's door, and, if answered, would ensure death to the householder. I might examine that aspect at a later time.<br /><br />Brautigam repeats Dudley Wright's version of events, in that Grando was said to throw his widow 'into a deep sleep with the object of sucking her blood', however this attribute is not found in the Valvasor extracts, suggesting a latter-day embellishment.<br /><br />In terms of the extracts, it's clear Grando wasn't called a 'vampire', either. At least, not locally or contemporary with the time the incident was recorded. Instead, supernatural beings of his type were called 'Strigon', as the Valvasor mentions. While this term - on the surface - bears a marked resemblance to the Romanian <span style="font-style: italic;">strigoi</span>, which, itself, is often described as Romania's version of the vampire, that does not necessarily mean the word is a synonym. For instance, 'vampire' is rendered as <span style="font-style: italic;">vampir</span> in Romanian and is of comparatively modern use, indicating the word had to be <span style="font-style: italic;">introduced</span> to the language, otherwise an extant Romanian word would have sufficed. Same principle at work, in this case.<br /><br />There are, however, other recognisable vampire tropes in the Grando case, so it's obvious to see why the vampire tag's been applied. There is an attempt to drive a stake through his body - as well as mention of the practice being used against others of his type. However, the use of a hawthorn stake (as per Wright's rendering) is not explicit, so I can't help wondering if Wright was trying to draw upon its use in Serbian vampire tradition, even if it wasn't explicitly listed by Valvasor. Apart from the stake, a crucifix is wielded at the 'vampire' while in its grave, however, this does not seem to have been used as a ward, per se, but as part of an exorcism or absolution rite.<br /><br />The key ingredient missing from the Grando case is the vampire's tendency to suck the blood of its victims. This is a vital component to the vampire tag and this gets us back to my point about the significance behind the word's introduction to our language.<br /><br />When the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paole">Arnold Paole case</a> broke press, journalists and other writers used the local term for revenants of his 'type': 'vampyre' [vampire] and minor variants thereof. And by 'local', I mean the term used in Serbia, where Paole lived. These renderings can be traced to recounts of Flückinger's exhumation report, 'Visum et Repertum' (26 January 1732). In describing beings of Paole's type, Flückinger, himself, wrote 'die sogenannte Vampyrs'.<br /><br />At the time, this area was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian empire, which is why Paole and/or the region he lived was occasionally - but mistakenly - referred to as Hungarian. Paole, himself, was said to have been attacked by a vampire while stationed in 'Turkish Serbia', i.e. the region of Serbia under Ottoman rule. Therefore, it can be surmised that Serbia is the 'source' of this term. That, in turn, means that components discussed in the Paole case should match up with other local applications of the term. Paole was explicitly said to have sucked his victim's blood after returning from the dead.<br /><br />However, did Paole have an antecedent? Was there another Serbian revenant, also referred to as a vampire? Was it also described as sucking its victim's blood? Yep.<br /><br />Enter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Plogojowitz">Peter Plogojovitz</a>. Another Serbian vampire. Another blood-drinker. Also referred to, locally, by the vampire tag ('so nennen Vampyri'). While not as well-known as Paole, his case also garnered press coverage, primarily from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Wienerisches Diarium</span> (25 July 1725). However, despite what we're trying to establish with bshistorian's query about who the 'first' vampire was, Plogojovitz clearly wasn't. The report the <span style="font-style: italic;">Wienerisches Diarium</span> reproduced, mentioned that other villages had been decimated by other such beings, which is why the villagers of Kisolova were so keen to 'dispose' of Plogojovitz in the 'traditional and approved manner': by staking him and cremating his remains. Such events were also said to occur during 'Turkish times', i.e. the period in which that region was under Ottoman rule.<br /><br />So, is there an earlier version of a being - or person - explicitly referred to as a vampire along with these traits? To my knowledge, no. And <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/07/anthony-hogg-in-comment-to-recent-post.html">Niels seems to agree</a>. Neither us, however, are saying that Plogojovitz was the first vampire, per se, but that he is probably the first <span style="font-style: italic;">named</span> vampire. The first case in which the terms and traits are explicitly fused. At least, that's my interpretation. Therefore, Serbia's vampire 'contribution', essentially, to the world, <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/07/serbian-vampires-close-up.html">can not be underestimated</a>. Romania usually takes the credit - thanks to <span style="font-style: italic;">Dracula</span> - but it certainly wasn't the bedrock of the legend.<br /><br />However, this is where things get murky.