guardians_song: A crop from FE7's Arcadia CG showing Nergal and two villagers chatting over scrolls. (analytical)
guardians_song ([personal profile] guardians_song) wrote2013-08-15 10:34 pm

Let's Read: Carmilla [Chapters 1-3]

Well, this is really going to be more a for-the-heck-of-it commentary than a serious Let's Read, but the book's short enough that I figure I could manage it. Everyone's probably read it already, so I'm not going to be skipping over any important content.

Carmilla is a vampire (short) novel that came out over two decades before Dracula, but never achieved the same level of notoriety. In all harshness, this is probably because it's less of a horror-novel than a protracted excuse to write femmeslash via a vampirism-metaphor before hastily wrapping it up with a condemnatory message. It's really rather Twilight-ish, if Edward had been a lesbian, Bella had been a tsundere, and he really had intended to nosh on her all along.

That said, at least it's fun. So let's dive in, shall we?

Prologue
Blahblahblah narrative device blahblahblah setting blahblahblah this occurred many years in the past and Our Hero is now dead, that's really the only thing this says in several paragraphs. Let me guess, Sheridan Le Fanu was paid by the word, wasn't he?

Chapter 1: An Early Fright
Alternatively: The story's ACTUAL prologue

We're now introduced to Laura, our narrator. She'll be nineteen when the story's taking place, and "eight years have passed since then". REMEMBER THIS LATER, because there will be a continuity error.

She lives with her father in an old castle in Styria, which is apparently a somewhat backwoods place that lets them live like kings on 800-900 pounds a year. They are, of course, English by origin, because Victorian England couldn't be bothered to read about those filthy furreners.

In Victorian florid prose, we learn that their residence is very picturesque, and they are in the middle of Picturesque Nowhere. The closest thing to them is a crypt three miles away, the closest humans are seven miles away in a village, and the closest castle is twenty miles away. Remember, this is all in the horse-and-carriage era. Point being, Laura doesn't get much human interaction aside from her father and the servants, though she's occasionally visited by and visits "two or three young lady friends" around her own age from neighboring regions.

That said, and the personalities of her servants described, we now launch into an incident that occurred when she was six years old. See, she woke up one night and was all alone, and so began to throw a tantrum... but there was this friendly young lady hanging about, who got on the bed and hugged her...

And immediately chomped her. Laura woke up, screaming, and the lady started back and ran off; though the servants, when they come running, attest that there was never anyone there, they do notice that the bed's still warm. And so, much prayer, caution, and quackery later, everyone forgets about it over the years...

Except for Laura.

Okay. Now, aside from the obvious, this chapter existed to set up the mood and to establish that everything's idyllic, except Something Being Very Wrong Here. I glossed over the Incident, but it actually takes up half the chapter, and it establishes the pattern for the entirety of the book that isn't about lesbian subtext. Something happens, everyone tries to pretend rationality about it but can't deny the inexplicable, and they try to forget about it while the reader knows exactly what's going on.

Regarding why Carmilla is going after a child - it's revealed later in the book that vampires ordinarily (fatally) dine and dash, and that they only show peculiar interest in a few victims, whom they befriend and drain over the course of weeks. As such, I think Laura's initially supposed to be a one-meal fatality, but either her waking up and screaming mid-meal or her childish charm made Carmilla decide to leave her be for now. Carmilla is restricted to hunting within a certain radius of her tomb, so the later meeting is possibly coincidental in-universe.

Next!

Chapter 2: A Guest
Alternatively: Well, Ain't That CONVENIENT?

Laura is informed that General Spielsdorf's niece and ward Bertha, whom she had been hoping to meet, has abruptly keeled over. He has also sent a rambling letter that does an astonishing job of saying nothing of importance in about 270 words. Yep, this is definitely Lesbian Twilight.

No, I kind of lied. He's really depressed and angry, he blames some "fiend who betrayed our infatuated hospitality", and he's going to go investigate. It also continues setting up the ominous and dramatic mood. Still... even Laura lampshades it.

General Spielsdorf's letter was so extraordinary, so vehement, and in some places so self-contradictory, that I read it twice over-the second time aloud to my father-and was still unable to account for it, except by supposing that grief had unsettled his mind.

Laura is greatly sorrowed by the loss of a potential girlfriend - er, lady friend.

