Jodie Ramodien

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm just thinking of, has anyone read Carmilla?

So it was about, I think, maybe 25 years before Dracula.

And I think it was the third big vampire story published.

So there was like, obviously, John Polidori did the vampire.

And then there was Barney the vampire, which I haven't looked into because the name sounds ridiculous.

I'm sure it's great.

And then Carmilla was Sheridan Le Fanu, if I'm pronouncing that right.

I'm sorry if I'm not.

And it's kind of like a Suffolk gothic vampire novel.

And I thought it's really interesting to consider in terms of female sexuality in comparison to Dracula because you kind of have...

In Dracula, Mina and Lucy being, like, these paragons of, like, white Western women.

And the big fear is, like, their corruption by this, like, other exotic Eastern guy.

A lot of stereotyping.

Amazing read.

And then in Carmilla, there's still...

this kind of like fear around female sexuality but Carmilla the the vampiric figure um is very much in control of her own sexuality and um she her victims are all women and so it's like um

this kind of exchange which doesn't need men in it at all.

And I feel like that was probably like a big point of contention and like a fear for readers at the time.