how is werewolf formed?

[lunabee34]

I got the most amazing package from executrix. Thank you so much. *hugs* Every single book in this box is something I want to read. :)

I finished Trigger Warnings. I didn't like it as well as Gaiman's other short story collections. The Sherlock Holmes piece was exceptional, and a couple other stories were very good but I was pretty take it or leave it on the collection as a whole. He included a fair amount of poetry in the collection, most of which I didn't care for, but one poem about a witch was wonderfully done. Glad to have read it, but nothing to re-read.

I've blown through Uprooted in the past couple days and will be able to post a review of that soon.

I want to read some very, very sad fic. Anybody have recs for tearjerkers? Any fandom or pairing, but I would be especially grateful for newish HP recs.

I keep thinking I am going to make some awesome meta-tastic post about Penny Dreadful or Game of Thrones and then not doing it, so here's the truncated version:

Game of Thrones: damn you, show, for making me root for Cersei. Show!Sparrow seems scheming and cruel in a way the book version didn't, and I couldn't help wanting her to get her revenge against him and those awful nuns. Please, please, don't be dead Jon Snow. I think probably that he's dead and Melisandre will resurrect him. Tyrion, Missandei and Greyworm ruling Mereen is kinda made of awesome. Jaime is going to raze Dorne to the ground. *hugs him hard* And Bronn still lives! Yay!

Penny Dreadful: what an uneven season. Some of my favorite moments of the whole show are from this season and yet it doesn't form the same cohesive whole as the first season. Dorian's story arc with Angelique was incomprehensible to me and completely divorced from the rest of the show. I love Brona's reveal that she's known about her origins the whole time and that she's going to be the big bad in the next season. Dorian was finally interesting in these last two episodes with her. I love that John Clare has decided that he doesn't want to kill Victor or set London on fire with Brona and I adore that he asked Vanessa to go with him. I equally adore that she would have gone with him if she didn't genuinely believe she's bad for him. When Vanessa told the devil, "Beloved, meet your master" and fucking destroyed that sucker, I may have squealed at the television in unholy glee. That moment was the money shot, my friends. I am less enthused that Sembene is dead; that was unnecessary and horrible, and I am convinced that on route to Africa, he is going to turn into a werewolf and not be dead at all. I loved poor, brave Ethan going to his death and instead being tricked into returning home. I just can't imagine the mechanism that will reunite them all in the next season. Looking forward to it, though.

Speaking of Victorian horror, I know that werewolf (and other skin-changer) stories already existed in folk tales and fairy tales, but is there a nineteenth-century novel that popularized the werewolf the way Dracula did for vampires? I suppose that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a kind of werewolf story, but not really what I'm talking about. Did werewolves really only enter the literary public consciousness in the 20th century? Is there a seminal werewolf novel (trying to think of one and failing), or does our pop culture sense of werewolves stem entirely from film?

Comments

[archersangel]

I think it's weird that there wasn't a hugely popular Victorian novel.

i think vampires were more popular at the time because of the erotic sub-text & the victorian age was such a suppressed culture. werewolves probably got more popular during the age of film because of what make-up & special effects could do for the story.

(Black) Mass Media?

[executrix]

I also think that, although "Dracula" was a popular novel, it was really the theatrical version that made Dracula a cultural icon.

Re: (Black) Mass Media?

[lunabee34]

I do forget that, and I shouldn't. They turned every damn thing into a play didn't they? I've read about some of the theatrical adaptations of popular novels but I don't know anything about the Dracula one. Did they get a hottie to play Drac?

Re: (Black) Mass Media?

[executrix]

In cities with weekly rep, and in towns that were visited by touring companies (remember, even tiny towns had an Opry House) people went to the theater the way they used to go to the movies, more or less irrespective of what was playing, and the way people now flip the channels or DVR equivalent. So a) there was a huge demand for almost ANY kind of entertainment, and b) before international copyright there was a tremendous incentive to turn books from other countries into plays. And of course Dickens was constantly bedeviled by extremely unauthorized adaptations--sometimes before he even finished the novel in question. And of course the Tom Show is a genre of its own. Do you remember Nicholas Nickleby's gig with the Crummles Theatrical Co? His first assignment was to plagiarize a French play the Crummles had a copy of, but with the addition of the two tubs and a pump that the company had recently acquired and needed to amortize.

There is a whole *book* about the Balderston version of Dracula, although I can't remember the author or exact title--but David Skal wrote a bunch about the play. In an actor-manager company, Dracula was probably played by the boss!--otherwise, the Heavy Man. BTW when Paul Darrow (B7's Avon) was in weekly rep, he played Dracula at least once.

If you ever want a readable quick guide to Everything You Need to Know About Victorian Theatre, Robertson Davies was a big fan-- try The Mirror of Nature.

Re: (Black) Mass Media?

[lunabee34]

Thanks for the link to good sources.

I am now imagining Paul Darrow as Dracula. It's a Good Thing.

At least one of the books you just sent me is about Victorian theater, so maybe there's something there about Dracula.

Re: (Black) Mass Media?

[cloudsinvenice]

I was just coming here to recommend David J. Skal's Hollywood Gothic re: the stage/screen adaptations of Dracula. :)

Re: (Black) Mass Media?

[lunabee34]

I love that my friends know stuff! :)

[lunabee34]

That makes sense.