It now being nighttime, they now engage in some more highly picturesque word-padding, and Laura's finishing-governess merrily babbles about superstitions regarding what such a bright moon means as far as spiritual activity. This is basically mood-setting word-padding, and the text admits it.

There are indolent styles of the spirits in which, indisposed to talk ourselves, the talk of others is pleasant to our listless ears; and I gazed on, pleased with the tinkle of the ladies' conversation.


Her father also quotes Shakespeare to set more of a mood, and shares his daughter's proclivity for lampshading.

But I feel as if some great misfortune were hanging over us.

Gee, you think?

(Incidentally, this is part of why reading the story outdoes any summary. There is a lot of mood-setting picturesque word-padding, and you're just not getting the proper experience by reading summaries. One wonders if Victorian authors did this intentionally to make sure their audience couldn't get by on plot summaries from friends. ...Nah.)

At that moment, a panicked bunch of horsemen and a carriage comes galloping along, and there is promptly a very convenient accident. It's now evident why the party might have been spooked, as there's a young lady who might be dead, and her dignified apparent-mother is somewhat hysterical over this. Or being utterly camp. It's not clear.

At any rate, she isn't dead, but her mother (who seems very Commanding and Important) is now insisting that their journey is a matter of life and death and that she can't delay even an hour. Therefore, if the kind sir would take in her poor girl for the time being...?

Laura is quite cheered to have a female companion, and her father chivalrously accepts. The young lady's mother promptly jumps back in the carriage and heads off, and the chapter ends.

Okay. Perhaps this would be less blatantly a set-up in the Victorian era, but the main marvel to a modern reader is that it's not instantly obvious to both Laura and her father that something is amiss. Incidentally, this does add a dimension of amusement to the book that perhaps wasn't originally there, as the characters are brightly oblivious to the bleedin' obvious.

I keep mocking the book for being padded, but it's supposed to be affectionate mocking. It's really quite pretty, all things considered. Unlike most word-padding, it is setting a tone, and it's meant to build anticipation. It's not even inconsistent with the plot, since the plot is mostly slice-of-life about a innocent tsundere being metaphorically seduced by her hot sophisticated BFF*, and so mood-setting is half the point.
*Yes. Slash tropes never change.

General Spielsdorf's letter is setting up events later on, as you can tell. We'll hear all about that later. For now, let's just take the Captain Obvious note that he was complaining of a "fiend who betrayed our infatuated hospitality", and that a mysterious young woman just showed up to take advantage of Laura's father's hospitality...

Another bit of foreshadowing is that at least one member of Carmilla's party (for that is Carmilla) has just demonstrated "theatrical" behavior - i.e. a hint that they're accustomed to putting on a marvelously convincing act.

Finally, this marks the start of a gradual turn towards the darker. We started with Laura's idyllic if lonesome surroundings, and are now progressing through a mystical, moonlight night. More and more ominous hints will occur as Carmilla's stay continues, culminating in the infodump that reveals all.

...I admit, I'm not much of a book-analyst, so I may be skipping over obvious symbolism. Myself, I don't think the subtext in Carmilla is very subtle, so I'm going to be gloating in it when it appears and probably missing anything subtle. Again, however, I figure everyone else has already read it...

Chapter 3: We Compare Notes
Alternatively: I can't believe that pickup line worked

Now the story actually picks up!

We have some picturesque word-padding of the inside of Laura's house, and we learn from the conversation between Laura's governesses and Laura's father that Carmilla is very pretty (did we mention pretty?) and that her mother's servants looked like sleazes. In typical Victorian fashion, light coloration = good, dark coloration = bad. Did I mention Laura's a blonde? Ah, well, you'll learn in a moment.

Laura's father tells her that Carmilla's mother confided that Carmilla is in bad health, but not crazy, definitely not crazy, nope, totally. Even Laura the-merrily-oblivious raises an eyebrow at this. Also, Carmilla's mother went on about how she was on a Very Important Mission... Tell you what, just stick in any Thanfiction spiel into that woman's mouth and it would probably fit.

After the physician returns with news that Carmilla won't be keeling over any time soon, Laura, who is desperately happy to have someone new with whom to interact, immediately requests and receives permission to see her. There is more picturesque word-padding, BUT THEN...

Gasp! It's the same woman as in her old dream!

Carmilla doesn't exactly help when she acquires a sudden OH HAI expression.

