Bohemian Gothic-The Lovers

baba-prague

I just wanted to say that The Lovers is one of the cards which will be very much changed in the new edition. I loved the original card, but I (more than Alex actually) wanted to try something else. So it may be one card in which the meaning does significantly shift between first and second edition.

Then again, a vampire bite is a vampire bite, so perhaps the deep, underlying meaning will still remain as it will still show the same basic scene.
 

Thirteen

baba-prague said:
I just wanted to say that The Lovers is one of the cards which will be very much changed in the new edition.
New Edition? :bugeyed: And when will this new edition be out? When, come to that, can we see a preview of the revamped card?
 

Pagan X

Karen has posted on Facebook that the new image has more emphasis on the meaning of "making a choice" in the Lovers card.

Ok my fellow & sister Vampire fans, when did the Vampire legend/motif in literature feature a vampire tormented by the choice of turning a lover into a vampire? I'm thinking it was Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows (which does not get enough credit in Vampire History, in my opinion.). Though it could be in Varney the Vampire (has anybody read that? I just got a paperback copy put out by Wordsworth Editions).

In the Gothics of the 19th and earlier centuries, didn't the Predatory Villain gleefully and without remorse fully intend to possess (however that is defined) the Heroine?

"Dracula's Daughter" (1936) comes close; Countess Marya wants to stop being a vampire. But it isn't wholly clear why, and it isn't because she wants to protect a beloved mortal.

And as for Dracula in particular, when did he start being reinterpreted as being in love with Mina (as opposed to just chowing down on poor ditsy Lucy.) Was that Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape (1975)? Which is before the Frank Langella's film Dracula (1979).

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St Germaine has angst about his mortal loves. But Barnabas Collins predates her work as well.
 

ncefafn

Ah, Barnabas Collins, my old love. I used to rush from the school bus in first grade to get to the tv in time to see Dark Shadows.

For the most part, up through the 1980s, vampires didn't seem to mind about bringing over their girl/boyfriends. But the first case of the reluctant vampire (other than Barnabas) I remember, personally, was in Coppola's movie of Dracula, in which he begged Mina not to take his blood (before giving in, of course). Other than this rewriting of the original novel, Barnabas Collins was the first angsty vampire in my recollection. He was the first to bemoan his fate, the first to feel remorse, the first to dread the deed he had to commit to keep his love with him.

He was a true rebel. God bless him. :)
 

Thirteen

Ah, yes! Dark Shadows!

Here's another vote for Barnabas (Ah, Barnabas!) with his comb-over hair and silver, wolf's-head cane. He started out as more typically villainous, but as is common with soap operas, when a villain becomes popular, he's made more sympathetic and heroic so the show can keep him around and maintain fans.

He wasn't the first sexy vampire--that honor goes to Bela Legosi who had women fainting in the aisles when he appeared on screen as Dracula. And truth to tell, I *think* that there might have been one movie later on (Dracula/Wolfman/Frankenstein movie) where he *might* have wanted to be cured of his vampirism (I won't take bets on that, but perhaps). Bela's vampires, however, and those what followed him always surrendered to blood-lust with no remorse by the end of the movie. Barnabas was the first to bemoan it, regret it, be tormented by it and, yes, even fight it's pull. And the rest is history. A legacy of tormented vampires fighting to maintain and regain their humanity.

The vampire with a conscience might not have been part of the original gothic-horror tradition, but it's certainly been a tried and true staple for almost-fifty years now. And given what great vampire characters have come out of it, thanks be to Dark Shadows for that! :D
 

Master_Margarita

ncefafn said:
Ah, Barnabas Collins, my old love. I used to rush from the school bus in first grade to get to the tv in time to see Dark Shadows.

I must be a little older than you, because I remember doing the same in fourth grade until my mother forbade me to watch the show (which I then watched on the sly).

And then there was Quentin. Quentin Collins, the werewolf!
 

WolfyJames

Well, there is Clarimonde in the short story La morte amoureuse by Théophile Gautier published in 1836. She doesn't feel guilty about being a vampire but she feels bad for taking drops of blood with a needle from the man she loves when he's asleep. She doesn't seems to care about draining lovers she doesn't like but with the hero/narrator things are different. She loves him so much she cannot bear to have other lovers she could drain, so all she takes from him are drops of blood, enough to sustain and not enough to harm him.

As for the Dark Shadows, I've never seen the original show. I saw the remake they made in the 90s though and I really like it. Alas the remake was canceled after 12 episodes. They wanted to cut the soap opera stuff and just concentrate on the fantastic stuff like Barnabas Collins and the werewolf was supposed to appear during the second season but that never happened.
 

Thirteen

WolfyJames said:
As for the Dark Shadows, I've never seen the original show.
It's well worth renting or finding and downloading (here's a sample) Made on a budget of something like 25 cents :D with no re-do-overs when there were mistakes, it's as funny as it is engaging (tomb stones fall over, people flub lines). Sloooow as soap operas were in those days (plots inched along for weeks on end) but terrific in its way and still addictive.

Tim Burton is currently making a Dark Shadows movie with Johnny Depp as Barnabas. I don't have hope for this being very good, but we shall see....
 

ncefafn

Thirteen said:
Tim Burton is currently making a Dark Shadows movie with Johnny Depp as Barnabas. I don't have hope for this being very good, but we shall see....

I'm not going to hijack the thread, but I just blogged about this. My inner six-year-old is weeping.
 

Thirteen

ncefafn said:
I'm not going to hijack the thread, but I just blogged about this. My inner six-year-old is weeping.
:(

[pats six-year-old on the head] Remake movies will come and go...but the original lives on!