Adaptation...is a cultural practice; specific adaptations need to be approached as acts of discourse partaking of a particular era's cultural and aesthetic needs and pressures, and such an approach requires both 'historical labor and critical acumen' 19. Brian McFarlane's "Novel to film: an introduction of the theory of adaptation" is the single most important book on adaptation in the 1990s 23. Looking Glass analogy of adaptation where one influences the other and back again as it metamorphosizes mutually and reciprocally 30.
Cartmell and Whelehan
Postmodern Hollywood cinema owes to Starwars as the source of most of the intertextuality as intertexuality has become the norm. Starwars is maybe even the urtext of our civilization replacing even the bible 43. The similarities of many texts to Starwars is uncanny. The use of wands/dueling/swords with phallic undertones reinforcing the patriarchal order (for good or bad) , the dark side, betrayal of a teacher, belonging to another world that makes you special, although there are special powers - the real heros come out of physical endurance and mental fortitude 44.
Sarah Martin
Film depends on the character's performance since it is drama whereas the novel depends on the narrative and character 52.
Jose Angel Garcia Landa
Adaption as a word assumes similarities between the film and the novel, however often the differences are more important and interesting 182.
Mireia Aragay and Gemma Lopez
Bakhtinian Diologism in regards to the original text and the intertextuality involved in films and novels 202. Use of iconic actors that the audience will already associate with one film into another 214.
Pedro Javier Pardo Garcia
Frankenstein has been redone so many times that it is not even the source text that is adapted, but other versions of the film are the point of departure - same with Dracula 224.
***Delicatesian and City of lost children as influential***
Francis Ford Coppola uses all the old vampire films to create a composite vampire that exists in a very self-aware film about Dracula 227. ***See old vampire films to fill in how NW is composite*** Film adaptation is always a transformation and a deviation and cannot be reduced to the comparisson of film and novel. It is myth, genre, character, discourse and image converge in the reception or interpretation 238. Adaptation is also acculturation - it represents the culture in which the novel was written and the film produced and is wrapped up in the cultural traditions of each work. It is not only a influenced by the previous films adapted, which act as a repository of images , motifs and themes, but also by contemporary adaptations of different texts which share a certain approach to adaptation, both visual and ideological 238.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Elliot "Rethinking the Novel/film debate"
Films quickly learned to cut on character movement to hide transitions between shots 20.
Surveys of numbers of books sold as a result of a film of the book having just come out. In 1985 46% of books either borrowed or sold were based having just seen the TV adaptation 55. Films do or do not show twice what only needs to be shown once. They have a scene that speaks for itself, then they have the actors speak in the scene - is it the same as with illustrated novels or is it only applicable to subtitles? 92. Questions about film and montage being only relevant in films, though connecting film to novels and away from theater? 123. Does montage exist in novels as well? 124. She takes up that there is some similarity between film and novel and that is that they both draw on a number of other art forms and namely that of the theater 125. If the novel did presume film it is only in that it showed how to combine so many different art forms in a single form 125. Film credits and erases the basis from the novel as a foundation for itself. Film is not novel and cannot be 130. Many will say that a film cannot be made of a novel if the novel is not cinematic and to do so means that the novel needs to have as much of the literary taken out of it 129. Adaptation suggests that there is something to study in film from novels and that the two are not mutually exclusive, but translatable 133. The spirit of the novel through the author 136. The spirit of the film sort of achievemnet allows the director to make a film that is wholly different from that of the novel 138. The attention paid to completeing the spirit of the novel into a film means that the form has very little attention 139. The psychic concept of film adaptation tries to complete the spirit of the original novel taking into account the author as well as the reader and the novel. The ventrilequist concept attempts to take out that which cannot remain and to substitute something better, according to the screen writer or director 145. Both concepts assume that meaning can be divorced from form and can be derived from the novel, film or surrounding culture as a nebulous spirit 150. There is also a narratological concept of film adaptation that allows for differences of plot strategies - it does not get rid of the form/ concept duality of interpretation. Russian formalist terms Syuzhet (a notion of concept or what is told) and fabula (a concept of form or how it is told) 150. there is also the De(Re)composing concept where the film is made "unfaithfully" from the novel by only following through on a single element in the novel - rejections of certain parts for others 157. The Incarnation concept of filmaking from a novel assumes that the characters and novel only become their full potential and reach the totality the author should have infused once they show up on screen 161. This follows the "word made flesh" concept from Christianity where jesus is more than the words on the page of the bible 161. The term "Realization" comes out of this concept where the art form only finds true realization through the adaptation of it through another art form - from the mind's eye to the body's eye 162. There is also the trumping concept of adaptation where the film claims to trump the novel; the film critiques the novel's claim to representational prowess while asserting its own 175. "This account primitivizes the novel aestetically and makes the film an archeological dig of the novel's buried elements and of its makers potential" 175. Analogy is the dominate model for analyzing the similarities and differences between films and novels 184. Relationship of man and object - does the object speak for itself in its element or does it have to be explained 208? Elements of negation - to be obsessed with death instead of life 214. Does the novel represent people and characters differently through their difference body parts? Does the novel use the inside of the character's head and mind/soul? Does the film make use of the outward appearance or a voice over or even to use different body parts 219? Is there signifcant use of metaphore in the novel that comes out as metamorphasis in the film? how is change shown in either? 231. Auditory or musical figures are important to discern in a film as well and how they relate to the novel or what they do for the film that couldn't be done in the novel 239.
Surveys of numbers of books sold as a result of a film of the book having just come out. In 1985 46% of books either borrowed or sold were based having just seen the TV adaptation 55. Films do or do not show twice what only needs to be shown once. They have a scene that speaks for itself, then they have the actors speak in the scene - is it the same as with illustrated novels or is it only applicable to subtitles? 92. Questions about film and montage being only relevant in films, though connecting film to novels and away from theater? 123. Does montage exist in novels as well? 124. She takes up that there is some similarity between film and novel and that is that they both draw on a number of other art forms and namely that of the theater 125. If the novel did presume film it is only in that it showed how to combine so many different art forms in a single form 125. Film credits and erases the basis from the novel as a foundation for itself. Film is not novel and cannot be 130. Many will say that a film cannot be made of a novel if the novel is not cinematic and to do so means that the novel needs to have as much of the literary taken out of it 129. Adaptation suggests that there is something to study in film from novels and that the two are not mutually exclusive, but translatable 133. The spirit of the novel through the author 136. The spirit of the film sort of achievemnet allows the director to make a film that is wholly different from that of the novel 138. The attention paid to completeing the spirit of the novel into a film means that the form has very little attention 139. The psychic concept of film adaptation tries to complete the spirit of the original novel taking into account the author as well as the reader and the novel. The ventrilequist concept attempts to take out that which cannot remain and to substitute something better, according to the screen writer or director 145. Both concepts assume that meaning can be divorced from form and can be derived from the novel, film or surrounding culture as a nebulous spirit 150. There is also a narratological concept of film adaptation that allows for differences of plot strategies - it does not get rid of the form/ concept duality of interpretation. Russian formalist terms Syuzhet (a notion of concept or what is told) and fabula (a concept of form or how it is told) 150. there is also the De(Re)composing concept where the film is made "unfaithfully" from the novel by only following through on a single element in the novel - rejections of certain parts for others 157. The Incarnation concept of filmaking from a novel assumes that the characters and novel only become their full potential and reach the totality the author should have infused once they show up on screen 161. This follows the "word made flesh" concept from Christianity where jesus is more than the words on the page of the bible 161. The term "Realization" comes out of this concept where the art form only finds true realization through the adaptation of it through another art form - from the mind's eye to the body's eye 162. There is also the trumping concept of adaptation where the film claims to trump the novel; the film critiques the novel's claim to representational prowess while asserting its own 175. "This account primitivizes the novel aestetically and makes the film an archeological dig of the novel's buried elements and of its makers potential" 175. Analogy is the dominate model for analyzing the similarities and differences between films and novels 184. Relationship of man and object - does the object speak for itself in its element or does it have to be explained 208? Elements of negation - to be obsessed with death instead of life 214. Does the novel represent people and characters differently through their difference body parts? Does the novel use the inside of the character's head and mind/soul? Does the film make use of the outward appearance or a voice over or even to use different body parts 219? Is there signifcant use of metaphore in the novel that comes out as metamorphasis in the film? how is change shown in either? 231. Auditory or musical figures are important to discern in a film as well and how they relate to the novel or what they do for the film that couldn't be done in the novel 239.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Bluestone " Novels into films"
The difference between novels and films is the novel as "a conceptual and discursive form, the film as a perceptual form...the filmmaker merely treats the novel as raw material and ultimately creates his own unique structure" ix. The author suggests that to assume that the film will reproduce the novel in whole is impossible: "mutations are probable the moment one goes from a given set of fluid , but relatively homogenous, conventions to another; that changes are inevitable the moment one abandons the linguistic for the visual medium...the end products of novel and film represent different aesthetic genera 5. he suggests that it is even fruitless to suggest that one is better than the other as one would not suggest the same comparing architecture with ballet 6.