<br /><br />In my <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/07/bugbears-and-others.html?showComment=1311231234793#c3068796871150578295">original reply</a> to bshistorian, I did allude to sources covering vampires elsewhere. Namely, Poland. When Calmet said, 'In this age, a new scene presents itself to our eyes, and has done for about sixty years in Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland', he was <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=QsE5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false">incorporating references</a> to the 'oupire'.<br /><blockquote>The public memorials of the years 1693 and 1694 speak of <span style="font-style: italic;">oupires</span>, vampires or ghosts, which are seen in Poland, and above all in Russia. They make their appearance from noon to midnight, and come and suck the blood of living men or animals in such abundance that sometimes it flows from them at the nose, and principally at the ears, and sometimes the corpse swims in its own blood oozed out in its coffin. It is said that the vampire has a sort of hunger, which makes him eat the linen which envelops him. This reviving being, or <span style="font-style: italic;">oupire</span>, comes out of his grave, or a demon in his likeness, goes by night to embrace and hug violently his near relations or his friends, and sucks their blood so much as to weaken and attenuate them, and at least cause their death (p. 52).</blockquote>The main traits - as well as a marked similarity in name - are present. Plogovitz and Paole were both supposed to strangle their victims ('hug violently'?). However, the method of the 'oupire''s destruction (decapitation and/or 'opening the heart') vary slightly. The term, 'oupire', is clearly derived from the Slavic <span style="font-style: italic;">upir</span> and it's interesting to see that term is occasionally used in lieu of 'vampire' or an obvious derivative.<br /><br />Naturally, this open the door to a version of the 'universal' vampire theory: if <span style="font-style: italic;">oupire</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">upir</span> was an antecedent/variant of 'vampire', what other cultural variants are there of the Slavic type? Were they considered to synonymous? To justify that, I would suggest that a direct correlation needs to be established. But I think it's reasonable to conclude that the direct origins of vampire we today can be traced to the localised Serbian variant at least by its name and basic characteristics.<br /><br />To employ the term, 'vampire' in a broad, generic sense, at least, without showing due respect - and citation of original, localised terms and characteristics - is to obscure and/or obliterate the cultural and local 'variants' (for want of a better description). If a case is to be made that the variants in question were 'the same thing', then a linguistic and cultural genealogy to the Serbian vampire should be established. After all, without the Serbian vampire precedent, there are no other 'vampires', either.**<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* I know this isn't the best scholarly aid, but those able to read German are free to correct me if I've made any errors by consulting Brautigam's extract. I will happily cite corrections on this blog.<br /><br />** This isn't to say that, generally speaking, the vampire label should <span style="font-style: italic;">only</span> be used if it caters to this specific paradigm. After all, that'd make the vampire film and literary genres obsolete. What I'm saying is, yes, I know that the term can be used in a generic sense, especially in respect to its evolution even in our own language, but where folklore studies are concerned, a vampire 'family tree' should be taken into consideration before using the term in a 'universal' context.</span><br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-38326005916368650812011-07-22T05:46:00.009+10:002011-07-22T07:50:43.946+10:00Trailer trash talk<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I've been so apathetic about the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Fright night</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> 'reboot' (groooannn) that I hadn't noticed its trailer's been out for a while. Anyway, here it is:</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/txgGhyjPZGg" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />Conspicuously absent from the trailer? Peter Vincent. Considering <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/just-when-i-thought-it-couldnt-get-any.html">what they've done with the character</a>, that's probably a good thing.<br /><br />Now kids, I love the original. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fright_Night_Part_II"></a><a href="http://vampchix.blogspot.com/2009/10/vampirologist-anyone.html">My interest in vampires</a> was kicked off by its sequel, so, naturally, the originals hold a special place in my heart. I can buy that many of you younguns haven't seen either of 'em, or know they exist. YouTube comments like one from matthewsaidso, attest to that: 'This is like a vampire version of Disturbia. Thumbs up if you agree.'<br /><br />Really? <span style="font-style: italic;">That's</span> your point of comparison? I guess he didn't realise <span style="font-style: italic;">Disturbia</span> (2007) is an obvious 'riff' (or rip, if you prefer) on Alfred Hitchcock's <span style="font-style: italic;">Rear window</span> (1954) or the short story it's based on. Sure, a copyright claim was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11388284">thrown out of court</a>, but seriously, watch 'em back-to-back. You'll see.<br /><br />But I digress. The original <span style="font-style: italic;">Fright night</span> (1985), i.e. the proper one, was also obviously based on the same 'formula'. It was set in some sleepy Idaho town. This one's set in Vegas. Yes, <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> Vegas. Sigh. So much for subtlety. Goodbye small town terror.