i always think it’s so fun to be like ~okay well what keeps a vampire away if you’re not christian :3 would a magen david do it for a jew haha*~ but i do also frankly think it’s like. like… moderately deep sigh. we all KNOW why it’s jsut christianity that keeps the blood-sucking fiends away, right? like we’re all on the same page about what the bottom line here is, right? we all get it? before we have fun and get silly… do we all… like… does everyone actually know why we’re here?
#*it would not bc that’s not how cultural differences work. cannot simply copy-paste jewish necklace over xtian necklace & get same result.
and i have said a lot in the replies of this post that i just want to consolidate but essentially: this is not just that (as in the tag) you can’t just copy paste one symbol with very specific cultural connotations to replace another one with very different ones, this has to do with e g what cultural anxieties vampires embody. so like the vampire is a very literal amalgamation of literal beliefs about jews (that they drink the blood of christians, that they are attempting to infiltrate the upper class or that they are in fact already dispersed invisibly throughout it and thence forth exert undue influence, etc) in addition to other cultural anxieties around (in the case of dracula, eg) reverse colonization and concerns around immigration and xenophobia (…in this case: towards eastern european jews), as well as cultural anxieties around sex and sexuality (…not for nothing but this is often a component of antisemitism from medieval times well into the present day)
so like i think it’s fine to be doing this kind of fun thought exercise it just really feels like it’s missing the point to sit down and be like how would a jew fend off a vampire when a vampire Is a jew, in the sense that a vampire is an embodiment Of antisemitic stereotypes and canards and so forth and so on. the horror of a vampire is “jews exist and are out there, invisibly preying on good christians and trying to infiltrate the echelons of power”; that IS the thing that is overpowered by the crucifix (a sign that christianity Is the true religion). the crucifix is “solving” that cultural anxiety around the jewish by positing the supremacy of the christian. that’s its function in this mythology, which makes it doubly ineffectual to simply replace it 1:1 with a jewish religious symbol - the vampire is inherently an interfaith monster in many ways, it is about (among other things) the interplay between differing religious groups, and any kind of Take has to at least partially take that into effect or at least think about these things.
what does it mean that (for example) willow rosenberg, a jew, put a crucifix on her wall to keep out vampires? there’s something to be said there about assimilation, so like i do Get why it’s more fun to be like, well what if she could just use a magen david instead, right? but that doesn’t in any way grapple with what the Source of the horror of vampires is (i.e. the sexual and religious other who preys on the faithful and can be overpowered by christian religious authority).
imo a more interesting Take is, like, the vampire existing In the social space Of antisemitism; the horror of vampires from a jewish perspective being for example the looming threat of violence and retaliation and antisemitism; being forcibly identified As a monster against your will; seeing the living (un-living) stereotype as what it is and being unable to communicate that. something more in that space.
like, this is not to say that jewish folklore doesn’t have these kinds of undead spirits and monsters - obviously, it does, and i am also interested in vampire Takes that draw more on a jewish worldview and existing folklore. but part of the Fun or Impact of the vampire Is its cultural omnipresence and legibility as an extremely Recognizable kind of monster, and playing with the … underpinnings and understandings Of that very specific cultural, like, milieu… is part of. the fun. so i like a jewish take on vampires i am jsut… less compelled by trying to figure out what the 1:1 jewish equivalent of holy water is than i am by trying to actually tweak on Themes and Resonances
So, still reeling from the emotional rollercoaster that is Midnight Mass, I managed to finish a little project inspired by that beautiful madness.
Here’s my Corpo/Assassin V, with the incredible take on Vampire eyes that the show came up with:
To see the process behind this piece, as well as a brief write-up and a colouring timelapse, consider checking under the read more.
Whilst this piece was pretty simple compared to many of my recent and upcoming projects, it still presented its own unique challenges; namely in the lighting/shadows and the eyes themselves. In the show, the Vampire eyes have this hypnotic reflection, and I really wanted to do my best to replicate that.
And I actually love how they turned out. I really think they look pretty good! It was super cool trying them out, and I’ll probably even use this art in my Corpo/Assassin V’s upcoming fic.
Here’s the (condensed) process:
You can see that, even though this piece is simple and has no complex background, I still put alot of effort into it all. I’m particularly pleased with V’s ear jewellery, the crucifix style buttons, and their skin textures.
Whilst alot of the details aren’t quite so bright by the end, due to the lighting, I still love how this piece turned out overall.
