Thought of the Day

I don't believe in morality, but I believe in ethical conduct as set out by His Holiness the Dalai Lama: "Ethical conduct = a way of behaving that respects others’ right to be happy".

Monday, 24 October 2005

So, why Carmilla?

This is the question by many people who met me after 20.02.2002, a palindromic date to seal the day of my long-awaited graduation in Foreign Languages and Literature. Well, Carmilla is one of the most memorable characters created by the novelist I wrote my final dissertation about: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Specifically, a (useless) philological essay of 35.000 words about one of his novels (Uncle Silas).


Photo (c) Andy Julia

And who is Carmilla? Carmilla is a woman vampire. She embodies all the features of the oral legend, with some peculiarities: not only she is a woman, but she ambiguously targets women. The interesting point is that the famous Dracula by Bran Stocker was published some years after the release of the short story Carmilla

Is Carmilla lesbic? And who are Millarca and Mircalla? Why don't you find it out by yourself? You can download the novella from here

Excert from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
 
"Sometimes there came a sensation as if a hand was drawn softly along my cheek and neck. Sometimes it was as if warm lips kissed me, and longer and more lovingly as they reached my throat, but there the caress fixed itself. My heart beat: faster, my breathing rose and fell rapidly and full drawn; a sobbing, that rose into a sense of strangulation, and turned into a dreadful convulsion, in which my senses me and I became unconscious." 

2 comments:

lofty said...

he he Lesbo action!

Carrie Lofty said...

Sivvy, why are you with Steve? Smack him one!

;)