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Showing posts with label Dracula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dracula. Show all posts
Monday, 27 October 2014
Friday, 30 September 2011
Interview with a Vampire
The long-awaited novel The Loneliest Vampire in NYC is finally out on Amazon.com (and going to wider release mid-October) but still many people ask, who is the Loneliest Vampire and why is he so lonely?
We caught up with Stanley (last name withheld) and spent some time talking with him at the Pourhouse Bar on Water Street.
Us: So thanks for meeting with us and welcome to Vancouver
Stanley: No problem, I like it here, dark and gloomy a lot of the time, which is good for my complexion (he laughs).
Us: Speaking of the damp Northwest there's a popular fiction series about vampires set in nearby Washington State, in which the vampires, while they prefer the grey skies, have no real reaction to sunlight other than they sparkle - what do you think of that?
Stanley: (laughs) Sure why not, and why stop there? Maybe they could all go hang out at the beach and work on their tans.
Us: So you're saying it's not very realistic, vampires cannot go into direct sunlight?
Stanley: Well they can, but they won't 'sparkle' they'll start to smoke then they'll burst into flame and dissolve to ash.
Us: Right. But we notice you drink, contrary to popular belief - and made famous by the Bela Lugosi line in Dracula, "I don't drink...wine."
Stanley: Yeah a lot of people always ask about that but listen I don't make the rules, all I know is thank God I can drink...booze, because it's gotten me through a lot of lonely years.
Us: Is that what immortal life is like - just a years of long lonely nights?
Stanley: Wow, you're brutal, now I do need a drink (he orders an Absinthe). To answer your question, no it's not all just solitary nights wandering the streets. But when you're around as long as I am there's bound to be more times when you find yourself on your own - there's just a lot of time to fill up is what I'm trying to say.
Us: Yes but the book is called The Loneliest Vampire in NYC and it's about you, so why have you been single out as especially lonely.
Stanley: Well if you'd read the book, which clearly you haven't, you would know that I do have friends and I do get out and socialize. I'm just not as shallow as some vampires, I don't do the whole club scene, I'm not that into fashion, so I guess it's all relative really. I mean I'm off fighting zombies - thank you very much - so because I do that instead of preening for the paparazzi and trying to get myself on page six I'm called lonely, which some people read as 'sad loser,' instead of thoughtful introspection.
To be cont.
We caught up with Stanley (last name withheld) and spent some time talking with him at the Pourhouse Bar on Water Street.
Us: So thanks for meeting with us and welcome to Vancouver
Stanley: No problem, I like it here, dark and gloomy a lot of the time, which is good for my complexion (he laughs).
Us: Speaking of the damp Northwest there's a popular fiction series about vampires set in nearby Washington State, in which the vampires, while they prefer the grey skies, have no real reaction to sunlight other than they sparkle - what do you think of that?
Stanley: (laughs) Sure why not, and why stop there? Maybe they could all go hang out at the beach and work on their tans.
Us: So you're saying it's not very realistic, vampires cannot go into direct sunlight?
Stanley: Well they can, but they won't 'sparkle' they'll start to smoke then they'll burst into flame and dissolve to ash.
Us: Right. But we notice you drink, contrary to popular belief - and made famous by the Bela Lugosi line in Dracula, "I don't drink...wine."
Stanley: Yeah a lot of people always ask about that but listen I don't make the rules, all I know is thank God I can drink...booze, because it's gotten me through a lot of lonely years.
Us: Is that what immortal life is like - just a years of long lonely nights?
Stanley: Wow, you're brutal, now I do need a drink (he orders an Absinthe). To answer your question, no it's not all just solitary nights wandering the streets. But when you're around as long as I am there's bound to be more times when you find yourself on your own - there's just a lot of time to fill up is what I'm trying to say.
Us: Yes but the book is called The Loneliest Vampire in NYC and it's about you, so why have you been single out as especially lonely.
Stanley: Well if you'd read the book, which clearly you haven't, you would know that I do have friends and I do get out and socialize. I'm just not as shallow as some vampires, I don't do the whole club scene, I'm not that into fashion, so I guess it's all relative really. I mean I'm off fighting zombies - thank you very much - so because I do that instead of preening for the paparazzi and trying to get myself on page six I'm called lonely, which some people read as 'sad loser,' instead of thoughtful introspection.
