Butler in My Inbox

Thanks to the sometimes-wonder that is Amazon e-mailed suggestions, I've been reminded (Monday, 15 February 2010 9:04:59 PM) of the upcoming release of Erik Butler's Metamorphoses of the Vampire in Literature and Film: Cultural Transformations in Europe, 1732-1933 on March 1.

I last mentioned it in "More Wishes".

The price is a little steep for a 238 pages (US $75), but at least we've now got a pretty little cover to look at.


Going by the title, it seems to be covering well-trod ground, however, the author's credentials as an "assistant professor of German Studies at Emory University, where he also teaches comparative literature and film" might elevate it above your average meandering into the genre.

Here's hoping!

Across the Forest, Across the Sea

Yesterday, I received a copy of Justin Blair and Matthew Vincent's Across the Forest doco in the mail. I'm gonna give a brief background into how that came about.

I received an e-mail from Justin ("Justin Blair here, the maker of the vampire (strigoi) documentary set in Transylvania, Across the Forest", Tuesday, 26 January 2010 2:28:55 PM) saying that he came across my blog via Magia Posthuma and said that I'm doing "really excellent work".

He then asked if I'd be interested in having a copy of the film sent to me for review on my blog and asked if I wanted to interview him, as well.

As this e-mail came hot on the heels of "Blogging Ethics", I was somewhat torn. There was an air of self-promotion I wasn't entirely comfortable with.

However, he did have a point: his doco's subject matter is in sync with what I discuss on my blog.

In my reply ("Re: Justin Blair here, the maker of the vampire (strigoi) documentary set in Transylvania, Across the Forest‏", Friday, 29 January 2010 10:14:05 PM), I made him aware of my "Blogging Ethics" post, but complemented him on addressing me directly, rather than group-send me spam. I also admitted that its subject matter was in context with what I write about and mentioned that I had seen Niels' review of it.

I also said that, in the interests of disclosure, I'd have to reveal that he suggested I interview him (should I actually do so, mind you and I probably will) and if he was ok with that, then yes, I'd agree for a copy of the film to be sent to me. But I also iterated that if I had any issues with the film (i.e., criticisms) then I'd certainly be raising them in my review.

Can't play favourites here, ya see.

He wrote back shortly after ("Re: Justin Blair here, the maker of the vampire (strigoi) documentary set in Transylvania, Across the Forest", ‏Friday, 29 January 2010 10:14:05 PM) saying that he admired my viewpoints and had "no problems with the criteria" I gave. He also said that if I did have any problems with the film, then they'd be his own, and had no beef with my pointing them out (awww).

He mentioned it was a low-budget film, but that it "dovetails" with what I write about and reiterated his offer to send me a copy, and thanked me for writing back.

I was pretty impressed with Justin's manners and professionalism, so I wrote back ("RE: Justin Blair here, the maker of the vampire (strigoi) documentary set in Transylvania, Across the Forest", Tuesday, 2 February 2010 12:41:58 AM) thanking him for his courtesy and gave him the go-ahead to send the film. I did mention that there might be problems concerning DVD region codes (we use PAL in Australia, whereas the Yanks use NTSC).

He got back to me ("Re: Justin Blair here, the maker of the vampire (strigoi) documentary set in Transylvania, Across the Forest‏", Tuesday, 2 February 2010 11:33:58 AM) saying that the disc was region-free and that they had customers from "Australia, the UK, Denmark, Brazil, Japan, etc and no reported problems".

He signed off by saying he'd send it soon and would be looking forward to hearing back from me.

Which now brings us back to the present.

I haven't had time to watch the DVD yet, but when I do, the review will follow soon after.

Anchev's Vampires

I recently gave some coverage to Bulgarian vampire folklore.

Today, I received a Bulgarian book about Bulgarian vampire folklore in the mail.

It's Анатол Анчев [Anatol Anchev]'s Вампирите в българския фолклор: фолклористични и аналитичнопсихологически аспекти [Vampirite v bŭlgarskii︠a︡ folklor: folkloristichni i analitichnopsikhologicheski aspekti] (Sofii︠a︡ : Lege Artis, 2008).

I initially stumbled across it in the Library of Congress' catalogue and decided I had to add it to my collection.

Can't read the damn thing, mind you, but it's a nice little curio.

This Blood's for You

This isn't vampire-specific, but I did find it interesting, nonetheless. You'll see why.

A quick note on formatting of the following article: paragraph indents have been replaced with paragraph breaks for this blog.