Time, Sound differences from novel to film 64.
Time, Sound differences from novel to film 64.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Daniel Collins - Vampire course, various texts
Vucinich
The hearth of the home was connected to magic from the old days when it was used as a place of sacrifice and religious shrine.Traditionally, the hearth linked the living family with the descendants and the members still unborn. Nearly all customs and religious practices too place in front of the fireplace. The hearth disappeared with the Communist laws that made the peasants get stoves to replace them. The stoves were more sanitary and better for the health of people in the house, but they could not be used to conduct the same rites, so many customs were lost with the use of stove over hearth 11. The personal religious practices of the family were a combination of pagan and Christian. The rites and the rituals were often pagan and related to family health, livestock breeding and harvesting. The Serbian Orthodox church represented for them little more than the rites for birth, marriage, death, and its position as a pillar of nationalism. Few knew anything about the history of the church or its teachings. Most family members spent no more than a couple days a year at church and many no more than a dozen or so in their lives. The head of the household led the prayers for health and so on, which were spontaneous and sincere 13.
Foster
Groups of people live by a cognitive understanding that forms their social, political, economic world. It is rational because it makes sense to the group. Irrational ideas can only be considered to be the result of coming to a different idea within the group than that which ordinarily governs the group 1. The peasant views his life in a mindset of Limited Goods - like the land there is only so much and never enough. In order for one person to improve, he must do it at the expense of another 2. Goods are ever depleting too because of the increase in population and lack of change in farming techniques. Wealth is only inherited, it cannot be grown 3. Friendship, love and affection are limited in a peasant lifestyle. Children fuss and are envious of newborns because the older children lose the attention and the milk from mother - they also lose the nutrition from breast milk and may have a protein deficient diet thereafter 3. Health preoccupations are common in peasant societies. Scientific medicine is not common and folk remedies are no match 4. Blood is often seen as a Limited Good and cannot be restored if lost 4. Masculinity is a also a Limited Good as is machismo - as a man you attack another man by attacking their self worth as a man and can retorted with the same or by a knife if the honor is hurt 4. People who feel threatened within the scope of Limited Good react to threats by either forging bonds with those close to them or through extreme individualism 5. Peasant societies almost always choose the later. In order to come together, they must have a strong leader democratically chosen and delegate authority - however peasant societies are unable to delegate power well. The gathering of power is also seen as a threat to the powers outside the community that govern the peasants 5. There is a system of Mutual Distrust that comes out of the hierarchy and governs peasants within the community. Individuality exists as a family, not a person since the family in a peasant community is more able to take care of itself than in a fishing and hunting community 5. The peasant is expected to exist in the status quo. They are expected to not increase their wealth or become more prosperous and all members of the community understand each others' levels of wealth at all times 6. In order to maintain this system there is a series of rewards and punishments for not adhering to the unwritten law 6. The jealousy and envy of a peasant that feels that another has gained or that they have lost can be shown overtly or hidden 6. The self-correcting mechanisms of this system exist on three levels: 1 Individual and family, 2 informal and 3 institutional 6. On the individual level the ways to avoid sanction are to keep added wealth secret or to not fall behind. If one gains in wealth it is common to try to show that it is not a threat to the community by using it through ritual expenditures. The way to power in a peasant community is not to gain leadership positions or to compete for wealth, but to remain as inconspicuous in position and behavior as possible 6. An ideal man will not take on a leadership position because it leads to not being ideal 7. One may go out of their way to deny doing well as an attempt to keep another from envying him 7. Complimenting a fellow villager is a an attack - it is stating that they are rising above the dead-level that keeps everyone the same and secure. It is suggesting that the person is subject to further attack and sanctions 7. If a peasant should seek to rise above the village standard the sanctions will ensue: these may be gossip slander backbiting, character assassination, witchcraft, threat of witchcraft and sometimes violence 7. The sanctions are usually informal, but they can be institutionalized 7. If a family does well, they will offset the threat they hold to the community by spending lavishly on public funtions like weddings, funerals, and festivals. They redistribute so that they lower the standard so everyone remains a have-not, but everyone is richer in community experience 8. In order to get ahead it must involve outside sources - seasonal emigration to work is the most common. It is still envied, but not seen as a threat 8. The accumulation of wealth even by these means is often considered to have been the work of fate or the devil providing a found treasure for a pact - the treasure tales are a way to explain the accumulation of sudden wealth in a community 8. The person who receives help from a wealthy patron outside the community is seen envied, but the advantages he receives are not. This shows that the accumulation of wealth even from outside the community is seen as luck, fate and favor of deities, but not as a function of hard work, thrift, and energy 8. Hard work is not seen as a way to move from a landworker to a landowner. The only way to get rich in agriculture is to get out of agriculture 9. The tendency to see these communities as cooperatives is common, but really they are larger individualized communities. The Mutual Suspicion cast against community members inhibits cooperation and results in reciprical obligations more than community 9. If should seek out a cooperative endeavor he sets himself up for sanctions for expoliting friends and neighbors and to the works of a less skilled or less moral peasant 9. Hard work is not only seen as a fool for trying to gain against the system, but the man who gambles and simply tries to put himself in a greater luck position is seen as the wiser 9. This is perhaps why the lottery is so popular in third -world countries. The way out through hard work is blocked, but by risking a bit to win a boon, no matter the odds, he is putting himself in a better to position to be lucky and is working toward success 9.
Rheubottom
Children are taught from an early age to be wary. To trust or to be too greedy lead to harm 5. There is great theft and anything not guarded or locked down is stolen. The people learn to protect oneself at an early age 5. All members of an extended family show the same level of wealth. if one shows too much they make themselves a potential victim from jealousy 6. If someone come calling to borrow something or ask of money the host will show them great hospitality, but will boast of how poor they are and try to show that they have no money 6. All household items and practices are under the additional protection of the household saint and spells cast to protect. However all of these are only useful under certain proscribed conditions - like being under the roof of the house or being hidden or with the certain fasts and prays said according to the tradition 6. Success is the result of luck, not of hard work 7. Luck is had by those who have it. Unlucky doesn't exist, but the absence of luck does. Taking from the lucky by a person who is without luck at that moment is to simply make things more equal in the universe 7. Unusual success is undeserved and is the cause of evil especially if it is quickly given. Success may be had over the course of several generations, but not by one 7. Those that are rather unfortunate are thought to be so as the result of a great sin that is being enacted against the family for 100 years. So to see one who is unfortunate is to see one who has sinned and so to make their lot worse by harassment is but to further the wishes of god trying to punish for sins 8. Evil is then said to reside in the households where there is great fortune or misfortune. It is either there causing great success or there causing strife. Success is also gained by stealing someones magic and luck as seen in fertility or infertility in a family 8. Those who have must guard against those who are jealous and without. Those who are without must try to get back that which they assume must have been stolen or kept rightly from them and given to another family 8. The evil eye is the potential for evil. It is caused in children when they are weaned and then cry and the mother relents and gives in from her resoluteness and feeds the child 8. You never know who possess the evil eye, but those with it are said to know they have it. Things of value are kept from their view so it cannot be stolen. That is a boundary is kept secure against the possibility of the evil eye finding it 9. Women are said to be prone to attack by the evil eye because they are weak and selfish and prone to creature comforts 9. A woman needs to be tamed by a man in order to root out the selfish and to instill the good hardworking characteristics they should have 9. A woman that does not act appropriately is because she has a bad husband or father and they are the ones who are shamed as the woman is powerless against her instinct 9. There is a fear in this society that families separate and are not unified because women cause this rift. All they want is to stay by the fire and not work in the fields and so they are jealous of those older women that are allowed to 10. If a man is weak he will give into his wife's pestering over the inequality of the work and separate off from the family and then she is able to stay at home with her children 10. This separation weakens the family as there are fewer caretakers at home for children, fewer men in the field, a split of the inheritance and so on - all caused by women 10. The evil eye in some children can cause illness and death 11. Evil can come from within - the case of the trusted family member or outside - one who crosses the border and steals from them 11.
