Scary Stories

I usually give my props to my geek roots during October. When I was a kid, I watched the old Universal horror movies (Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, et al) every Sunday afternoon. I loved the serial nature of those movies, where the monsters developed over the course of several films. They met and fought each other in an endless loop of sepia toned violence.

Of course, Universal only made a limited number of these films. Soon, I'd seen them all, some of them several times. My apetite for these characters was not satisfied and I turned to their literary origins to sustain me. Although I was only 9-10 years old at the time, I struggled through Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mery Shelley's Frankenstein. Parts of it went right over my head but I began a lifelong interest in nineteenth century novels that soon matured into a love of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens (as well as less high brow stuff like J.S. LeFanu).

But October isn't about Dickens or Austen. October is the month of lonely glaciers, howling wolves and storm-tossed ships manned by the dead. I try to return to those books and relive my love for the characters and lose myself in the purple prose. When the classic movie channels show the old Universal movies, I can fully indulge in my monster movie jones.

This October is a little different. I left one job and I prepare myself for the new one with such frightening works as O'Conners Annotated Federal Rules. What little time I've had for pleasure reading was devoted to Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, which describes the Bush Administration's preparations for the Iraq War (which I concede is pretty scary). Although I recently finished that book, I find I have little time to revisit Mr. Stoker and I cannot find my copy of Frankenstein.

So I turn to Mr. LeFanu. Mr. LeFanu was an Irish writer in the gothic style, as popular in his day as Dickens and Wilke Collins. His specialty was the ghost story, usually set in remote spots and lonely country roads, and I have several collections of them. They are short enough for a quick read on a blustery night. But this year I settled upon his novella Camarilla. Camarilla is the first modern vampire tale (it predates Dracula by at least a decade), although you wouldn't recognize the vampire in it. It takes place in a lonely castle in Eastern Europe, where a lonely young woman is slowly seduced and turned by the titular character over the course of many gloomy days and nights. It is great stuff and highly recommended to anyone interested in vampires or gothic literature.

Of course, one can't read any of these great stories without also listening to Phillip Glass' Dracula soundtrack.