Vampires, zombies and us

Have you ever read Carmilla by Le Faun? He wrote that back in 1872. He was an Irish author, yet his vampire tale was set in a country called Styria, and the vampire was female. Perhaps it's because I very rarely have ever read any vampire books, especially the old ones, like this, that I really don't like them. I told myself for years that it was because they were too... wordy. This tale was printed, prior to publication as a book, as a serial in a magazine. Later it was published in Le Faun's book In a Glass Darkly, which included other of his tales. I got the book titled Carmilla: A Critical Edition written by Kathleen Costello-Sullivan in 2013. It includes the Le Faun tale but also includes critiques from other authors. Those critiques convinced me again why I never liked vampire books.

In 2013 I went to visit a friend who painted me as a zombie. I wasn't yet old, but my make-up made me look... well, sort of dead. That's what zombies are about. Zombies came from the Haitian Caribbean area and are identified by Wikipedia as "fictional undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse". (There is further reading at the bottom of the page, after the 'references', if you don't feel happy with Wikipedia, but there's lots of information in that page.) Most of us in that parade saw zombies as 'fun' rather than real.

There were some dressed up as vampires in that parade, but I have no idea if they knew the difference between zombies and vampires. Those creatures were undead in European folklore and "often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighborhoods they inhabited while they were alive", according to Wikipedia. It's page ends with lots of notes and referenced readings. (Ever read on after a Wikipedia page? You should do.)

Gothic novels are where vampires (and, recently, zombies) are included, and I really don't like 'Gothics'. My feast is fantasy, but very recently I wrote a speculative short story about a vampire who has his own army of zombies. This probably has been written so much to drown the books lists, but because I don't like vampires I haven't read anything like this, so my short story must be, well, 'new'. Actually, I can't even print it here until it's marked at the university I'm with, but I probably won't get a high mark because I might look... dead. As a writer.

Still, reading the Wikipedia pages about vampires and zombies and where they came from sent me on another research search: how come Le Faun, an Irishman who never believed in vampires, wrote about a vampire? In fact, the vampire, Carmilla, or Millarca or Mircalla or Marcilla, is also a lesbian, which was illegal in Ireland until 1993, yet Le Faun didn't seem to worry about writing lesbianism into his tale, let alone his inclusion of vampires! Costello-Sullivan said that Le Faun was not including politics in Ireland into his vampire tale, but that "the eponymous character herself serves as a form of aisling figure", perhaps included by Le Faun as his own political angst of the two different Irish religions.

If you are into vampires don't just read Bram Stoker (1897's Dracula), but also read John Polidori. He wrote The Vampyre in 1819, before Stoker and Le Faun and any other vampire author. Perhaps you can let me know how you found that - I haven't read it... I think I will continue with the speculative fantasy, even with a zombie or two included in them: that would make me feel, well, not quite so 'undead'.