Klanaczay
There is s connection between the attempt to abolish witch hunts in Hungary in the 18th century and related scandals concerning vampires 1. About half of all the witch hunts in Hungary resulted in the death of the accused 2. The prevalence of witch hunts had been a problem in much of Europe and had reached high numbers in Germany, France and Scandinavia. Official decrees outlawing the witch hunts eventually quelled the numbers. Maria Teresa in Hungary was moved to do so, not as a result of the numbers of witch hunts, but because there was a rising numbers of vampire related issues coming out of Moravia 2. Maria Teresa enacted decrees against all sorts of hunts against those with magic (even the dead) 3. MT used ENlightenment ideas of rational thought to support her cause for ending the witch hunts 3. The people eventually took relief from the ending of the trials, but it took time 4. MT's ending of the trials came also with influence from her closest advisors. Van Swietan, her court doctor and closest advisors wrote a treatise on vampires and states that all this comes out of ignorance and much that was once miraculous is shown to have natural causes and that people had always used this against the people 5. The vampire synthesizes beliefs from central and Balkan europe from 5 different types of magical beliefs: revenants, stryx - who came in the night and sucked blood of children, alps - who press on people during the nights, witches - who came to life after death, werewolves - men turned to wolves come to devour men 6. These accounts started to mulitply in the 17the centruy after teh first clear case in Silesia in 1591, Bohemia in 1618, Poland 1624 6. Most of these cases involve people coming back from the grave after an unusual circumstances like suicide or dying unbaptised or haveing been excommunicated 6. They come back and cause trouble until they are exumed and stuck through the body with a pole, or beheaded or the heart taken out and burned from their undecayed bodies 7. The accounts are rather sketchy as they come down from chronicles and do not tell specifically about either the deceased or teh victim 7. Although the folklore is basically Greek or Slavic European understanding of the phenomenon came though the events from the Hungarian region 7. The most famous chronicler of these events wrote about them i Hungary and Hungarian used the Serbian or Balkan word upir and the world came to know the word vampire 8. The interest in vampires became greater in Europe even though the witch burnings were still going on in greater numbers. In Western Europe there had been a decline in witch burnings for some time and so the Eastern threat of vampires caught people's interest 8. For the religious, vampires brought a new trouble since they represented some of the same traits as their saints - resurrection. The incorruption of the human body after death, radiating a light and growing hair and fingernails had been a sign of saintliness and so vampires were a negative reflection of the saints 8. The bloodsucking phenomenon also shows a reflection of the specific life-giving traits from Christ, especially in the medieval era 9. Some considered this a superstition and one to be rooted out by education to the ignorant and so gave the upper classes a greater task 9. In 1752 Pope Benedict XIV spoke of the 'vanity of the vampire beliefs' when speaking of saints. In the early part of the 18th century there was a lot of new literature about the occult and such as a sort of counter culture to the rationalist thinkers and the end of the 18th century saw a number of new types of healing that involved mesmerizing and hypnotizing 9. Other authors at this time started to write about the types of energy that existed in the human body even after death - ideas that had been around since Plato 10. Others wrote about the body and the soul or nightmares and fears plauguing people and doing them harm 10. All of this shows that as soon as the vampire became a part of the public consciousness it was a topic upon which people were attracted and continued to be as it became a topic for literature 10. It was at this time that the vampire in literature gained the trait of sexuality and the vampire's bite became the kiss of death as questions of the history of sexuality started to be asked 10. In 1770s the term bloodsucker and the mythical vampire of Eastern Europe came to be used as a metaphoric social term for tax collectors and the like 12.
The hearth of the home was connected to magic from the old days when it was used as a place of sacrifice and religious shrine.Traditionally, the hearth linked the living family with the descendants and the members still unborn. Nearly all customs and religious practices too place in front of the fireplace. The hearth disappeared with the Communist laws that made the peasants get stoves to replace them. The stoves were more sanitary and better for the health of people in the house, but they could not be used to conduct the same rites, so many customs were lost with the use of stove over hearth 11. The personal religious practices of the family were a combination of pagan and Christian. The rites and the rituals were often pagan and related to family health, livestock breeding and harvesting. The Serbian Orthodox church represented for them little more than the rites for birth, marriage, death, and its position as a pillar of nationalism. Few knew anything about the history of the church or its teachings. Most family members spent no more than a couple days a year at church and many no more than a dozen or so in their lives. The head of the household led the prayers for health and so on, which were spontaneous and sincere 13.
Foster
Groups of people live by a cognitive understanding that forms their social, political, economic world. It is rational because it makes sense to the group. Irrational ideas can only be considered to be the result of coming to a different idea within the group than that which ordinarily governs the group 1. The peasant views his life in a mindset of Limited Goods - like the land there is only so much and never enough. In order for one person to improve, he must do it at the expense of another 2. Goods are ever depleting too because of the increase in population and lack of change in farming techniques. Wealth is only inherited, it cannot be grown 3. Friendship, love and affection are limited in a peasant lifestyle. Children fuss and are envious of newborns because the older children lose the attention and the milk from mother - they also lose the nutrition from breast milk and may have a protein deficient diet thereafter 3. Health preoccupations are common in peasant societies. Scientific medicine is not common and folk remedies are no match 4. Blood is often seen as a Limited Good and cannot be restored if lost 4. Masculinity is a also a Limited Good as is machismo - as a man you attack another man by attacking their self worth as a man and can retorted with the same or by a knife if the honor is hurt 4. People who feel threatened within the scope of Limited Good react to threats by either forging bonds with those close to them or through extreme individualism 5. Peasant societies almost always choose the later. In order to come together, they must have a strong leader democratically chosen and delegate authority - however peasant societies are unable to delegate power well. The gathering of power is also seen as a threat to the powers outside the community that govern the peasants 5. There is a system of Mutual Distrust that comes out of the hierarchy and governs peasants within the community. Individuality exists as a family, not a person since the family in a peasant community is more able to take care of itself than in a fishing and hunting community 5. The peasant is expected to exist in the status quo. They are expected to not increase their wealth or become more prosperous and all members of the community understand each others' levels of wealth at all times 6. In order to maintain this system there is a series of rewards and punishments for not adhering to the unwritten law 6. The jealousy and envy of a peasant that feels that another has gained or that they have lost can be shown overtly or hidden 6. The self-correcting mechanisms of this system exist on three levels: 1 Individual and family, 2 informal and 3 institutional 6. On the individual level the ways to avoid sanction are to keep added wealth secret or to not fall behind. If one gains in wealth it is common to try to show that it is not a threat to the community by using it through ritual expenditures. The way to power in a peasant community is not to gain leadership positions or to compete for wealth, but to remain as inconspicuous in position and behavior as possible 6. An ideal man will not take on a leadership position because it leads to not being ideal 7. One may go out of their way to deny doing well as an attempt to keep another from envying him 7. Complimenting a fellow villager is a an attack - it is stating that they are rising above the dead-level that keeps everyone the same and secure. It is suggesting that the person is subject to further attack and sanctions 7. If a peasant should seek to rise above the village standard the sanctions will ensue: these may be gossip slander backbiting, character assassination, witchcraft, threat of witchcraft and sometimes violence 7. The sanctions are usually informal, but they can be institutionalized 7. If a family does well, they will offset the threat they hold to the community by spending lavishly on public funtions like weddings, funerals, and festivals. They redistribute so that they lower the standard so everyone remains a have-not, but everyone is richer in community experience 8. In order to get ahead it must involve outside sources - seasonal emigration to work is the most common. It is still envied, but not seen as a threat 8. The accumulation of wealth even by these means is often considered to have been the work of fate or the devil providing a found treasure for a pact - the treasure tales are a way to explain the accumulation of sudden wealth in a community 8. The person who receives help from a wealthy patron outside the community is seen envied, but the advantages he receives are not. This shows that the accumulation of wealth even from outside the community is seen as luck, fate and favor of deities, but not as a function of hard work, thrift, and energy 8. Hard work is not seen as a way to move from a landworker to a landowner. The only way to get rich in agriculture is to get out of agriculture 9. The tendency to see these communities as cooperatives is common, but really they are larger individualized communities. The Mutual Suspicion cast against community members inhibits cooperation and results in reciprical obligations more than community 9. If should seek out a cooperative endeavor he sets himself up for sanctions for expoliting friends and neighbors and to the works of a less skilled or less moral peasant 9. Hard work is not only seen as a fool for trying to gain against the system, but the man who gambles and simply tries to put himself in a greater luck position is seen as the wiser 9. This is perhaps why the lottery is so popular in third -world countries. The way out through hard work is blocked, but by risking a bit to win a boon, no matter the odds, he is putting himself in a better to position to be lucky and is working toward success 9.