To be cont.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Top 5 vampire books
There's a lot of vampire literature out there, but not much of it is any good, hence the reason this list only encompasses five rather than the usual top 10. We could do a worst vampire book list but that would require wading through far too much dreck and we have better things to do, like alphabetizing our soup cans.
#1 Dracula - Bram Stoker's epistolary novel still stands at the top of the heap. Despite being written 115 years ago it is a breezy and entertaining read even by today's standards. Actually it's chief criticism over the years has been that it is a loosely crafted poorly developed novel. We wonder what those critics would say after reading Twilight?
#2 Interview with a Vampire - Ann Rice's first book in her vampire chronicles was actually not bad, not bad at all. A vampire novel written in the first person was somewhat groundbreaking for its time (1976). It creates a great sense of mystery about the characters and the settings: New Orleans and Paris were extremely well crafted.
#3 Anno Dracula - the first in a series of books by Kim Newman, a what if scenario as in what if the characters in Bram Stoker's Dracula had failed in defeating the vampire count. In this alternate universe Dracula rules great Britain and vampires integrate into everyday society. Well researched book that combines historical figures with the fictional.
#4 Carmilla - Think lesbian vampires were born in 1970s soft core, guess again Sheridan Le Fanu created the genre in 1872.
#5 I am Legend - Richard Matheson's sci-fi vampire/zombie novel, which has been made into several films. As usual the book is far better.
Yeah that's it but if you like vampire literature any one of those five if not all should be on your Kindle.
#1 Dracula - Bram Stoker's epistolary novel still stands at the top of the heap. Despite being written 115 years ago it is a breezy and entertaining read even by today's standards. Actually it's chief criticism over the years has been that it is a loosely crafted poorly developed novel. We wonder what those critics would say after reading Twilight?
#2 Interview with a Vampire - Ann Rice's first book in her vampire chronicles was actually not bad, not bad at all. A vampire novel written in the first person was somewhat groundbreaking for its time (1976). It creates a great sense of mystery about the characters and the settings: New Orleans and Paris were extremely well crafted.
#3 Anno Dracula - the first in a series of books by Kim Newman, a what if scenario as in what if the characters in Bram Stoker's Dracula had failed in defeating the vampire count. In this alternate universe Dracula rules great Britain and vampires integrate into everyday society. Well researched book that combines historical figures with the fictional.
#4 Carmilla - Think lesbian vampires were born in 1970s soft core, guess again Sheridan Le Fanu created the genre in 1872.
#5 I am Legend - Richard Matheson's sci-fi vampire/zombie novel, which has been made into several films. As usual the book is far better.
Yeah that's it but if you like vampire literature any one of those five if not all should be on your Kindle.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Vampires and romance
By Alan Forsythe
Why is vampirism of all things so closely link with love and romance or barring that at least sex. But it's usually some form of destructive sex, as in somebody has to pay a price for giving into desire. The latest crop of vampire stores, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood to name a few didn't invent the whole vampirism as metaphor for sex/love. The original Vampyre featured a mysterious young man who seduced young women. Furthermore it was based somewhat on the life of Lord Byron the notorious libertine of his age.
Illicit sex became one of the themes of vampire novels, with precursors to Dracula, like Carmila setting the tone. Carmilla may sound like the B-movie plots of more recent vampire stories: lesbian seduces the beautiful young heroine but it was actually written in 1872 and was hugely successful.
Why is vampirism of all things so closely link with love and romance or barring that at least sex. But it's usually some form of destructive sex, as in somebody has to pay a price for giving into desire. The latest crop of vampire stores, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood to name a few didn't invent the whole vampirism as metaphor for sex/love. The original Vampyre featured a mysterious young man who seduced young women. Furthermore it was based somewhat on the life of Lord Byron the notorious libertine of his age.
Illicit sex became one of the themes of vampire novels, with precursors to Dracula, like Carmila setting the tone. Carmilla may sound like the B-movie plots of more recent vampire stories: lesbian seduces the beautiful young heroine but it was actually written in 1872 and was hugely successful.
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