And here is a colouring timelapse (warning for flashes of colour):
Here you can see how this project, again being fairly simple, still took a decent amount of time. I fiddled around with the lighting and shadows more than I have on any other piece I’ve done recently; I really wanted to try and step up my game in that respect.
So whilst I still have a ways to go with the lighting and shadows, I am very happy with where I got to in this piece.
Last night I finished Midnight Mass. It was an incredible series. The blend of horror and poetic dialogue, as well as striking imagery was absolutely masterful.
But I was drawn to one aspect more than most. The eyes that you have once you’ve turned.
So I thought I’d put them on my Corpo/Assassin V (WIP)
Carmilla - Castlevania ♀️❤️ This cold-blooded vampire from the Castlevania universe is building her empire. Will she be able to carry out her plan? . . . #carmilla #castlevania #vampire #vampires #videogameart #castlevanianetflix #dracula #netflix #konami #nintendo #otaku https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqnVL1nNRE/?igshid=xw0e7aq8ogzr
“Vampires change humans, but humans change vampires,” said the vampire.
The human frowned. “Like - into humans?”
“No, no, it’s like - it’s like the sunlight thing. One day we’re fine with sunlight, and then the next day you go, ‘You know what, we’re changing the rules, now sunlight makes you burst into flames and die.’ Half of us were wiped out because we didn’t get the memo, and the other half had to go underground.”
“We never-”
“Youdid,” said the vampire. “Ever since Nosferatu came out, humans have known that sunlight kills vampires. It never did before, but it always has ever since.”
“Because of a movie?”
“Because of stories. That’s your part of the power. Humans tell stories to change the world around them. You don’t know you’re doing it most of the time, but whenever we get too big, you change the rules and make us start from scratch.”
“So you get super-strength, shapeshifting, flight, mind-control, and an unending bloodlust-”
“And you get to be the kid on the playground who says he has an ‘everything-proof-shield.’”
“I still think you have the better end of the deal here.”
It’s worth noting that while Stoker definitely drew upon sources purporting to describe vampire folklore in establishing rules for his own vampires, some of the vampire “lore” you see in play in Dracula is original to him. The mirror thing doesn’t seem to have been around before Stoker. While there are regional superstitions one can track down about needing to cover mirrors in the home of the recently dead to prevent their corpse from turning vampiric, the idea that vampires cast no reflection appears to really have had its start with this novel. What’s more, it was only part of what was planned in Stoker’s notes on vampiric irreproducibility. While it never made it into the final text, Stoker wrote down vampires also wouldn’t show up in photographs (which is might be related to Jonathan conveniently mentioning his kodak camera) and that even attempting to paint a vampire would fail. Apparently painting a vampire was just supposed to end up looking like somebody else. Photographs would either come out black or show a skeleton or corpse.
Why do y'all believe the Catholic peasants when they say the Count is bad news… what if they just hate tradgoth kings </3
I feel like I should apologize to everyone for the fact that I’m going to be reblogging a lot of reaction things related to Dracula Daily, but honestly? This turn of events shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
i always think it’s so fun to be like ~okay well what keeps a vampire away if you’re not christian :3 would a magen david do it for a jew haha*~ but i do also frankly think it’s like. like… moderately deep sigh. we all KNOW why it’s jsut christianity that keeps the blood-sucking fiends away, right? like we’re all on the same page about what the bottom line here is, right? we all get it? before we have fun and get silly… do we all… like… does everyone actually know why we’re here?
#*it would not bc that’s not how cultural differences work. cannot simply copy-paste jewish necklace over xtian necklace & get same result.
and i have said a lot in the replies of this post that i just want to consolidate but essentially: this is not just that (as in the tag) you can’t just copy paste one symbol with very specific cultural connotations to replace another one with very different ones, this has to do with e g what cultural anxieties vampires embody. so like the vampire is a very literal amalgamation of literal beliefs about jews (that they drink the blood of christians, that they are attempting to infiltrate the upper class or that they are in fact already dispersed invisibly throughout it and thence forth exert undue influence, etc) in addition to other cultural anxieties around (in the case of dracula, eg) reverse colonization and concerns around immigration and xenophobia (…in this case: towards eastern european jews), as well as cultural anxieties around sex and sexuality (…not for nothing but this is often a component of antisemitism from medieval times well into the present day)
so like i think it’s fine to be doing this kind of fun thought exercise it just really feels like it’s missing the point to sit down and be like how would a jew fend off a vampire when a vampire Is a jew, in the sense that a vampire is an embodiment Of antisemitic stereotypes and canards and so forth and so on. the horror of a vampire is “jews exist and are out there, invisibly preying on good christians and trying to infiltrate the echelons of power”; that IS the thing that is overpowered by the crucifix (a sign that christianity Is the true religion). the crucifix is “solving” that cultural anxiety around the jewish by positing the supremacy of the christian. that’s its function in this mythology, which makes it doubly ineffectual to simply replace it 1:1 with a jewish religious symbol - the vampire is inherently an interfaith monster in many ways, it is about (among other things) the interplay between differing religious groups, and any kind of Take has to at least partially take that into effect or at least think about these things.