Rheubottom
Children are taught from an early age to be wary. To trust or to be too greedy lead to harm 5. There is great theft and anything not guarded or locked down is stolen. The people learn to protect oneself at an early age 5. All members of an extended family show the same level of wealth. if one shows too much they make themselves a potential victim from jealousy 6. If someone come calling to borrow something or ask of money the host will show them great hospitality, but will boast of how poor they are and try to show that they have no money 6. All household items and practices are under the additional protection of the household saint and spells cast to protect. However all of these are only useful under certain proscribed conditions - like being under the roof of the house or being hidden or with the certain fasts and prays said according to the tradition 6. Success is the result of luck, not of hard work 7. Luck is had by those who have it. Unlucky doesn't exist, but the absence of luck does. Taking from the lucky by a person who is without luck at that moment is to simply make things more equal in the universe 7. Unusual success is undeserved and is the cause of evil especially if it is quickly given. Success may be had over the course of several generations, but not by one 7. Those that are rather unfortunate are thought to be so as the result of a great sin that is being enacted against the family for 100 years. So to see one who is unfortunate is to see one who has sinned and so to make their lot worse by harassment is but to further the wishes of god trying to punish for sins 8. Evil is then said to reside in the households where there is great fortune or misfortune. It is either there causing great success or there causing strife. Success is also gained by stealing someones magic and luck as seen in fertility or infertility in a family 8. Those who have must guard against those who are jealous and without. Those who are without must try to get back that which they assume must have been stolen or kept rightly from them and given to another family 8. The evil eye is the potential for evil. It is caused in children when they are weaned and then cry and the mother relents and gives in from her resoluteness and feeds the child 8. You never know who possess the evil eye, but those with it are said to know they have it. Things of value are kept from their view so it cannot be stolen. That is a boundary is kept secure against the possibility of the evil eye finding it 9. Women are said to be prone to attack by the evil eye because they are weak and selfish and prone to creature comforts 9. A woman needs to be tamed by a man in order to root out the selfish and to instill the good hardworking characteristics they should have 9. A woman that does not act appropriately is because she has a bad husband or father and they are the ones who are shamed as the woman is powerless against her instinct 9. There is a fear in this society that families separate and are not unified because women cause this rift. All they want is to stay by the fire and not work in the fields and so they are jealous of those older women that are allowed to 10. If a man is weak he will give into his wife's pestering over the inequality of the work and separate off from the family and then she is able to stay at home with her children 10. This separation weakens the family as there are fewer caretakers at home for children, fewer men in the field, a split of the inheritance and so on - all caused by women 10. The evil eye in some children can cause illness and death 11. Evil can come from within - the case of the trusted family member or outside - one who crosses the border and steals from them 11.
Klanaczay
There is s connection between the attempt to abolish witch hunts in Hungary in the 18th century and related scandals concerning vampires 1. About half of all the witch hunts in Hungary resulted in the death of the accused 2. The prevalence of witch hunts had been a problem in much of Europe and had reached high numbers in Germany, France and Scandinavia. Official decrees outlawing the witch hunts eventually quelled the numbers. Maria Teresa in Hungary was moved to do so, not as a result of the numbers of witch hunts, but because there was a rising numbers of vampire related issues coming out of Moravia 2. Maria Teresa enacted decrees against all sorts of hunts against those with magic (even the dead) 3. MT used ENlightenment ideas of rational thought to support her cause for ending the witch hunts 3. The people eventually took relief from the ending of the trials, but it took time 4. MT's ending of the trials came also with influence from her closest advisors. Van Swietan, her court doctor and closest advisors wrote a treatise on vampires and states that all this comes out of ignorance and much that was once miraculous is shown to have natural causes and that people had always used this against the people 5. The vampire synthesizes beliefs from central and Balkan europe from 5 different types of magical beliefs: revenants, stryx - who came in the night and sucked blood of children, alps - who press on people during the nights, witches - who came to life after death, werewolves - men turned to wolves come to devour men 6. These accounts started to mulitply in the 17the centruy after teh first clear case in Silesia in 1591, Bohemia in 1618, Poland 1624 6. Most of these cases involve people coming back from the grave after an unusual circumstances like suicide or dying unbaptised or haveing been excommunicated 6. They come back and cause trouble until they are exumed and stuck through the body with a pole, or beheaded or the heart taken out and burned from their undecayed bodies 7. The accounts are rather sketchy as they come down from chronicles and do not tell specifically about either the deceased or teh victim 7. Although the folklore is basically Greek or Slavic European understanding of the phenomenon came though the events from the Hungarian region 7. The most famous chronicler of these events wrote about them i Hungary and Hungarian used the Serbian or Balkan word upir and the world came to know the word vampire 8. The interest in vampires became greater in Europe even though the witch burnings were still going on in greater numbers. In Western Europe there had been a decline in witch burnings for some time and so the Eastern threat of vampires caught people's interest 8. For the religious, vampires brought a new trouble since they represented some of the same traits as their saints - resurrection. The incorruption of the human body after death, radiating a light and growing hair and fingernails had been a sign of saintliness and so vampires were a negative reflection of the saints 8. The bloodsucking phenomenon also shows a reflection of the specific life-giving traits from Christ, especially in the medieval era 9. Some considered this a superstition and one to be rooted out by education to the ignorant and so gave the upper classes a greater task 9. In 1752 Pope Benedict XIV spoke of the 'vanity of the vampire beliefs' when speaking of saints. In the early part of the 18th century there was a lot of new literature about the occult and such as a sort of counter culture to the rationalist thinkers and the end of the 18th century saw a number of new types of healing that involved mesmerizing and hypnotizing 9. Other authors at this time started to write about the types of energy that existed in the human body even after death - ideas that had been around since Plato 10. Others wrote about the body and the soul or nightmares and fears plauguing people and doing them harm 10. All of this shows that as soon as the vampire became a part of the public consciousness it was a topic upon which people were attracted and continued to be as it became a topic for literature 10. It was at this time that the vampire in literature gained the trait of sexuality and the vampire's bite became the kiss of death as questions of the history of sexuality started to be asked 10. In 1770s the term bloodsucker and the mythical vampire of Eastern Europe came to be used as a metaphoric social term for tax collectors and the like 12.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Fredrick White, "Marketing strategies: Vadim Andreev in dialogue with the Soviet Union"
"...cultural relationships, which exist within an economic environment are understood as transaction of tangible and intangible products within an economic framework of markets, exchange value, price, and other such concepts. 185" "Pierre Bordieu call [these] symbolic capital, which confers upon an individual artist the reputation for competence and an image of respectability. 186" "Many of the same market pressures were involved in securing a publisher, eliciting positive reviews, and promoting the author's works. Arguably, within the Soviet Union money actually played a secondary role in comparison to symbolic capital... 186." "...cultural production is as much an exchange commodity with relative values as diamonds or gold. 189" "The Thaw period allowed for and legitimized new players within Soviet social space as authorities attempted to restructure ideology, economics, politics, and culture. This cultural boom in the 19602 enhanced the role of literature in society, especially given the attempt by these same authorities to exchange cultural capital for economic and social capital. The works of repressed Russian, emigre, and international literary figures all benefited from this new investment in symbolic capital 190." " The economist David Throsby suggests that there is both tangible and intangible cultural capital. Both have their own quantifiable economic and cultural value 191." "The intent of branding is to tap into social trends and systems or to be noticed by society not simply as a brand, but as something much more. 192" "The most effective type of ad campaign is the one that co-opts social themes, and advertising and marketing accomplish this by appropriating the symbols of a society, adapting them, and recycling them as their own. 193" "...there was a level of collusion in this struggle for legitimacy, which is not uncommon in cultural markets. Though the polemical arguments of critics and scholars about a work of art might sometimes seem ruthless, the conflict safeguards the overall investment made in the artist by these same people. This invisible collusion results in permanent production and reproduction of the author's work, enhancing its symbolic capital and raising it relative value. The artist is not the only one to benefit, but also the entire collection of people who have consecrates the work of the artist. this relationship, as an example, extends from the scholar to even the editorial board which accepts a text for publication. collusion is particularly clear when it can be demonstrated that a majority of the scholarly articles about an author under consecration appear in one specific journal or from a particular publishing house. This suggests that the consecration process goes beyond just the author and the literary experts, including even the editors and editorial boards in the broader validation of symbolic capital. 193" "Works of art receive value only from a collective belief in a particular artist and the shared willingness to produce and reproduce his literary works. 197"
Monday, February 21, 2011
Perkowski: Vampie Lore "Vampires of the Slavs - Introduction"
Vampires as left over from pre-Christian pagan beliefs 61. Old world vampires thought caused as a result of bad burials and this is something that has not altogether been eradicated in modern civilization. People still make mistakes. Reference to Poe's "The premature burial" is an example of the old world belief 62. 19th century literary vampire confuses real vampire lore 63. In the news: cannibalism and its affect on vampire understanding 64. A summary of the texts used in the book and how they pertain to the occult - Doyle's "The Parasite" reference 65. Afanas'ev introduced 65. Gypsies and Serbian vampires 66. Jacobson cited for noting that daemonology in Slavic folklore is not the same as literary types 66. A.K. Tolstoy influenced by Merimee wrote Vourdalak family in French about a Serbian vampire 67. Connection of rabies and fear of water to vampires 67.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Perkowski: Vampire Lore - "Vampires, Dwarves, and Witches..."