<br /><br />Did I mention that 'Evil Ed' is played this-time-'round by Christopher Mintz-Plasse? You, know, McLovin from <span style="font-style: italic;">Superbad</span>? Red Mist from <span style="font-style: italic;">Kick-ass</span>? <span style="font-style: italic;">That</span> guy? Yes. <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/06/putting-fright-in-fright-night-remake.html">Yes I did</a>. Oh man. Did you know it's also gonna be released in 3D? Why? Oh, right: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/25/3d-film-ticket-price-rise">inflated ticket prices</a>. Ca-ching!<br /><br />Anyway, another 'disturbing' thing I've noticed about the flick is this still:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.216052631747593.62519.203102603042596"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 181px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4fZQLIKefu8/TiiMKbD4OVI/AAAAAAAAAZA/wmWbHbAg6Vs/s320/Jerry%2Brips%2Baway%2BCharley%2527s%2Bcross.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631905444717410642" border="0" /></a><br />Yep, that's Colin Farrell (Jerry Dandridge) ripping away Charley's cross, with it bursting into flame in his hand. I have a bias with this kinda stuff. I like my vampire lore and I like it when vampires fear the cross. If this is supposed to be an edgy rejection of the 'rules', well, it's a cliche in itself.<br /><br />The original featured a neat twist on the idea: 'You have to have <span style="font-style: italic;">faith</span> for that to work on me, <span style="font-style: italic;">Mr.</span> Vincent.' I'm not sure if they're gonna use the same rule in this one. If not, deliberately inverting that 'rule' is nothing new. Anne Rice's <span style="font-style: italic;">Interview with the vampire</span> (1976) popularised the modern vampire's disdain for religious items. Stephen King's <span style="font-style: italic;">'Salem's Lot</span> (1975) had already established the requirement of the cross-bearer's 'faith', ten years before <span style="font-style: italic;">Fright night</span> was released.<br /><br />It seems that most vamps these days have no problem with crosses, as mentioned in Bunson (1993) and Melton's (1994) respective vampire encyclopedias. Sometimes, filmmakers have resorted to monologues or dialogue that subvert most of the rules altogether. Here's a classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120877/quotes">exchange</a> between Jack Crow and Father Adam Guiteau in <span style="font-style: italic;">John Carpenter's Vampires</span> (1998). A word of warning, though: some of this dialogue ain't PC or kid-friendly:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jack Crow:</span> You ever seen a vampire?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Father Adam Guiteau:</span> No I haven't.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jack Crow:</span> No... Well first of all, they're not romatic. Its not like they're a bunch of fuckin' fags hoppin' around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody in sight with cheesy Euro-trash accents, all right? Forget whatever you've seen in the movies: they don't turn into bats, crosses don't work. Garlic? You wanna try garlic? You could stand there with garlic around your neck and one of these buggers will bend you fucking over and take a walk up your strada-chocolata WHILE he's suckin' the blood outta your neck, all right? And they don't sleep in coffins lined in taffata. You wanna kill one, you drive a wooden stake right through his fuckin' heart. Sunlight turns 'em into crispy critters. </blockquote>Funny thing is, the novel the film was based on (John Steakley's <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampire$</span>, 1990) isn't <span style="font-style: italic;">this</span> extreme in removing the classic elements. The crosses <span style="font-style: italic;">do</span> work, to an extent. Nor does its plot feature the vampires' <span style="font-style: italic;">pursuit</span> of a cross (the Cross of Berseires), as it does in the flick.<br /><br />Point is, the trope is nothing new. Neither is inverting it. It seems crosses are introduced into plots <span style="font-style: italic;">specifically</span> so they can then be demonstrated as ineffectual by the vamps wearing, laughing at or crushing the things. Hell, even John Badham's <span style="font-style: italic;">Dracula</span> (1979) features the Count yanking the cross out of someone's hand and setting it alight in his, so even <span style="font-style: italic;">that's</span> a cliche. Therefore, the 'edginess' has been sucked right out of it.<br /><br />Enough rambling for now. If you still wanna catch the flick, it'll be released on - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1438176/releaseinfo">hey, whaddya know</a>. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1438176/releaseinfo"></a>It's premiering here, in Oz, August 18. Also, Hungary.<br /><br />It'll be released in the US, Canda and Poland the following day. For release dates in other countries, follow the link.<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-80616072098665991672011-07-21T17:14:00.009+10:002011-07-21T18:51:42.831+10:00Amazonian spending spree 2, pt. 1<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I think it's pretty obvious that I love collecting non-fiction vampire books for <a href="http://www.librarything.com/catalog/amateurvampirologist">my library</a>. If I go without for a while, impulse kicks in and I go on a spree. </span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="http://vampchix.blogspot.com/2010/04/guest-arlene-russo.