what does it mean that (for example) willow rosenberg, a jew, put a crucifix on her wall to keep out vampires? there’s something to be said there about assimilation, so like i do Get why it’s more fun to be like, well what if she could just use a magen david instead, right? but that doesn’t in any way grapple with what the Source of the horror of vampires is (i.e. the sexual and religious other who preys on the faithful and can be overpowered by christian religious authority).
imo a more interesting Take is, like, the vampire existing In the social space Of antisemitism; the horror of vampires from a jewish perspective being for example the looming threat of violence and retaliation and antisemitism; being forcibly identified As a monster against your will; seeing the living (un-living) stereotype as what it is and being unable to communicate that. something more in that space.
like, this is not to say that jewish folklore doesn’t have these kinds of undead spirits and monsters - obviously, it does, and i am also interested in vampire Takes that draw more on a jewish worldview and existing folklore. but part of the Fun or Impact of the vampire Is its cultural omnipresence and legibility as an extremely Recognizable kind of monster, and playing with the … underpinnings and understandings Of that very specific cultural, like, milieu… is part of. the fun. so i like a jewish take on vampires i am jsut… less compelled by trying to figure out what the 1:1 jewish equivalent of holy water is than i am by trying to actually tweak on Themes and Resonances
It’s worth noting that while Stoker definitely drew upon sources purporting to describe vampire folklore in establishing rules for his own vampires, some of the vampire “lore” you see in play in Dracula is original to him. The mirror thing doesn’t seem to have been around before Stoker. While there are regional superstitions one can track down about needing to cover mirrors in the home of the recently dead to prevent their corpse from turning vampiric, the idea that vampires cast no reflection appears to really have had its start with this novel. What’s more, it was only part of what was planned in Stoker’s notes on vampiric irreproducibility. While it never made it into the final text, Stoker wrote down vampires also wouldn’t show up in photographs (which is might be related to Jonathan conveniently mentioning his kodak camera) and that even attempting to paint a vampire would fail. Apparently painting a vampire was just supposed to end up looking like somebody else. Photographs would either come out black or show a skeleton or corpse.
Count Dracula, reclining on a sofa casually reading a railway timetable: I am being so normal right now
My favorite explanations for this moment, in order of how much they make me laugh:
Likely Doylist explanation: Bram Stoker wants you to realize this is weird and feel nervous about the Count because of it.
Likely Watsonian explanation: This is another facet of Dracula’s studying, so that he’ll blend in better once he gets to England.
Unlikely but funny Doylist explanation: Bram Stoker (as will be shown later) thinks this is a reasonable thing to do, in the face of society’s disapproval.
Funnier Watsonian explanation: While Jonathan was fetching paperwork, Dracula ran into the other room, set the table at superspeed, ran back to the library, grabbed the first book his hand fell on, and carefully posed himself to look like he’d been there the whole time. Whereupon he realized that he had picked up the Weirdest Possible Casual Reading Choice but didn’t have time to pick another book and now has to brazen it out. Like a cat, Dracula at all times has to act like He Meant to Do That. He’s studying train timetables - of course he is! That’s a completely reasonable and normal human thing to do in preparation for moving to a new country! Train travel is a vital piece of British infrastructure that he needs to understand!
Jonathan now thinks that Dracula is a train enthusiast.
Also consider: dracula is just a huge train enthusiast just, you know, on top of being dracula
Absolutely wild explanation: several vampire myths cast vampires as having obsessive compulsions to count certain things like knots or poppy seeds when presented with them. Dracula is legitimately reading the train timetable because vampires just find that stuff hard to not read. Vampires just fucking love tedious structured categorisation, be it counting or timetables.
Oh no, now I wish to write an urban fantasy in which large portions of bureaucracy and quality control are dominated by vampires because their attention to detail means they’re far more reliable and into the work than humans. Vampires found their niche and it’s the kind of tedious work most humans would be bored to tears with. There’s a long running joke about vampires working in haematology labs because when it comes to using a haemocytometer you just can’t beat a vampire.