The Ontario Kashubs hold on to their old religious ways in the face of the new religious and cultural forces that would sweep them away. They do so because they are traditional and very old and demand respect. They are thought to work when the new ways do not and are called on in times of stress especially and even can be used to cure or hex if evil is called for 4. They believe in Daemonology - "Supernatural beings of Greek mythology intermediate between gods and men 5." The members of this community draw on the dynamism of the belief as it is their own and part of their cultural heritage. It is different from either the literary versions of such beliefs that take away its dynamism or the understanding of Satanists that pervert the belief or pick and choose such beliefs from multiple sources to suit their interests 5. The primary daemons of the Canadian Kashubs are (neither fully human or fully supernatural) the vampire and witch - basically human - and the dwarf and succuba - basically supernatural. There are others, but they appear mostly infrequently - representing mostly ghosts and devils or various sorts 15. The Kashubian for vampire is either "opji" or "vjesci" 16. **Description of vampires in Kashubian cultural from Dr. Lorentz 17-18. Descriptions from informants to P on how they are born, killed and precautions against vampires. How vampires kill including bloodsucking 18-22. There is little change in vampire belief from its source in Europe except for the poplar crosses instead of rosary 22. The means by which Kashubians can tell a vampire in birth and death is lessening as is the dynamism of the belief in the culture because of the more frequent use of hospitals in birth and mortuaries in death so that access to the process is lost. People's ailments are attributed to other factors instead of to vampires 22. Discourse on witches in Kashubian society. They are different from those in Europe in that they don't have a pact with the devil, but implant their own devil in a person. When a witch dies they pass it on by a blow on the shoulder - which makes the devil pass from one person to another. The antidote is to repeat the blow back so the devil returns to their original possessor - this is often done in the church before a service - the community center - and makes for a violent spectacle from otherwise docile old woman 23. Of witches and black magicians that can take away the spells of witches often through food implantation 24-25. Evil eye: horses and jealousy 25. Stangers and evil eye 26. Black magicians cure more than do spells 26-29. Dwarves and braiding hair or switching children at birth 30-31. Dwarves dancing in crop circles 31-32. Dwarves and money 33. Dwarves and milk 34. Succuba - girls unbaptised that choke during sleep or attack horses 34-37. Conclusions and summaries of the reasons for the various supernatural elements in their lives. Explanations of the unknown and the conquering of fear 37-38.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Jan Perkokowski "Vampire Lore" - Preface
The origins of the Dracula are based in Slavic Vampire Folklore, yet are rarely given credit for such iv. Perkowski was told by a Slavic immigrant to Canada - in the 1960s - that he is a vampire v. In the west the image of a vampire is romanticized and terrible, "the symbol of pure evil" he is much more "nuanced and ambiguaous" in the Slavic folklore v. P's evidence of a Slavic source for vampirism has been slowly recognized, and with resistance in the west, because of the reliance on a 19th century literary/metaphorical basis in the Gothic and Romantic traditions vi. The literary/film and folkloric traditons for vampirism are quite different. The literary according to Marx is centered around capitalism, whereas the folkoric traditons are based in a religious, agrarian, broad realm that includes people's beliefs in life and death and the afterlife vi. One of the reasons why the understanding of the vampire is unclear in the West is because of the geographical and historical differences between the Catholic/Protostant and the Orthodox/Islamic worlds vii. The folkloric vampire is not static and there is much that is contradictory and confusing vii. Vampirism seems to be dying out in Eastern Europe because the traditional agrarian society upon which it depends is giving way to urbanization and globalization. The Western idea of the Vampire is coming to these areas and is taking over viii.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Artamanova - "Moi drug - vampir"
Children's story. Easy language.
Girl has a nightmare about vampires and wakes up to find it isn't true, but then hears outside her window a man threatening another man's life. She goes and tells her friend about it and they decide that they want to check it out. 2 They got our of bed at 3am and met in the yard and headed to the burnt out store in the area and saw and heard a man asking for help. He said he was a vampire and with the coming sun he would be burned alive if they didn't help him get down from the rope on which he was strung up. They did so just before the sun came up. 3 The next day they met and decided to go back and see if the vampire was still there. He was and he warned them not to come closer because he could only control the thirst so long. He needed blood and told them to leave, but gave them a request to retreive his amulet from the poplar at the other end of the Dacha area. They go to get it, but when they pull it out of the tree's hallow the village's thug comes up with his gang and argues about it. 5 A well dressed man that looks like a saint come up to the group and asks about renting a room in the village and Pavel, the thug, tells him they rent a room and so they go off together. 6 Sveta and Tanya are found by their classmate Zhanna who comes up to them and talks a lot. Then a group of Bikers ride up and ask about where to get milk in the area and are pointed out by Sveta. Then Zhana continues to tell them that she met the villlage witch and that they can become her apprentices. 7 they decide to go and do it and wait for the evening to give the amulet to the vampire. They are told by the witch about the druids and how witchcraft came to be. 8 After the girls left the witch they saw Pavel and sat down with him to ask questions about the area and he regaled them with tales of wonder and intrigue that take place on the haunted lake and woods and so on. 10 They all part and Sveta goes home. Here mom tells her not to hang out with Pavel because he is trouble. At night Sveta cannot sleep and sits awake. Pavel comes to her room and climbs in the window. Pavel tells her about the motercycle men he saw digging up a grave and maybe killing a vampire. He is going back that morning and tells Sveta to go too. However, Sveta, Tanya and Zhanna go to the witches house and are told about more things and are given a wish a piece. 15 The girls then go to where the cemetary is located and Pavel starts to dig around the grave and finds under the tombstone a tunnel or something and they dig hoping to find a vampire, but find one of the twins has been smothered by a cavein. The girls run for help. 17 Sveta finds the man with the saint-look and he comes back and helps get the twins out and safe. A crowd gathers and so does sveta's mom. Sveta is grounded from evening walks. 18 Sveta uses the advice of the witch and asks her mom eye to eye if she may and the mom allows it as if in a spell. They all go to the witch and have a seance. Tanya brings the vampire's amulet as a tallisman for his love. It ends and they go home in the dark, but meet the vampire on the way and he tells them not to go to the witch anymore as all the dark forces feed the same spirit and they are all connected. He knows that she will want something in return and will take their spirits. 21 He asks for the amulet and tanya tells him it is hidden well for now and will get it and so leaves. Sveta asks about the nature of vampires. He tells them it is a terrible thing and that they live on the spirit of someone else's energy, bit just on the blood, so donor blood doesn't work forever. They are also solitary people and need a large hunting ground or they will be discovered and killed. They do however only kill for the upkeep of their physical beings. They do not kill for all the reasons that people kill - envy and the like. 21 They went looking for Tanya and found the motorcycle men destoying her home - they are vampire hunters and the saint like guy is their boss. They followed Kristian - the vampire for a while to this village. Sveta and Kristian went to the witches house and found nobody there too. Teh amulet is said to be able to destroy the world. Sveta is left on a chapple's steps and Kristian goes out looking for tanya. 23 While Sveta sits there Pavel comes and tells her that he and Mitya are going looking for the vampires they were earlier. Sveta sets out with them, but Mitya goies missing and Pavel goes for him and Sveta is alone. Someone comes up behind her and holds her mouth - all disappears.