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RLZdOZmbAqQ/TiffjBeaAbI/AAAAAAAAAY4/X3WgE4WNQk4/s320/the%2Breal%2Btwilght.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631715651834479026" border="0" /></a><br />This time 'round, I beat <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/03/amazonian-spending-spree.html">my previous record</a> and hit <span style="font-style: italic;">Amazon</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Amazon.co.uk</span>. Hard. Time for a peek at what I've been ordering and why. For this entry, I'll only be covering the ones that've arrived in the post. There's more on the way. I'm leaving out the shipping costs involved, as even a pedantic like me has limits.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415912431/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;">Reproductions of reproduction: imaging symbolic change</span></a> (Routledge, 1996)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Judith Roof<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 11 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date arrived:</span> 19 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> GBP 8.94<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> Superficial reasons, really. I read through a few interesting extracts on Google Books a while ago, and seeing as it was fairly cheap, I snapped up a copy. As it turns out, it has a whole chapter on vampires called, 'Unauthorized reproduction: vampires' uncanny metonymy', pp. 139-69. Sweet.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415912431/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></a><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0199564094/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dracula</span></a> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Bram Stoker; edited with an introduction and notes by Roger Luckhurst<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 8 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date arrived:</span> 20 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> £3.13<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> Bought it for the introduction, baby. It was featured in an article Niels linked to on his blog, which <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/05/catch-up-time.html">instilled the temptation</a> to buy the thing, wholesale. The discussion of the vampire's modernity got me hooked, because, as mentioned, I'm a big fan of that theory. Unfortunately, this niche interest is only given minor coverage (p. xv). D'oh! Still, at three quid: bargain. The rest of the intro looks pretty spiffy, too.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415912431/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></a><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0199564094/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></a><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1844549259/ref=oss_product"><span style="font-style: italic;">The real Twilight: true stories of modern day vampires</span></a> (London: John Blake, 2010)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Arlene Russo<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 8 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date arrived:</span> 20 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> £5.99<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> Russo's previous book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampire nation</span> (2005) was a breezy read, so I figured this would be more of the same. Little did I realise <span style="font-style: italic;">how much</span> 'same' that would be. I turned the book's title page over, and what did I see in the publication info? 'First published in hardback as <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampire Nation</span> in 2005'. Noooooooo! Redeeming virtue? 'This updated paperback edition published 2010'. Ooh... But then: 'Text copyright Arlene Russo 2005'. Noooooooo! It looks like the book was republished solely to cash in on the 'Twilight' name, especially as <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampire nation</span> was already reprinted (under its original title) <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vampire-Nation-Arlene-Russo/dp/0738714569/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235304&sr=1-2">in 2008</a>. It's got an awesome cover, at least.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806528206"><span style="font-style: italic;">They bite: endless cravings of supernatural predators</span></a> (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Citadel Press, 2009)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 14 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date arrived:</span> 20 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> AUD 2.19<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> Pretty sure I've glanced through this thing in Borders (R.I.P.) or Reader's Feast (soon to be R.I.P.). Wasn't expecting anything spectacular, but I did like the sidebars. I might've been a bit naive though, because the cover and title lead me to think the whole thing dealt with vampires. It doesn't (pp. 1-126) and a sizeable portion of <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> is made up of a 'species' dictionary of sorts (pp. 49-126). The rest of the book's concerned with 'hell hounds and monster dogs', 'werewolves and wolf-men', 'cryptids and the science of cryptozoology', 'the unquiet dead', 'hellfire and demons', 'tricksters and seducers' and 'a miscellany of monsters'.