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Episode 541 - My Dear Emily (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-26 20:38:08
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

March is for Draculas Marches to a close with My Dear Emily by Joanna Russ!

Special thanks to reader Heather Klinke!

Also thanks to Greig Johnson for the March is for Draculas tag!

And how about that Pitch Black Manor Fright Night Video?!

Featuring the song BITEFIRE from Monster Classics!

Pitch Black Manor is also featured alongside My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult as well as dozens of other rad bands on Putting the Stars Right - An album to benefit the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council  - pick it up suckas!

Next Up: Bonus Episode on the film ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

Comments

Anonymous

Great story guys! I read it differently though. Had Emily actually been turned yet at the end? Martin, I felt, had been stringing Emily along (possibly as bait for Charlotte) or at least is not exclusively interested in Emily. He turns Charlotte and Emily is now going to be her devoted Renfield. I thought it was a neat reversal of the social situation at the start of the story- Emily is going to be in her gilded cage and resents it but Charlotte (without that option) resents her. In the end it's Charlotte who is in a (grim but glamorous) cage of vampirism and Emily is on the outside pathetically looking in. Besides the Lucy/Mina/Drac parallel and the offscreen Van Helsinging the other major nod to Dracula was the ethnic other- a Latin lover encroaching on Anglo Californian high society girls. Of course one wonders who the invaders are here? How long has Ledesma been in San Francisco? Since the days of Spanish California? (Is he Zorro?!)

Lord Rancid

Bitefire might be the gothiest track I've heard from PBM yet! Great job :)

Anonymous

The "Reverse Dracula" is what Mina and Lucy were giggling about in the Kama Sutra.

Ben Gilbert

Russ published a different ending in her collection Zanzibar Cat. A discussion is here on Ellen Datlow's blog: https://ellen-kushner.livejournal.com/166331.html?thread=1858747&fbclid=IwAR1CuqcFT8rVpey7LKbAVwHKZKAX9vtURH5IvKMAdqYxt0nlKciR81qVpwc#t1858747

Ben Gilbert
>>56500446

Here's the original ending starting with "And Emily screams; what a scream!" https://nehigrape.tumblr.com/post/646126932098973696/my-dear-emily-original-ending?fbclid=IwAR2zYqdDb3IfKyX6Vht-fY_CJnxJpUzRIsHOlAJXuPSZaojB7DOEHt4758w

Anonymous

While the alternate ending answers some questions, it raises others that I find even more intriguing. We realize in the original story that Charlotte's experiences have been at least as important as Emily's, despite being unnarrated. And here her assertiveness makes me wonder - does she welcome Martin's destruction, so that she can be the one to bring Emily into the vampiric fold? Is it possible that she even had a hand in it, by telling Emily's family where they could find Martin's mausoleum?

Anonymous

There's a lot to unpack in this story, and as Chris noted it's deliberately vague at times, leaving much open to interpretation. You can definitely see the path through the story of Emily escaping from the traditional, constraining bounds of her family/society and their expectations, using the lever of the outsider Martin to spring her loose. But the exact route of that path itself seems pretty subjective. Martin is an abusive, savage 'suitor'; he restrains his victims mentally - Emily cannot move away from his influence, when she tries, she finds herself unable to move or even walking closer – and physically, “digging his fingers into the hair, in a grip Emily can no more break than she could break a vise… his hands are strong enough to get anything.” And then he kills/loves/takes his victim whilst she is unconscious – and is it Emily, or Charlotte? There’s a passage where Martin ‘takes’ his victim that opens talking about Emily drifting aimlessly in unconsciousness, but afterwards just refers to ‘she’ and ‘his victim’ and closes on “Charlotte’s books have not prepared her for this.” Is he taking both girls on the same night, the two victims bleeding together in the text? After all, “a vampire who has found a soul-mate (even a temporary one) will be immoderate. There’s no stopping them.” I like to think Emily and Charlotte have more agency, and take more control of their destiny, than it might at first appear, once they realise what’s going on. It’s also related to the reason I’d go further than Sanjay and say that I prefer the magazine ending by a country mile over the Zanzibar Cat one (thank you To Sir, with Lovecraft for the link) - more on that to follow. Emily rapidly twigs what Martin is – but so, it seems, does Charlotte, as she clues the Reverend and William into what’s going on. She’d have to be quite dull-witted not to, after finding the bite wounds on Emily’s neck and, after all, “she has read more bad fiction than Emily and less moral poetry”. Which makes it all the stranger that she believes Emily when she turns off the lights and removes the wolfsbane. Does Charlotte actually know what she is doing, perhaps - consciously or unconsciously - allowing Martin access? She told the Reverend and William about what was happening so as not to lose Emily, but perhaps now sees a way for them both to be ‘carried off by savages’? Emily struggles against Martin’s influence throughout - even as she begins to change, she mentally vacillates between love and hate, “I love you. I hate you. You enchantment, you degrading necessity, you promise of endless love and endless time”. I think that ‘degrading necessity’ is key – Emily and Charlotte have to render themselves victims to Martin to get what they really want, ‘endless love and endless time’. When Emily seems to lose herself to Martin’s spell, Charlotte tries to save her whilst refusing to aid Martin (I like Joe’s reading above that maybe Charlotte even sold Martin out), but even when Emily tries to convince her father and William to let Martin go she is ‘perplexed to the bottom of her soul’ as she does so. And that’s why I like the shorter magazine ending – I can do without the whole “not without him” dramatics. The magazine ending is more deliberate. In this ending, Emily is not being a victim to either Martin or Charlotte, but making a choice for her (their) future: “Charlotte is her friend. She loves her: Charlotte in her new home will make room for her.” Charlotte and Emily have escaped both the constraints of society and the savages who carried them off to make their own path, together. This one is definitely Draculas 😊

Anonymous

Also, following the discussion on Martin's way of rising in the morning, I now have visions of Eddie Vedder clawing his way from the grave each morn growling, "Whooaoooah IIIIiiiii, Whoooaoooah I'm still alive!!!"

I Like the Cut of Your Gibbering

And another great March (is for Draculas) in the books. Can*not* wait for space weirdness April! If you guys are looking for a fun vampire read for March 2022 (or at any other point), I would suggest "Tower of Darkness" by David Madison! Just finished it last night, and it was a seriously fun read. Swords, thieves, and spooky night-time stalkers! Best to my research, it premiered Jan 1975 in Space & Time magazine, but was anthologized in Swords Against Darkness III, which was later referenced in Appendix N of the first edition Dungeon Master's Guide (so you can scratch that fantasy itch as well!) The story slid into view via some good friends at my friendly neighborhood bookstore. They posted about the new anthology, "Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons," by Peter Bebergal and published by Strange Attractor Press. With "Tower of the Elephant," and "The Doom that Came to Sarnath," it covers that classic era of sword & sorcery that's the fun brain candy you need after taking tea with ghostly English children in a manor!

Anonymous

I don't know that this was intentional, but I found the vagueness to be age-appropriate. I can remember doing all sorts of things at that age that were - even at the time - only vaguely considered. Heck, I dated a girl because we happened to be getting a ride in the back seat of a car and for reasons I do not understand at all, ended up kissing. Which makes me wonder, will their new undeadness become unwelcome as reality settles into clear and objective contours? Will their impulsive decisions come back to, er, haunt them?

Evan

I love the bit about vampires essentially being desire incarnate, and solely desire. Nothing to analyze or add, that was just really good and encapsulates why i think horror is such a fantastic medium for exploring human nature.

Anonymous

I wonder if Tom Holland read this story (the real Fright Night movie director)? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J9VEBREa68