Part II
Sveta woke up in a log cabin of sorts next to Tanya. they didn't remember getting there and didn't know where they were. A nurse came in and gave them a series of tests and asked a lot of questions and took some blood. The nurse seemed to mesmerize them into answering the questions immediately. Then they were fed and ate voraciously as if they had been magically ordered to do so. 25 They met the head of the underground house and he is a vampire that makes food out of the local people, but keeps them alive to do so. The girls are put in a room with Natasha - who likes it there. They get to go for a bit to the bottom of a well - connected to the underground house - to get sun and meet Pavel and Mitya there again. They talk of rebellion, but make little head way. Vampires underground are as strong as they are at night and so they must be prey to this parasite as if they are cattle. 29 Iren, the nurse meets with the girls agian to go over their blood work and tells them how she came to work underground. She used to make famous people vampires to give them eternal youth and then fell in love with a man - turned vampire - that increasingly called her a killer for her vampirism and broke up with her. She was devastated and took to working with the Head in order to not kill and to maybe get her love back. 30 Tanya and Sveta spent three nights working in the garden and living there and the third night Kristian came and got them out while he fought the other vampire security. The girls ran, but the forest confused them and they ran in circles and they understood the truth about the forest deceiving people and holding vampires to eat them. They end up caught by a living tree-monster that demanded they have a conversation with them. 33 The escaped and ended up in the hands of the vmapires again and were set to die the next moringin, but the denn was set on fire and the Vampire Killers were there and all the kids escaped. Iren was saved from Pavel by Sveta Becasue Iren saved them from the fire. There was a weirdly dressed woman singing a sad song at the edge of the forest while they all slept outside, but only sveta and Tanya heard or saw her. 36 The girls left for their village and straight to the witches's place. There they met up with Zhanna again and it turns out that she was the woman at the edge of the forest. She has spent too much time with the witch and maybe with a vampire and is turning cold. Sveta gets away from a fog that sucks their energy and runs away as the withch invites them into her house. 38 Sveta goes back to the vampire hunters and gets one to come with her to help her friends. he explains that it is mostly a trick of hypnosis and that one should not look her in the eyes. He, with Pavel's help get the girsl out of there and get the with and put a sack over her head. 39 the witch and Zhanna are set to burn at the stake as it is the only way to get rid of witch and fire cleanses as the characters say from time to time. 40 Morality tale - Sveta womders who is good and bad. ALex kills vampires and saves people, but doesn't feel for them at all. Kristian is a vampire, but tries not to kill people and feels an obligation to them. Sveta and Tanya were tied up because they were considered untrustworthy of letting Zhanna go free. Sveta excapes because Mitya cuts her loose because he doesn't believe she is a witch. Sveta goes to the witches house and finds Kristian and convinces him to help her free Zhanna. 42 He frees her and leaves her in the woods and finds her way back to the village after the vampire hunters leave town - Pavel with them. THe girls go to Kristian during the day. 43
Part III
Sveta goes back to school and meets up with Tanya and Zhanna in Biology. The Bio teacher is sick and Bloody Alex from their summer adventures is the teacher. zhanna has blood red hair, but faints when she sees Alex. They try to figure out why he is in their small town and it must be more than just Zhanna. Tanya asks Sveta to draw her a picture of Kristian so she can remember him. 47 Sveta drew a picture, but the pencil seemed to do all the work itself as if it were reading her mind from her nightmares. It was a weird scene that developed. 48 One day after school Sveta walked home and noticed a man was following her home. It was a vampire and he stopped her as she was about to go into a building near hers. She mentioned Bloody Alex and the vampire stopped for a second - enough for Sveta to run away into a friend's apt. They told the vampire he would never be invited into the apt and so he left to feed on other kids, but said that he would come back to kill Sveta and then Alex. 49 Sveta told Alex about it the next day and he knew about the vampires in the town and that Orkus was there too and that all the vampires there were from his band. Orkus was an ancient vampire and very rare and dangerous. Kristian was trying to get to him to kill him for killing his friend and this is why Alex let Kristian free Zhanna and get away during the summer. Alex knows that Kristian and Sveta are friends and that the only way to get to Kristian is through SVeta and the only way to get to Orkus is through Kristian, so Alex waits. Meanwhile Zhanna has a spell and faints after being possessed or something. Sveta's mom finds her drawings and thinks that she is going crazy. 51 Sveta's friends continue to notice weird things going on and attribute them to the vampires and witches around them. At school in the gym a weird thing happened where some of the girls got a blood sucking parasite on them and Alex had to be called in. It was obvious to Sveta that it had somehting to do with the strange new hairdo that Zhanna had in school since hair was involved with the parasite. Sveta found Zhanna later crying in the library. Zhanna admitted that her hair contained the parasites and the parasites needed feeding. She would leave her hair on buses and such and later tried to cut it off but it made things worse. The parasites are always hungry and the witch won't be happy. 52 The witch Lara showed up and took zhanna away sonce she made the choice back in the summer. Ale showed up and explained it to Sveta. THe promise of youth sucks a lot of people in and holds great danger. The story takes on a cautious morality here as Sveta questions wheather curiosity really is that dangerous and can end in death? Zhanna simply wanted to know how the world worked and paid for it with her life - too cruel. 53 Tanya's parents leaft town for a couple days and left her alone. Sveta sets out for her at and meets up with the vmapire she met before. BEfore he could bite her Orkus steps in and stops him because others are watching. Sveta goes on to Tanya's place and Kristian is there. 54 Kristian tells them about how Orkus killed his love for the amulet and that kristain is maybe only 40 years old. He mentions that vampire skin can instictively tell the age of items and so he knew the amulet was 1000 years old. 56 Their friend Tolkachev came over to give some chemistry notes back to Tanya and at that moment the vampire hunters came in. THey gave Kristian a choice to harm the children or to give himself up to help find Orkus and the portal that may be opened between worlds. He agreed to help and they left taking Tanya with to assure K does what he promised. Tolkachev and Sveta remain and set out to help Kristian. 57 They set out for the square and find it empty because of the great unseen power in the are that keeps people and animals afraid of it. Sveta and T go towards a broken down building assuming orkus will do his thing there. On the way they find Iren. She is after Pavel - who she assumes will be worse than Bloody Alex when older. SHe knows Kristian and made him become a vampire so he would have eternal beauty of youth. 58 Iren said she would kill all those that tried to kill Kristian and left. 58 Sveta and T went to the area and found Orkus and the other vampires starting their magical circle. Sveta leaves T there to observe while she went around to see. She sees PAvel and Tanya talking and then Iren comes up. 59 Iren turns pavel into a vampire so he will be killed by Alex. She then goes and Tanya, and Sveta follow to where Kristian is. Kristian is about to be killed and IRen steps and saves him, but is shot by Alex. Kristian and ALex form a bond to defeat ORkus. 62 Sveta and Tanya are taken to where T is held as the sacrifices. Kristain comes and fights some of the vampires while most of orkus's vampires hold the magical circle. Alex arrives to fight ORkus. 63 ALex ends up near the amulet and places his part of the amulet on the others and takes up the power of the entire thing with all parts together as one. Alex kills all the vampires on the field and gets ready to kill Kristian, but he hides. Alex wants the power to kill all evil in the world and admits he is willing to use the three kids as the necessary sacrifices to do so. 64 While Alex is redoing the spells T gets loose and pushes over the tripod that holds the amulet and Kristian puts in some key that kills it - or something. They all get away. ALex lives, but is unconscious for now. 64 The key and the amulet may open again in a generation or nearer, but for now it is safe. done.