And now, onto "Bloody Good Police Work", mX (Melbourne), Friday February 12, 2010, p. 9:

Polish police have recovered 11 tonnes of human blood plasma stolen from a US company while on its way to Austria.

The truck with a freezer unit carrying the plasma, worth more about $1.6 million, was stolen as the driver made a rest stop in Germany.

It was taken across the border into Poland, where it was seized on Wednesday.

Polish police have made no arrests so far, and believe thieves stole it in the hope of selling it elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

This One's for the Dracula Fans

Came across what looks to be a brilliant addition to Drac Studies. Behold, Dracula: The Sourcebook:

With the many portrayals of Dracula in media, LSU Ph.D. student John Edgar Browning, along with author Caroline Joan Picart, have set out to put together the definitive Dracula reference book with "Dracula: The Sourcebook, A Guide to Film and Television, Comic Books and Video Gaming." LSU Ph.D. students Laura Helen Marks and Mitch Frye also contributed chapter introductions to the book, and several of Browning's former undergraduate students from a class on composition and monster theory assisted with the research.

Its publisher, McFarland, doesn't have an entry for the book on its website, so expect it to be published quite late in the year.

Ojai Vampire Update

Got so caught up in the new vampire encyclopaedia news, that I completely forgot about my further investigations in the Ojai Vampire!

After their previous response, I sent them another e-mail ("RE: A Query about Camp Comfort Park", Tuesday, 9 February 2010 7:19:42 PM). I was trying to determine if they had heard any variants of the tale:

Hello,

Thanks for giving me the heads up on the sarcophagus issue.

I'm interested to know if you've actually heard about the vampire legend, however. What's your version of it?

~ Anthony

And here's what they wrote back ("RE: A Query about Camp Comfort Park", Wednesday, 10 February 2010 3:47:04 AM):

Office staff is unaware of any tall tales that have to do with so called "vampires" and the County parks.

This makes me think that maybe the legend isn't as widespread as I thought. That, or they're new!

Or, we could go the conspiracy route and suggest they're covering up, but even if that was the case, would you want a bunch of vampire hunting wannabes to be scouring your Park, looking for a (most-likely) non-existent sarcophagus?

Didn't think so.

Besides, the story's obviously bogus. But it's an interesting lesson in the way "stories" are passed along. As long as no-one gets hurt, of course.

Another Vampire Encyclopaedia on the Way!

Theresa Bane's Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology, which I last covered here, is still a while away from general release (originally slated for June, but looks like it'll be out in March).

In the meantime, I've just come across references to another addition to the vampire encyclopaedia genre.

But it's not by her.

I stumbled across this newbie while I was looking up info relating to Ronald Foust's "Rite of Passage: The Vampire Tale as Cosmogonic Myth" (1986). This lead me to Matt Cardin's blog entry, "What I Read in 2009".

I was scanning the entry for other vampire stuff, when I came across this little tidbit in his biographic entry on the sidebar:

He is also a successful freelance blogger, consultant, and copywriter, and will contribute several entries, including an examination of vampires and religion, to the forthcoming reference work "Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture," edited by S.T. Joshi.

I hurriedly went a-Googlin' for the book.

The first page in the search was Stephen Jones' upcoming works, which reveals his contribution to it is an entry called "Vampires in Television". The publication date given is 2010 and he (courteously) lists the publisher: "ABC-CLIO, USA".

I checked out their website, which strangely has no listing for the book.

It's not even listed in Amazon.

But, I've also found that a bloke named Bev Vincent will also be contributing to the book (he's got four entries) and that Matt Cardin's webpage contradicts Jones' reference to the publisher. He lists it as Greenwood Press.

Yet, Greenwood Press' website has no listing for the book, either. Very odd.

Time to check out Joshi, himself.

In doing so, I found another contributor, Lisa Kroger, and also...Joshi's blog.

Here's what he has to say about the book in his news section, 12 December 2009:

I am currently working on a number of projects. Nearly complete is The Encyclopedia of the Vampire, a one-volume project commissioned by Greenwood Press (www.greenwood.com). It will contain entries, ranging from 250 words to 3000 words, on all aspects of vampirism in literature, history, media, and culture, with important contributions by Paula Guran, Elizabeth Miller, James Holte, Joyce Jesionowski, Tony Fonseca, and many others. The book is a little late, but I am still hopeful that it can appear in late 2010.

As you might be able to tell, I'm quite excited about this upcoming work.

Joshi is a well-respected literary critic of fantasy literature (mainly focusing on H. P. Lovecraft), so this is almost-certainly gonna be a brilliant project.

Can't wait!