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vampire-Von-damals-bis-heute/dp/3866081499/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311236813&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Vampire: Von damals bis(s) heute</span></a> (Diedorf, Germany: Ubooks-Verlag, 2010)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Nicolaus Equiamicus<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date ordered:</span> 11 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date arrived:</span> 20 July 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Price:</span> GBP 10.13<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why'd I buy it?</span> This is a bit of a 'blame' Niels one. <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/search?q=Nicolaus+Equiamicus"></a>In a good way. I trust his judgement when it comes to vampire books and he's <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/search?q=Nicolaus+Equiamicus">said some pretty good things</a> about its author. It's in German (which I, of course, already knew), so I can't read the bloody thing, but presume it's instilled with its own inherent value. Who knows. Maybe someday I'll unlock its 'secrets'.</blockquote>Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment of 'Amazonian spending spree 2'! In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on the mailbox.<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-10450362485742400912011-07-14T05:50:00.007+10:002011-07-14T06:47:28.063+10:00Bugbears and Others<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I added <span style="font-style: italic;">The BS historian</span> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">to the 'Reading list' a coupla days ago, as the blog touches on a few issues pertinent to the field. Which ones? These.</span>..<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 104px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMv4-Wqwqq0/Th4CMM8gr2I/AAAAAAAAAYg/JkeT0Z4Vv7A/s400/The%2BBS%2Bhistorian.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628938992916410210" border="0" /></a><br />If there's anything I've learned from years of vampire research, it's that writings on the subject are rife with embellishment, misrepresentation, misinterpretation and flat-out lies. Now, you might be asking (depending on your <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/07/tweaking-poll.html">poll choice</a>), 'Hang on, vampires don't exist. It's not like it matters. They're <span style="font-style: italic;">imaginary</span>.' To which I say, 'Maybe so. But <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> didn't make them up.'<br /><br />When Rousseau wrote, 'There is not an historical fact in the world more fully attested, than that of the Vampires' (1763, p. 56), he wasn't kidding. Just to be clear, he wasn't upholding their <span style="font-style: italic;">reality</span>, he was commenting on their status as a well-documented species. Regardless of one's personal beliefs on their 'existence', the vampire is as much a <span style="font-style: italic;">historical</span> being - as portrayed by exhumation reports, folk beliefs and oral tales, etc. - as an 'imaginary' one. Proper respect needs to be given to their historical and cultural origins, ensuring they're represented accurately, without recourse to, well, <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/01/rondina-responds.html">making stuff up</a>.<br /><br />That's why I appreciate - and practice - the sceptical approach to texts in this field. It's a purgative (the reason why <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1874287244/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending">I called</a> one of Elizabeth Miller's books an 'enema') approach in a field waist-deep in mud and dirt. Now, that doesn't mean I go around pooh-poohing the very idea of vampires themselves. That'd be almost redundant. No, I'm more interested in seeing whether what has been said about them is accurately <span style="font-style: italic;">relayed</span>. You'd be surprised at how much <span style="font-style: italic;">speculation</span> is presented as <span style="font-style: italic;">fact</span>.<br /><br />For instance, do you recall the <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090310-vampire-graves.html">Venetian 'vampire' unearthed in 2006</a>? One major problem with that name: Venice has no extant vampire tradition. The whole case pretty much hinged on the skeleton of a woman in a plague pit found with a hunk o' brick in her mouth. This lead many to conclude that the item had originally been placed there as a method to prevent her feeding on the living. However, other explanations were possible, as the bshistorian <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/vampire-of-venice/">recounts</a>:<br /><blockquote>Yet another possibility, very relevant in this case, is some sort of prophylactic against the disease itself – sure, this woman was the only one in her mass plague pit grave to be so dealt with – yet lots of individuals in this Anglo-Saxon cemetery had stones in their mouths. A whole pit of vampires? Unlikely. Disease victims? More plausible. Or once again, were they punished criminals, or morally deficient in some way? We can’t really know. Nor can we with this Venice “Vampire”.