Hello Darklings,
Well my brother and his family are now south in the Santa
Cruz area enjoying their Memorial weekend vacation, one of many that they are
planning to take. In a way I’m a little
jealous, it would be nice to have a Gypsy Wagon to travel here and there, but
we also have to be realistic. But we
know they arrived safely Thursday evening after taking the long route there to
avoid the steep climb of Highway 17 which has destroyed more than one vehicle’s
transmission.
I swear I think May should be World Goth Month or have at
least World Goth Week from May 22 (which is World Goth Day) through the
traditional Memorial Day May 31, that
way we can also encompass the three birthdays of our Three Gentlemen of Terror
Peter Cushing, Vincent Prince and Christopher Lee as well as the date when
“Dracula” was published for the first time and saw the ‘light of day’ in print.
It seems to make sense to me to do that.
I mean look at it May 22 World Goth Day
May 26 Peter Cushing’s Birthday
May 26
Dracula published 1897
May 27 Vincent Price’s Birthday
May 27 Christopher Lee’s Birthday
Followed by Memorial Day in the United States to remember
those who fought for Freedom.
Of course Dracula by Stoker was not the first Vampire novel,
that goes to John Polidori who wrote “The Vampyre” based upon notes by Lord Byron although it
was Polidori who introduced the concept of charm being deadly, this was followed in the 1850’s by “Varney
the Vampire or the Feast of Blood” then
in 1871 by Le Fanu’s “Carmilla”. but it was Stoker’s Dracula who defined its modern form, and the novel has
spawned numerous theatrical, film, and television interpretations.
This is the 1899 American edition of Dracula.
The novel ends 7 years later with Jonathan and Mina’s son
listening to them recounting their adventures but a small section was removed
from the original final chapter, in which Dracula's castle falls apart as he
dies, hiding the fact that vampires were ever there.
It went as follows:
“As we looked
there came a terrible convulsion of the earth so that we seemed to rock to and
fro and fell to our knees. At the same moment with a roar which seemed to shake
the very heavens the whole castle and the rock and even the hill on which it
stood seemed to rise into the air and scatter in fragments while a mighty cloud
of black and yellow smoke volume on volume in rolling grandeur was shot upwards
with inconceivable rapidity.
Then there was a
stillness in nature as the echoes of that thunderous report seemed to come as
with the hollow boom of a thunder-clap - the long reverberating roll which
seems as though the floors of heaven shook. Then down in a mighty ruin falling
whence they rose came the fragments that had been tossed skywards in the
cataclysm.
From where we stood
it seemed as though the one fierce volcano burst had satisfied the need of
nature and that the castle and the structure of the hill had sunk again into
the void. We were so appalled with the suddenness and the grandeur that we
forgot to think of ourselves.”
— Deleted excerpt
from the original Dracula manuscript
Stoker was even considering giving the title of his
manuscript “The Undead” but instead changed it to the name of his anti-hero.
A nephew of Stoker did write a sequel to the original story,
but it was not well received. So it is fitting that the last full week of
May at least should be considered at least World Goth Week and have some sort
of celebration, after all the First of
May is kicked off with Walpurgis Night which is the 30th of April or
May Eve and that is when Witches and Evil things wander the land.
Sis, Doyle, Brian and I did our mini-celebration watching
films that featured our favorite trio of Terror, and we are finishing it
tonight with 3 movies tonight, Horror of Dracula, Madhouse and that sendup “House
of the Long Shadows” which also includes John Carradine who also played Dracula
at least twice. Although this film was considered
a disappointment by critics, it doesn’t matter to us, we are in it for the
enjoyment and on this very warm evening we are going to watch it outside on the
screen enclosed back porch while we are having ice cream for dessert. But I also have on hand extra ice cream as
well as soft drinks because I know our other neighbors are going to be peeking
over the fence and want to join us and why not, the more the merrier I always
say.
But next year I am going to carefully mark that week on my
next Calendar perhaps even plan on doing a “Black Feast” for it and invited a
few friends to dress up in their vampire or Goth best. It is something worth planning for.
And now I must go, I
have to make sure that Doyle and Brian place the T.V. screen in the right
place.
Later Darklings