After about a minute, Carmilla comes up with a convenient excuse decides to speak, which is helpful because Laura is doing her best to provide a real-life illustration of the D8 emoticon. You see, she totally dreamt about Laura twelve years ago! Except Laura was the young woman and she was the little girl, and dream!Laura just started screaming for no reason. Uh-huh. If you believe this, folks...

Laura does, however, and so we learn that Laura is a tsundere.

[...] Now the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards the the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, “drawn towards her,” but there was also something of repulsion. In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging.

Yes, I know the "repulsion" is supposed to result from her unconscious revulsion at Carmilla's unnatural state, and the "attraction" is supposed to be vampire wiles. Nominally, at least. But, taking the obvious femmeslash reading... yeah, she's just being a tsundere. It's totally not like she's got fuzzy feelings towards this chick, baka. She- she's just inexplicably drawn towards her! That's it! A-and she's kind of hostile to her, too, so d-don't get any funny ideas!

Carmilla insists that she doesn't want any servants staying up with her and that she needs to lock her door due to a fear of robbers. This is an obvious lie and a plot point, but have I mentioned that Laura is dense? Ah, well, perhaps it was more acceptable during the Victorian Era.

And they go to bed, having decided within the hour that they'll be BFFs. Well, Laura has decided to be Carmilla's BFF.

She held me close in her pretty arms for a moment and whispered in my ear, “Good night, darling, it is very hard to part with you, but good night; to-morrow, but not early, I shall see you again.”

Carmilla has decided to start sounding like a ship-fic on overdrive.

Laura narrates that "Young people like, and even love, on impulse" and describes Carmilla, the next day, as "the most beautiful creature I had ever seen". I... okay. Do I even have to highlight the subtext here? And around there is when we end our chapter.

Okay. I'm cutting out several descriptions of Carmilla as "pretty" because the next chapter is packed with femmeslashy subtext. In fact, it's of unusual length (looks about twice/thrice the length of the average chapter) and contains the majority of the subtext and of Carmilla's character development, so I may give it its own post.

I will, however, note that the cliches used are already heavily pointing towards a romantic relationship rather than a platonic one. Even keeping in mind that Carmilla's bullshitting when she claims to have seen Laura "in childhood", this...
“I don’t know which should be most afraid of the other,” she said, again smiling—“If you were less pretty I think I should be very much afraid of you, but being as you are, and you and I both so young, I feel only that I have made your acquaintance twelve years ago, and have already a right to your intimacy; at all events it does seem as if we were destined, from our earliest childhood, to be friends. I wonder whether you feel as strangely drawn towards me as I do to you; I have never had a friend—shall I find one now?” She sighed, and her fine dark eyes gazed passionately on me.
...would rather obviously still fit if Carmilla was using a different word than "friend". And I know Beauty = Goodness was an unquestioned cliche back then, but my, starting any sentence with "if you were less pretty" does look like a come-on.

Laura also feels instantly drawn to her and describes her as "the most beautiful creature I had ever seen". And they met through a wonderful coincidence. And Laura is an untouched innocent about to be befriended *cough, cough* by a dark, mysterious stranger. My, my.

Not to get too much ahead of myself, but this is a bit like Twilight done well. And, surprisingly, Carmilla manages to be much more sympathetic than Edward even with the knowledge that she's thinking somewhat with her stomach around Laura. Part of it is that Edward is a pompous, nasty wretch... but part of it is that Carmilla comes off as far more sincere in all her declarations of overwhelming love. They're technically doing all the same things - taking strolls with their love interests and talking about how in love they are - but Carmilla pulls it off where Edward doesn't.

Part of what makes Carmilla more convincing is that Laura is a tsundere where Bella happily drapes herself all over Edward, so Carmilla persists despite rejection while Edward... would probably run off to sob on a penguin if Bella refused him. Or force himself upon her presence, which is another point - Carmilla can't physically overpower Laura by the light of day. She walks in the daylight without turning into a fireball, but she's weaker "than a three-year-old child". As such, Carmilla is left to drape herself all over Laura and make many dramatic declarations, whereas Edward can just drag Bella by the arm to his car. True, by night she's using Laura as a soft-drink dispenser, but all the characterization takes place by the light of day. By daylight, she's a desperately passionate invalid who has all her advances rebuffed by a very dense tsundere, whereas Edward is a smug, sneering Superman whose only problem is that Bella wants to hump his perfectly-shaped marble leg too much.

Anyway, we'll get to that when we hit that point. And here we'll end this Let's Read for now.