</blockquote>And that's the point. No need to automatically jump to <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> conclusion. I would also add that closer scrutiny should be given to the extant traditions in these locals. While debate continues over '<span style="font-style: italic;">vampire</span>'s' etymology (see Kreuter 2006), we can at least agree that the tradition was centred in Slavic territories, as attested by its very name. However, it's generally accepted that the vampire is a <span style="font-style: italic;">universal</span> tradition. To do so, however, a lotta wrangling's gotta be done over the definition of 'vampire'. The term, itself, however, applied to a specific type of revenant. This is also <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/he%E2%80%99s-not-a-vampire-he%E2%80%99s-just-a-very-naughty-boy/">acknowledged</a> by bshistorian:<br /><blockquote>One of the vampirologist’s (and indeed BS Historian’s) bugbears is the phenomenon of myth-creep. The more paranormal ideas are milked for their intellectual and commercial appeal, the more we see them distorted and modified to incorporate unrelated bits of history and folklore. In the case of the vampire it’s often an attempt to give it greater antiquity, presumably because the early 18th century isn’t far back enough for the first sightings of beings who we now think of as immortal. In fact that idea is itself a retrofit of a fictional, rather than folkloric attribute of the vampire.</blockquote><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span>A word on 'the early 18th century' mention. Clearly, the era in which the vampire entered popular consciousness, is being alluded to here. However, there's precious little evidence that the tradition stretched much further back than that. Augustin Calmet, famous for his dissertations on vampires, made reference to the vampire's historicity:<br /><blockquote>In this age, a new scene presents itself to our eyes, and has done for about sixty years in Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland; men, it is said, who have been dead for several months, come back to earth, talk, walk, infest villages, ill use both men and beasts, suck the blood of their near relations, destroy their health, and finally cause their death; so that people can only save themselves from their dangerous visits and their hauntings, by exhuming them, impaling them, cutting off their heads, tearing out their hearts, or burning them. These are called by the name of oupires or vampires, that is to say, leeches; and such particulars are related of them, so singular, so detailed, and attended by such probable circumstances, and such judicial information, that one can hardly refuse to credit the belief which is held in those countries, that they come out of their tombs, and produce those effects which are proclaimed of them.<br /></blockquote><blockquote>Antiquity certainly neither saw nor knew anything like it. Let us read through the histories of the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Latins; nothing approaching to it will be met with (1850 [1751], p. 2).</blockquote>In this century, G. David Keyworth (2006) upheld Calmet's comments in his examination of vampire traits, by comparing them with other folkloric and legendary beings. He'd later expand his findings into a book (2007).<br /><br />The attempts to give vampires a 'greater antiquity' for 'intellectual and commercial appeal' has been exploited in a variety of different ways. One of the obvious ones concern the popularity of vampire killing kits (VKK). That is, high-priced antiques sold off as genuine 19th century novelties. There are three things majorly wrong with this practice. Firstly, they're fake. Second, auctioneers present them as legit (which, in turn, can only cast a dim light on the profession, itself). Third, <span style="font-style: italic;">actual </span>historical items are misrepresented - some, <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/a-faked-fake/">defaced</a> - in the process of creating these kits.<br /><br />The bshistorian has given brilliant coverage to the VKK 'industry' <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/vampire-killing-kits-no-seriously/">here</a>, <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/vampire-killing-kits-2/">here</a>, <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2010/09/12/un-kit-dextermination-de-vampires/">here</a>, <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/towards-a-typology-of-vampire-killing-kits/">here</a>, <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/one-staked-every-minute/">here</a> and <a href="http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/sacred-bleu/">here</a>. We need more blogs like that, not just in paranormal research, but in vampirology, too. It's one thing to enjoy vampires as entertainment, it's another to purposefully misrepresent their history and deceive others, to score a quick buck. So, my hat's off to BS!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">References</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Calmet, A, 1850 (1751), <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=QsE5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="font-style: italic;">The phantom world: or, the philosophy of spirits, apparitions, & c.</span></a>, vol. 2, trans. H Christmas, Richard Bentley, London.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Keyworth, GD, 2006, ‘Was the vampire of the eighteenth century a unique type of undead-corpse?’, <span style="font-style: italic;">Folklore</span>, vol. 117, no. 3, pp. 241–60.<br /><br />Keyworth, [G]D, 2007, <span style="font-style: italic;">Troublesome corpses: vampires & revenants from antiquity to the present</span>, Desert Island Books, Southend-on-Sea.