Let's Hope These Wishes Come True

I recently posted a sample of some of the books on my Amazon Wishlist over at Magia Posthuma.

Niels followed it up with "Back and Online...", adding:

As yet I have only seen the list, and I confess that I am pretty sceptical about most of the titles, but I am grateful that this 'Amateur Vampirologist' has shared the list.

This is a reference to their dubious quality for the sake of serious vampire research.

I admit that I was somewhat enthused about the dearth of new titles on offer in the coming year, as well as the year to follow. And believe you me, it's no easy feat searching through ream upon ream of vampire book listings on Amazon, especially with the vague search term of "vampires". I wish they had a better "catalogue", that is, something to sort the non-fiction stuff from the fiction. Like subject headings.

Anyway, I'll share some of the titles I'm particularly keen on purchasing...when the money's there, of course. I'll also concentrate on the ones that haven't been released yet. Here goes:

Title: Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend
Author: Mark Collins Jenkins
Release Date: February 16, 2010.
Why Do I Want It?: There's no product description of this book, but the title alone grabs me. If it's anything like Paul Barber's Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality (1988), then it's got the potential to be a classic. Apart from that, examining the vampire through archaeology (as I presume this one will do), is certainly a worthy - and highly valuable - perspective for the genre.

Title: Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture
Author: Mary Y. Hallab
Release Date: October 8, 2009.
Why Do I Want It?: Modern pop-culture has elevated the vampire into an archetype. It's an icon worthy of dissection, but I hope it's not another literary retread through the same old Varney, Carmilla, Dracula stuff.

Title: The Weiser Field Guide to Vampires: Legends, Practices, and Encounters Old and New
Author: J. M. Dixon
Release Date: October 1, 2009.
Why Do I Want It?: If I can be superficial for a moment: the cover looks pretty. Also, the concept of a field guide - while nothing really new - is somewhat balanced out by the subjects the subheading indicates will be explored.

Title: The Element Encyclopedia of Vampires
Author: Theresa Cheung
Release Date: October 1, 2009.
Why Do I Want It?: I hope it's not another mere catalogue of vampire "species" like Thersa Bane's Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires (2007). That said, you can never have enough vampire encyclopedias! They make excellent reference sources in a nice, digestible format. J. Gordon Melton's The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (1994; 1999) leads the pack, so far.

Title: Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Dark Side
Author: Brad Steiger
Release Date: September 1, 2009.
Why Do I Want It?: I'm interested in the angle of presenting vampires as actual, real-life, supernatural beings. Not that I necessarily believe in their existence, of course, but it'll be interesting to see how Steiger - better known for his works on aliens - presents his case. One of my favourite examples of this rare subgenre (especially in modern works) is Martin V. Riccardo's "Vampire Haunts" chapter in Rosemary Ellen Guiley's The Complete Vampire Companion (1994).

Getting into the Swing of Thing

Yesterday, I opened my very own LibraryThing account.

To those not in-the-know, LibraryThing is a social profile that allows users to list the books they own or have read...or would even like to read.

It also reveals which other users' have the same books in their listings. Today, I made a listing of some of the books in my own collection. More to follow, of course.

Heartily recommended.

Tsaliki on the Lazzaretto Nuovo "Vampire"

I previously discussed the Lazzaretto Nuovo "vampire" here.

Anastasia Tsaliki wrote an e-mail to Michael E. Smith, blogger of Publishing Archaeology, in which she raises some very valid points about the media's coverage of the alleged vampire.

The e-mail was incorporated into Smith's blog entry, "Vampires, the Media, and Quality Control in Archaeology".

Journalists, take note!

Carradine Found Dead

Wow. Now this certainly came as a surprise.

Renowned B-movie star, David Carradine (of Kill Bill fame) was found dead, in a Bangkok hotel room, yesterday.

The apparent cause is an attempt at (ahem) autoerotic asphyxiation that went horribly wrong.

So what's the vampire connection to Carradine?

Firstly, he was the star of Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1990) and The Last Sect (2006).

Secondly, his father was John Carradine (1906-1988), star of the House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), "Dracula" episode of Matinee Theatre (1956), Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966), Las vampiras (1969), Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969), Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975) Doctor Dracula (1978), Vampire Hookers (1978) and Nocturna (1979).

You can read an interview with David, conducted by Noel Murray for A.V. Club's "Random Roles" (September 9, 2008), here.

When Did Vampires Enter the English Language?

Dan's "Vampire (L’amour de l’étymologie IX)" blog entry for Librari[d]an, would have you believe this:

The word was first used in English in 1734: “These Vampyres are supposed to be the Bodies of deceased Persons, animated by evil Spirits, which come out of the Graves, in the Night-time, suck the Blood of many of the Living, and thereby destroy them.”

Dan is clearly citing an extract from the anonymously-written The Travels of three English Gentlemen, from Venice to Hamburgh, being the grand tour of Germany in the year 1734.

This work was not published until 1744, in which it was included in an anthology called the Harleian Miscellany. You can view in the 1810 edition of the Harleian Miscellany here.

The quotation Dan provides, is an English translation of an extract from Johann Heinrich Zopf's Dissertatio de Vampyris Serviensibus (1733).

However, two years prior to Travels, the term had already appeared in English.

The March 11, 1732 issue of The London Journal carried a story about the infamous - and alleged - vampire, "Arnold Paul":

Upon a current Report, that in the Village of Medreyga certain Dead Bodies (called here Vampyres) had killed several Persons by sucking out all their Blood[...]

Jean Marigny's Vampires: The World of the Undead (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994), p. 48, also cites The London Journal article as responsible for the word's introduction into the English language.

Thoughts on the Lazzaretto Nuovo "Vampire"

In March of this year, media coverage was given to the unearthing of an alleged vampire, buried in a 1576 plague pit in Lazzaretto Nuovo.

It was briefly discussed by Niels in Magia Posthuma, who, in turn, mentioned another post by Carl Pyrdum in "Other Bloggers".

Carl Pyrdum is the blogger behind Got Medieval. He discusses the "vampire" case here. You can read my thoughts on his post, via the comment I left to his blog entry.

No More Bud

Beloved Aussie actor, Charles "Bud" Tingwell (1923-2009) passed away this morning due to complications arising from prostate cancer. He was 86.

To those wondering why I'm mentioning that on this blog, it should be noted that he had a pivotal role in the 1966 film, Dracula: Prince of Darkness.

Spoiler alert: Don't read the next bit if you haven't seen the flick yet.

He played Alan Kent, the bloke who gets strung up by Dracula's manservant, Klove (Philip Latham) and his throat slit over Dracula's ashes, in a ritual designed to bring the undead fiend back to "life".

This was the first of Dracula's "resurrection" scenes in the Hammer Dracula series, thus making Bud Tingwell the first sacrificial goat and benchmark by which to figure out new and inventive ways to continue the franchise.

Echoes of this practice are seen in American slasher franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.

Whether or you think this is a good or bad thing, is entirely up to you!