Girl has a nightmare about vampires and wakes up to find it isn't true, but then hears outside her window a man threatening another man's life. She goes and tells her friend about it and they decide that they want to check it out. 2 They got our of bed at 3am and met in the yard and headed to the burnt out store in the area and saw and heard a man asking for help. He said he was a vampire and with the coming sun he would be burned alive if they didn't help him get down from the rope on which he was strung up. They did so just before the sun came up. 3 The next day they met and decided to go back and see if the vampire was still there. He was and he warned them not to come closer because he could only control the thirst so long. He needed blood and told them to leave, but gave them a request to retreive his amulet from the poplar at the other end of the Dacha area. They go to get it, but when they pull it out of the tree's hallow the village's thug comes up with his gang and argues about it. 5 A well dressed man that looks like a saint come up to the group and asks about renting a room in the village and Pavel, the thug, tells him they rent a room and so they go off together. 6 Sveta and Tanya are found by their classmate Zhanna who comes up to them and talks a lot. Then a group of Bikers ride up and ask about where to get milk in the area and are pointed out by Sveta. Then Zhana continues to tell them that she met the villlage witch and that they can become her apprentices. 7 they decide to go and do it and wait for the evening to give the amulet to the vampire. They are told by the witch about the druids and how witchcraft came to be. 8 After the girls left the witch they saw Pavel and sat down with him to ask questions about the area and he regaled them with tales of wonder and intrigue that take place on the haunted lake and woods and so on. 10 They all part and Sveta goes home. Here mom tells her not to hang out with Pavel because he is trouble. At night Sveta cannot sleep and sits awake. Pavel comes to her room and climbs in the window. Pavel tells her about the motercycle men he saw digging up a grave and maybe killing a vampire. He is going back that morning and tells Sveta to go too. However, Sveta, Tanya and Zhanna go to the witches house and are told about more things and are given a wish a piece. 15 The girls then go to where the cemetary is located and Pavel starts to dig around the grave and finds under the tombstone a tunnel or something and they dig hoping to find a vampire, but find one of the twins has been smothered by a cavein. The girls run for help. 17 Sveta finds the man with the saint-look and he comes back and helps get the twins out and safe. A crowd gathers and so does sveta's mom. Sveta is grounded from evening walks. 18 Sveta uses the advice of the witch and asks her mom eye to eye if she may and the mom allows it as if in a spell. They all go to the witch and have a seance. Tanya brings the vampire's amulet as a tallisman for his love. It ends and they go home in the dark, but meet the vampire on the way and he tells them not to go to the witch anymore as all the dark forces feed the same spirit and they are all connected. He knows that she will want something in return and will take their spirits. 21 He asks for the amulet and tanya tells him it is hidden well for now and will get it and so leaves. Sveta asks about the nature of vampires. He tells them it is a terrible thing and that they live on the spirit of someone else's energy, bit just on the blood, so donor blood doesn't work forever. They are also solitary people and need a large hunting ground or they will be discovered and killed. They do however only kill for the upkeep of their physical beings. They do not kill for all the reasons that people kill - envy and the like. 21 They went looking for Tanya and found the motorcycle men destoying her home - they are vampire hunters and the saint like guy is their boss. They followed Kristian - the vampire for a while to this village. Sveta and Kristian went to the witches house and found nobody there too. Teh amulet is said to be able to destroy the world. Sveta is left on a chapple's steps and Kristian goes out looking for tanya. 23 While Sveta sits there Pavel comes and tells her that he and Mitya are going looking for the vampires they were earlier. Sveta sets out with them, but Mitya goies missing and Pavel goes for him and Sveta is alone. Someone comes up behind her and holds her mouth - all disappears.
Part II
Sveta woke up in a log cabin of sorts next to Tanya. they didn't remember getting there and didn't know where they were. A nurse came in and gave them a series of tests and asked a lot of questions and took some blood. The nurse seemed to mesmerize them into answering the questions immediately. Then they were fed and ate voraciously as if they had been magically ordered to do so. 25 They met the head of the underground house and he is a vampire that makes food out of the local people, but keeps them alive to do so. The girls are put in a room with Natasha - who likes it there. They get to go for a bit to the bottom of a well - connected to the underground house - to get sun and meet Pavel and Mitya there again. They talk of rebellion, but make little head way. Vampires underground are as strong as they are at night and so they must be prey to this parasite as if they are cattle. 29 Iren, the nurse meets with the girls agian to go over their blood work and tells them how she came to work underground. She used to make famous people vampires to give them eternal youth and then fell in love with a man - turned vampire - that increasingly called her a killer for her vampirism and broke up with her. She was devastated and took to working with the Head in order to not kill and to maybe get her love back. 30 Tanya and Sveta spent three nights working in the garden and living there and the third night Kristian came and got them out while he fought the other vampire security. The girls ran, but the forest confused them and they ran in circles and they understood the truth about the forest deceiving people and holding vampires to eat them. They end up caught by a living tree-monster that demanded they have a conversation with them. 33 The escaped and ended up in the hands of the vmapires again and were set to die the next moringin, but the denn was set on fire and the Vampire Killers were there and all the kids escaped. Iren was saved from Pavel by Sveta Becasue Iren saved them from the fire. There was a weirdly dressed woman singing a sad song at the edge of the forest while they all slept outside, but only sveta and Tanya heard or saw her. 36 The girls left for their village and straight to the witches's place. There they met up with Zhanna again and it turns out that she was the woman at the edge of the forest. She has spent too much time with the witch and maybe with a vampire and is turning cold. Sveta gets away from a fog that sucks their energy and runs away as the withch invites them into her house. 38 Sveta goes back to the vampire hunters and gets one to come with her to help her friends. he explains that it is mostly a trick of hypnosis and that one should not look her in the eyes. He, with Pavel's help get the girsl out of there and get the with and put a sack over her head. 39 the witch and Zhanna are set to burn at the stake as it is the only way to get rid of witch and fire cleanses as the characters say from time to time. 40 Morality tale - Sveta womders who is good and bad. ALex kills vampires and saves people, but doesn't feel for them at all. Kristian is a vampire, but tries not to kill people and feels an obligation to them. Sveta and Tanya were tied up because they were considered untrustworthy of letting Zhanna go free. Sveta excapes because Mitya cuts her loose because he doesn't believe she is a witch. Sveta goes to the witches house and finds Kristian and convinces him to help her free Zhanna. 42 He frees her and leaves her in the woods and finds her way back to the village after the vampire hunters leave town - Pavel with them. THe girls go to Kristian during the day. 43
Part III
Sveta goes back to school and meets up with Tanya and Zhanna in Biology. The Bio teacher is sick and Bloody Alex from their summer adventures is the teacher. zhanna has blood red hair, but faints when she sees Alex. They try to figure out why he is in their small town and it must be more than just Zhanna. Tanya asks Sveta to draw her a picture of Kristian so she can remember him. 47 Sveta drew a picture, but the pencil seemed to do all the work itself as if it were reading her mind from her nightmares. It was a weird scene that developed. 48 One day after school Sveta walked home and noticed a man was following her home. It was a vampire and he stopped her as she was about to go into a building near hers. She mentioned Bloody Alex and the vampire stopped for a second - enough for Sveta to run away into a friend's apt. They told the vampire he would never be invited into the apt and so he left to feed on other kids, but said that he would come back to kill Sveta and then Alex. 49 Sveta told Alex about it the next day and he knew about the vampires in the town and that Orkus was there too and that all the vampires there were from his band. Orkus was an ancient vampire and very rare and dangerous. Kristian was trying to get to him to kill him for killing his friend and this is why Alex let Kristian free Zhanna and get away during the summer. Alex knows that Kristian and Sveta are friends and that the only way to get to Kristian is through SVeta and the only way to get to Orkus is through Kristian, so Alex waits. Meanwhile Zhanna has a spell and faints after being possessed or something. Sveta's mom finds her drawings and thinks that she is going crazy. 51 Sveta's friends continue to notice weird things going on and attribute them to the vampires and witches around them. At school in the gym a weird thing happened where some of the girls got a blood sucking parasite on them and Alex had to be called in. It was obvious to Sveta that it had somehting to do with the strange new hairdo that Zhanna had in school since hair was involved with the parasite. Sveta found Zhanna later crying in the library. Zhanna admitted that her hair contained the parasites and the parasites needed feeding. She would leave her hair on buses and such and later tried to cut it off but it made things worse. The parasites are always hungry and the witch won't be happy. 