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Kreuter, PM 2006, 'The name of the vampire: some reflections on current linguistic theories on the etymology of the word vampire', in P Day (ed.), <span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires: myths and metaphors of enduring evil</span>, At the interface/probing the boundaries 28, Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 57–63.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Rousseau, JJ, 1763 (1762), <span style="font-style: italic;">An expostulatory letter from J.J. Rousseau, citizen of Geneva, to Christopher de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris</span>, London.</span></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9149307856443561797.post-63700419499694562692011-07-12T00:52:00.009+10:002011-07-12T03:04:01.461+10:00What's Been Going On and Upcoming Books on Vampire 3<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Haven't been writing here much, as I've been busy with other things, namely research and going on a book-buying bender. Time for a catch-up and a peek at some forthcoming books I've stumbled across.</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Dracula-Reading-Stoker-Sacred/dp/0786464992/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1BFS1INQESEB7&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY"><br /></a><br />Firstly, it's great to hear that the guys behind the 2009 Vienna conference, 'Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert' are <span style="font-style: italic;">finally</span> publishing their book. Got the scoop <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/06/vampirglaube-und-magia-posthuma.html">from Niels</a>. It's currently available on pre-order. I've placed mine.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br />Speaking of Niels, his blog continues to blow my mind. Seriously, the guy just reels off his findings on obscure areas of vampiriana like they're nothing. If he's happy sharing that stuff publicly, I can't help wondering what secrets he <span style="font-style: italic;">isn't sharing</span>. Sometimes, it makes me wanna throw in the towel. Some recent stand-outs include <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/06/zopf-harleian.html">an overview of Zopf's famous vampire dissertation</a>; <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-zeillers-original-account-of.html">uncovering sources for an obscure 'vampire' case</a>; a source <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/07/de-sagis-magisque-posthumis.html">discussing magia posthuma in Poland, Hungary and Moravia</a>; and <a href="http://magiaposthuma.blogspot.com/2011/07/bohemia-anno-1567.html">debunking Stephen Hubner's 'vampire' status</a>. Get your asses over there.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Past-Sins-supernatural-horror-ebook/dp/B001MS82I6/ref=sr_1_cc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310398412&sr=1-1-catcorr"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 212px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x8JT5TKzV6g/ThsaNfpxqpI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/UnJ9CUq1wfc/s320/51IIYJMsUML._SS500_cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628120978466908818" border="0" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FoI3iipYbts/ThsZw3484fI/AAAAAAAAAYI/3fmb0hBm6Nw/s1600/51IIYJMsUML._SS500_cropped.jpg"><br /></a>I rarely read vampire novles - or novels in general - but I <span style="font-style: italic;">have</span> been reading Don Ecker's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Past-Sins-Don-Ecker/dp/0975264508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1310398412&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Past sins</span></a> (Dark Realm Press, 2004). Let's say it ain't <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>. If you're into your monstrous vamp (as I am), check it out. If you're one of them Kindle folk, click on the cover to buy a copy.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Dracula-Reading-Stoker-Sacred/dp/0786464992/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1BFS1INQESEB7&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q59EAH_UFBw/ThsXm4XWuDI/AAAAAAAAAYA/3FXq5GiQyfI/s320/The%2Btheology%2Bof%2BDracula.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628118116062378034" border="0" /></a><br />Speaking of buying things, I've found a few more books to add to the <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/05/upcoming-books-on-vampires-2-new-batch.html">'Upcoming books on vampires' collection</a>. Stumbled across 'em while on the aforementioned book-buying bender.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">The theology of Dracula: reading the book of Stoker as sacred text</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Noël Montague-Étienne Rarignac<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Release date:</span> 19 July 2011 (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Dracula-Reading-Stoker-Sacred/dp/0786464992/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1BFS1INQESEB7&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY">Amazon</a>); Spring/Summer 2011 (<a href="http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6499-9">McFarland</a>)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Worth the wait?