Proposal

So, I've had an idea running through my head for sometime. The idea is of a short story. Whether I stick with this idea or not, I'm still pretty set on doing gothic short story. Probably something between 3000 and 7000 words.

The story is vague running through my head, but once I'm able to really put pen to paper, I think it should come easily enough. If I'm sticking with my original idea, I'm going to need a lot of research done. The story I have in mind centers around the Salem Witch Trials. The only details of the story I really have set in stone is that it will be a dark and dryly humorous story combining the Witch Trials and the modern porn industry.

Yeah, I know, what the fuck. Wish me the best.

Like I had said, though, after I hit the ground running with the story this weekend, I'm going to see how big of a challenge this is to put those two worlds into one. If it proves too difficult, I'll find another story to do. Most likely, that story wouldn't focus on mixing the past and the present but one time period. It would also probably be darker.

That's it.

For years, the vampire has been a figure meant to strike fear. The reason is obscure seeing as the vampire itself has had multiple origins and multiple ways of life, some being nowhere near human and some being so close to human that you not only sympathize but empathize with their hardships and lack of feeling they belong.

Interview with a Vampire is no exception. Anne Rice is able to introduce to us a character that is so relatable that the fact he is a vampire is often forgotten or overlooked. Louis, our main vampire character, though newly recruited, is still expected to show signs of what a "vampire" is from the get-go. But from his days as a human to his transformation, little change is noticeable. That's not to say that as a vampire, Louis is able to see daylight and doesn't feed off humans, but more so his moral nature has remained the same.

Compare this to the novel Dracula, in where our main vampire, The Count, has changed another character, Lucy, into a vampire. The moment Lucy had fully transformed, she is as blood thirsty as Dracula himself, dropping all morals and turning to do whatever need be done to survive. It doesn't begin there, however, as this nature of Dracula's version of the vampire is clear within the first chapters. An example being the three female vampires ready to feed on our protagonist Jonathan. They show no signs that they have a thought-process anywhere near human and don't cease to show their hunger for Jonathan. Dracula, though at times able to control himself, is also still a suspicious character from the moment we meet him.

Compare this to Louis, and you will see a dramatic difference.

In his new skin, Louis still has Louis' personality and morals. He refuses to yet kill humans to survive but rather begins his new life by feeding on animals and himself says, "I wished to understand death in stages...wished to save the experience of human death for my mature understanding. But it was moral," (Pg. 71). Though he acknowledges that as he grows as a vampire, he will soon begin to feed on humans, he points out that he must first understand more about being a vampire to act as one.

It also seems that Louis, though gradually growing comfortable with being a vampire, still has his clear issues with it. When Lestat, his maker, captures a young girl named Claudia to turn into a vampire, Louis must have his first feed on a human child. He notices now his new nature coming through. "I remembered the powerful beating of her heart...I hungered for it," (Pg. 89). With Lestat there, convincing him he wants it and needs it, Louis bites into her and feeds. But when Lestat chooses to turn Claudia into a vampire, Louis becomes upset, but just as well, does not choose to stop Lestat. This shows that though Louis still has his morals, they are slowly becoming overpowered by nature.

Through reading this book, I have found that the heaviest element to the story is that of control. Control doesn't just end at the Count's manipulation, but sprouts on to his setting in society (receiving the title of Count to begin with) and those who he leads and creates (the female vampires and Lucy and Mina). Aside from Dracula, there is also a short but bold lining of control in the blood transfusion section of the story.

Though little details are given on the origination of Dracula's title of the Count, we are given his title from the get go and he demonstrates his status with the treatment he gives our first main protagonist, Jonathan Harker, with a carriage ride to his castle and his interest in buying an estate in another country. Though powerful, Dracula is a very humble man, which could be a key factor in his ability to manipulate those who cross his path (I will try my best not to touch on this issue as much as the others, for this is a blatantly important portion of the book).

From there we can notice more of the control on Dracula's part, first and foremost with the three female vampires he houses who have made Jonathan Harker, once a guest, now a victim under them. When the Count tells them to leave Harker be, they do not protest but rather just leave Harker's side. But the women who we better know and we better get an idea of the Count's standing comes through Lucy Westerna and Mina Harker. These two women, which are everything that society expects of them to be at this time period, are introduced to Dracula who swears to turn the women from what they are to something counterintuitive to what they should be. Something more "voluptuous," a word used in the explanation of many women throughout the novel: "There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive" (says Jonathan of the female vampires at the Count's castle) and "She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, and voluptuous grace," (from the diary of Seward concerneing the newly turned vampire, Lucy).

Prior to Lucy's turning, though, comes my other point: the control of three characters over Lucy Westerna via blood transfusions. After being bitten by the Count, Lucy becomes bedridden and, health decreasing, has three men watching over her, being Seward, Holmwood, And Van Helsing. The death of Lucy is becoming less and less and possibility and more and more a probability. It is up to the men to save her and one by one, the men have the ability to give life. Unfortunately, Lucy's health increases temporarily and just as soon is gone again, starting with Holmwood. Next Seward gives his blood and just as before, her health comes and goes. In a last ditch effort, Van Helsing places garlic flowers around Lucy's room and the next day, after Lucy's mother has removed the flowers, gives her his blood.

The blood symbolizes two things that run parallel. The "exchange of fluids" can, in depth, be taken as sexual acts, something few dared to speak about in literature around this time, along with control. These three men all have a desire to be with Lucy (even though it is understood between all of them that Holmwood is to wed her) so them giving blood is not only in an act to save her life, but in an act to win her over a little more at a time. Though not necessarily "control" it is a much milder and more natural, humanely way of manipulation than Dracula's own tactics of taking blood to manipulate those around him.