52 The witch Lara showed up and took zhanna away sonce she made the choice back in the summer. Ale showed up and explained it to Sveta. THe promise of youth sucks a lot of people in and holds great danger. The story takes on a cautious morality here as Sveta questions wheather curiosity really is that dangerous and can end in death? Zhanna simply wanted to know how the world worked and paid for it with her life - too cruel. 53 Tanya's parents leaft town for a couple days and left her alone. Sveta sets out for her at and meets up with the vmapire she met before. BEfore he could bite her Orkus steps in and stops him because others are watching. Sveta goes on to Tanya's place and Kristian is there. 54 Kristian tells them about how Orkus killed his love for the amulet and that kristain is maybe only 40 years old. He mentions that vampire skin can instictively tell the age of items and so he knew the amulet was 1000 years old. 56 Their friend Tolkachev came over to give some chemistry notes back to Tanya and at that moment the vampire hunters came in. THey gave Kristian a choice to harm the children or to give himself up to help find Orkus and the portal that may be opened between worlds. He agreed to help and they left taking Tanya with to assure K does what he promised. Tolkachev and Sveta remain and set out to help Kristian. 57 They set out for the square and find it empty because of the great unseen power in the are that keeps people and animals afraid of it. Sveta and T go towards a broken down building assuming orkus will do his thing there. On the way they find Iren. She is after Pavel - who she assumes will be worse than Bloody Alex when older. SHe knows Kristian and made him become a vampire so he would have eternal beauty of youth. 58 Iren said she would kill all those that tried to kill Kristian and left. 58 Sveta and T went to the area and found Orkus and the other vampires starting their magical circle. Sveta leaves T there to observe while she went around to see. She sees PAvel and Tanya talking and then Iren comes up. 59 Iren turns pavel into a vampire so he will be killed by Alex. She then goes and Tanya, and Sveta follow to where Kristian is. Kristian is about to be killed and IRen steps and saves him, but is shot by Alex. Kristian and ALex form a bond to defeat ORkus. 62 Sveta and Tanya are taken to where T is held as the sacrifices. Kristain comes and fights some of the vampires while most of orkus's vampires hold the magical circle. Alex arrives to fight ORkus. 63 ALex ends up near the amulet and places his part of the amulet on the others and takes up the power of the entire thing with all parts together as one. Alex kills all the vampires on the field and gets ready to kill Kristian, but he hides. Alex wants the power to kill all evil in the world and admits he is willing to use the three kids as the necessary sacrifices to do so. 64 While Alex is redoing the spells T gets loose and pushes over the tripod that holds the amulet and Kristian puts in some key that kills it - or something. They all get away. ALex lives, but is unconscious for now. 64 The key and the amulet may open again in a generation or nearer, but for now it is safe. done.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sergei Ignatev "Snezhnii Vampir"
Serzh is in Mexico with Mikulash and his underlings Tibet and Igor come too. THey are told that they must protect the thing that works with the artifact and that it might be time to go home. they are set upon by some humans and Kotov, a past friendish/policeman is the leader of the group that tries to kill or arrest them for something. Serzh turns into a bat and drinks the blood of a few of the attackers and gets away. He is thenin contact with a beautiful woman that he met at t abar recently and she turns out to work for the local anti-vampire organization of gaovernment. She shoots him or something and all goes dark. 142 Serzh has been arrested and placed in a ice palace as a prison and it is all under the orders of Apostal, the leader of all the vampires everywhere or something. 150 TIbet, Igor and another guy come and tell him everything that is going on and they start a war against Apostal. 154 Serzh has a girlfriend that is not a vampire and he must decide to go with her or to continue on as a vampire in this war, yet on the lamb, as he has. He decides to stay and fight, though they wait for the big spark to start the whole thing off. Serzh is in a house with the other Vampires on the run from the law. Serzh continues to hear voices in his head that tell him is the Snezhnii vampire. 192 Serzh and his other guys set up a trap at a meeting between the Black and White Thrones, the vampires and the human magican clans. The set up a series of snipers to take out the big names of each that would get in the way of their fixing the problems they have against Apostal. After the first shots start firing the clans start waring with each other. Serzh and his group go down to the fray when the police are already cleaning it up and calling it a big fire in the city. Serzh then gets lots of people to follow him as the only hope to fix the problems between teh clans and in general. 215 Serzh goes into the main building and room where the Balck Throne is kept and sits down. There then appear the 6 main heads of all the vampires, under the guide of Makar - the previous vampire without a name. Serzh and Makar start yelling at each other. Serzh about having been set up and Makar about being unsupported. Then Makar takes Serzh into the inner sanctum of teh building. 228 TIbet and Igor are dead and so is Nemizis. Serzh is sad and slips into the Web and cannot get out. MAkar and he fight a bit. Makar makes fire areound Serzh and Serzh realizes he has ice capabilities and gives Makar ice. THen Mikolash brings them out and takes Serzh away and to an airport. Serzh believes that Mikolash is trying to kill him because he believes he is the mole or spy or something. Serzh hears that his lover Diana is dead and thus he has nothing to live for. He falls and stops breathing, but then Igor and TIbet come to him and tell him that was part of the game and the Mikolash was actually Nemizis. They went to other artifacts that were being kept on Novaya Zemlya where they were and called forth the Blood Heirs, or something like that who were actually Rurik and others from the north. Then they heard that Moscow was being taken over by Apolstal and that they needed to get back there to fix the problem. 255 The all went to downtown Moscow and it was the human magicains against the vampires in a gun battle. At one point Apostal told everyone to finish it and get out of there or he would kill them. The vampires found out the Xuan was a spy of sorts for Apostal and the killed him. Then teh vampires headed toward the Rossiya hotel to finish something. 172 On the roof of the Rossiya hotel Nemizis and Serzh met Apostal. Apostal conjured up the forces of the Pautina and Nemisis brought forth the demons of the Heirs of blood and they fought eachother with swords. 175 Then the Order's executor came up and stopped it all and told all the demons to leave and ended it all. He took Apostal (maybe) or Kalaban with him and told Serzh that the Order and the clans and the families are no more and so ends the fighting, but that they are in control and responsible for this world, but no more than that. Serzh and Yana came together at the end and lived happily ever after.182
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sergei Ignatev "Igri na Krov"
Two factions of "nichisti lyudi" - one is non vampire. light and dark. Dark is Vampire and is lead by an unnamed leader who controls the vampires. The narrator, Serzh, does not actually suck blood as a vampire, but works for a force that keeps the blood suckers from feasting on humans. Use of brand names and contemporary musical groups. Coke products. Energy drinks. 26 Niti, Pautina.26 Vampire turns into a bat. It is told that vampires can turn in to hares and wolves. Serzh is about to jump from a balcony and try to turn into a bat, but it seems that he has never done it before. 37 Serzh chases the vmapire into a supermarket and talks about being in the Pautina and being able to smell like a fish in water. The vampire is said to be going toward the Skolzyashe - a rival group or like the gloom? The vampire says that he is engaging in a war, not against whom, but for something. 42 The Order of Pautina met and decided that the vampire, who had been destroyed, was working with others on a legend or Darka and had something to do with the Count Lukovski in Prague.50 The war has started and it is the Vampires in Moscow that now control it against all the other white magicians there with whom they used to work. Serzh has been notified and has come to a decision. The unnamed head vampire is in control of the city. 55 The whole clan of vampires is made up of different families and clans. When they fight they use machine guns and what not, but the different families or clans have different body types and are know for having really thick skin as vampires or are very violent and hard to kill. 68 Serzh is friends and maybe lovers with a woman on the magical or just police-keeping human population - Zhana. 73 The head of the Dark Throne vampires has taken control of everything and is said to want to get a hold of an ancient artifact of great magical power "Alatir" that will allow him to go to any portal of the "cobweb" and do something. 98 Serzh slips into the Skolzzhenie because he feels the need to feed. For the first time in his life he takes another's life so that he can suck their blood. It is in the heat of battle, so it doesn't seem such a big deal. 105 There is a shape changer named MEdved' that Serzh kills. 108 Serzh finds the unnamed leader at the artifact Alatir and the leader makes a speech about being tired from this life and wants out - so he leaves this world through a portal. 112 When the dust settles, Serzh is there with the other vampires that lived through the battle and the leader of the entire vampire world - Apolstal. 114
Serzh talks about what he loves and why he lives. He is a bit of a Hamlet and a bit of a Pechorin. He leaves to go to Mexico and sits on an airplane next to the legendary count Darka. Fini
Serzh talks about what he loves and why he lives. He is a bit of a Hamlet and a bit of a Pechorin. He leaves to go to Mexico and sits on an airplane next to the legendary count Darka. Fini
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