</span> Firstly, how <span style="font-style: italic;">fuckin' awesome</span> is that cover? Seriously, look at it. Beautiful. As to the book itself, it's clearly one for the Dracula scholars. Another work focusing on literary interpretation, in this case, it 'represents a rereading of the horror classic as a Christian text, one that alchemizes Platonism, Gnosticism, Mariology and Christian resurrection in a tale that explores the grotesque' (McFarland's spiel). If that tickles your fancy, then it'll be the book for you. That said, I <span style="font-style: italic;">am</span> interested in the religious overtones behind vampire texts, so it's definitely on my to-get list.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Theorizing </span>Twilight<span style="font-style: italic;">: essays on what’s at stake in a post-vampire world</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Maggie Parke & Natalie Wilson (eds)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Release date:</span> 14 August 2011 (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Theorizing-Twilight-Essays-Whats-Post-vampire/dp/0786463503/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I356U4TXQYRJU8&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY">Amazon</a>); Fall/Winter 2011 (<a href="http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6350-3">McFarland</a>)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Worth the wait?</span> While I can barely repress a groan at another release dedicated to <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span> (I still have to give props to the saga for kickstarting the vampire boom, though), its publisher is a good indicator of quality. McFarland have an impressive track record when it comes to vampire stuff. Check out their <a href="http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/searches/advanced_search2.php?advanced=vampire&x=0&y=0">vampire</a> and <a href="http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/searches/advanced_search2.php?advanced=dracula&x=0&y=0">Dracula</a> titles.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Title:</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Through-Ages-Notorious-Drinkers/dp/0738726486/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1DAE9XP76FMC2&colid=2RJ9GAWZRRYWY"><span style="font-style: italic;">Vampires through the ages: lore & legends of the world's most notorious blood drinkers</span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Author:</span> Brian Righi<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Release date:</span> 8 Janaury 2012<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Worth the wait?</span> While its title hits the mark in my preferred vampire niche ('lore & legends'), the 'notorious blood drinkers' angle makes me think the book's gonna give the same-old, same-old coverage to Elizabeth Bathory, John Haigh, Fritz Haarmann, et. al. Or, worse: Vlad Țepeș. Its comic book style cover doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence, either. I had a brief peek through Righi's Amazon oeuvre. Looks like he's into ghosts. Perhaps he'll view the subject through a paranormalist lens, which <span style="font-style: italic;">might</span> be interesting. We'll see.</blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br />So, what have I been researching? Noneother than the Highgate vampire case. One element I've been pursuing is Highgate Cemetery's pre-1970 reputation for hauntings - vampiric or otherwise. There are certain texts which allude to to it, but don't seem to have been published before 1970 or the 1960s, which, of course, is highly suspicious. One stand-out's David Farrant's 'Invoking the vampire', <span style="font-style: italic;">New Witchcraft</span>, vol. 1, no. 4, 1975, pp. 32–8:<br /><blockquote>Some interesting facts came to light. Firstly, it became apparent that stories of an apparition in Highgate cemetery had by no means begun with the then current sightings. Indeed, similar tales dated from the Victorian Era and interestingly enough more of them had "vampiristic" connections. One of the common tales of that time told of a "tall man dressed in black" who used to disappear mysteriously through the cemetery wall (p. 34).</blockquote>In the same article, he also concluded, 'That Bram Stoker was influenced by the Highgate Vampire when he wrote "Dracula" . . . is almost certain' (ibid.). I've been asking Farrant how he obtained this information, i.e. 'oral tales, books, articles, whatever', over at <span style="font-style: italic;">The supernatural world</span> forum. So far, I've been met with sidetracking, personal attacks, obscure allusions and the possibility that he <span style="font-style: italic;">might</span> discuss them, <span style="font-style: italic;">if</span> I explain my spiritual beliefs first - which I'd already done. Several times. Let's say I find it to be a <span style="font-style: italic;">highly unusual</span> way to react to a simple request. Could we be dealing with a manufactured 'legend'? Quite possibly.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br />On a lighter note, I've been thinking of creating a new segment for this blog concerning beaut non-fiction vampire book covers. I occasionally express awe for them, so why not share a few which I think are particularly great? It's not set in stone, though. Just something I've been thinking of doing. See how it goes.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">******************************<br /></div><br />Last, but not least, don't forget to <a href="http://doaav.blogspot.com/2010/07/tweaking-poll.html">vote on the poll</a>. There's only 10 days left, folks. Do you believe in vampires? Have your say today!<br /></div>Anthony Hogghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08647370834507823458noreply@blogger.com2