It only seems fair after writing a post called Dracula 2.0 to write one in honor of Dracula 1.0. The version numbers aren't just for fun- Bram Stoker's Dracula founded pop culture's fascination with the vampire, and, according to the HWA, was the "seminal horror work." But Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire. Blood-sucking legend has a long folklore history, nor was Bram Stoker the first to introduce the legend in literary form. This honor is usually attributed to Carmila by Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmila heavily influenced Stoker's novel, and is not unlike the beta version of some great software that never gained the popularity of its 1.0 release candidate.
So why do kids dress up as Dracula instead of Carmila on Halloween? Why doesn't the HWA (Horror Writers Association) give out Le Fanu awards instead of the Stoker awards? The answer has to do with genre. Carmila is an example of Gothic fiction, not horror.
Gothic fiction is all about ambiance and spooky atmosphere. Gothic novels are often romances, in which a nubile young woman faces a supernatural threat that parallels the threat of her deflowering (think Jane Eyre). Gothic fiction is all about building a sense of dread, and the spooky is in the suspense, the heroine's fragility, and her grim surroundings.
The principle characteristic of horror fiction is shock. A head is severed by a chain saw, a psychopath sews a suit of human skin, a victim falls in vat of acid and we see him dissolve.
Horror is the child of Gothic fiction- horror borrows the build-up of suspense and dreadful atmosphere, then shows us the gruesome, physical details of the dreaded event. Bram Stoker's Dracula is honored as a seminal horror work because it built on the Gothic fiction elements of Le Fanu's Carmila and got down to the gritty physical details of vampirism. Gross scenes in Dracula include crude blood transfusions, eating insects and birds raw, cutting the head off a corpse. Dracula contains elements of both Gothic and horror fiction, which is one of the reasons I love it.
My interest in the horror genre leans more toward the creepy atmosphere and build-up of suspense than the gross-out. This is a purely personal preference, and it explains why I love Stephen King books like Needful Things, Insomnia, and Salem's Lot, but can't get past the first two pages of The Stand. The Stand begins with shocking gross-out events, the other King novels I mentioned begin with spooky atmosphere in small towns.
The horror genre runs on a spectrum from Gothic to shock- is your preference at one of he extremes or dead in the middle?
1 comment:
"Why do kids dress up as Dracula and not Carmila?"
You're right that Carmila is Gothic, not horror (my preference too, and why most modern horror novels make me snooze.)
But another good reason is that Carmila has serious lesbian overtones. It's true that Dracula has some kinky parts, but they're all boy-girl.
Anne Rice, move your butt over.
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