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I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I'm loving this vampire con artist. "Oh please, my preternaturally beautiful daughter simply must stay with you while I attend a matter of the utmost secrecy and importance. No, don't ask anything about it. Yes, she must be allowed alone around your daughter. Farewell."
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Oct 15, 2022 14:14
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poisonpill posted:It’s really really obvious but a lot of le Fanu’s material is direct or indirect allusion to the absentee landlords of Ireland. It’s probably less interesting to modern audiences than the lesbian vampire reading, but there’s a lot in Carmilla about the English owners of the land sucking it dry and dead, and giving nothing back to the people (who are being literally fed on). This is good context to have and I appreciate it. I know some of the standard European vampire stories can be read as a general indictment of the aristocracy, but it's nice to have a specific historical issue to point to. It's definitely something I wouldn't get on my own reading.
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Oct 22, 2022 21:32
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Just finished and I'm letting it simmer in my head, but like others said it's got a vibe I enjoyed overall. The characters who can't help but be drawn to each other, knowing there's no real future to be had and that they're prolonging the inevitable and maybe even compounding the eventual hurt they'll experience. Is it worth going into a relationship you know is doomed? Is there value in the experience itself even if it's "worthless", like with Komako's diaries or Shimamura's obsession with ballets he'll never see, or Yoko nursing the doomed man. There's a risk of the tipping point where you go too far and the pain is greater than the joy, though, such as both women wanting to go to Tokyo with Shimamura and all three knowing it's impossible. All against the background of the mountain in the changing seasons, notably the autumn and winter when things inevitably die before coming back in some form in the spring. The textiles that were woven in those cold months and which Shimamura believes will far outlive their creators, finding some kind of new life. Just a story that sort of ponders out these kinds of questions. I enjoyed it and it's not a book I would've picked up on my own, probably. Thanks, reading club.
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Nov 26, 2022 22:09
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