What are you reading at the moment?

slip of the wrong key
Happens to the best of us. Not often twice in the one name though, that's a little awkward, ain't it :).

Still, The Communist Manifesto, that's a bit unusual these days, I'd have thought (it's been a long time since I read Marx and Engels).
 
‘Fascism - A Warning’, by Madeline Albright.

Recent gift. Some remarkable insights (so far) but some of it has me scratching my head. Too early to judge.

Fascism in its true form is a theocracy such as the Vatican or Iran; the clerics run the show. Fascism is a religious state.
 
I found an anthology put together in the seventies of vampire short stories in my pile of books I have yet to read, so I'm working my way through that, but I'm skipping around a bit. I read already 'Carmilla' by Sheridan Le Fanu, and 'For The Blood is the Life' by F. Marion Crawford; I think I'll read 'The Horla' by Guy De Maupassant next.
 
Read John Polidori's short story "The Vampyre." It is the first written vampire story; written circa 1816.
 
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Read John Polidori's short story "The Vampyre." It is the first written vampire story; written circa 1816.

some advice: there are certain people here who it would be beneficial for you to make suggestions to, rather than to tell them what to do, lest you sound pompous and provoke nasty retorts instead of gratitude

I have read that story. Not surprisingly, there is a movie in production based off of that tale scheduled to come out some time next year.
 
Read John Polidori's short story "The Vampyre." It is the first written vampire story; written circa 1816.
Not strictly true. Coleridge's Christabel poem was written in 1797 - 1800, first published in 1816. Geraldine, the mystery woman, exhibits several characteristics of your traditional vampire, and appears to have influenced Le Fanu's Carmilla (a lot later, 1872).

Many cultures have vampire mythologies going back millennia, and I suspect there would be many song or folklorere cycles in writing, well before 1816.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region
 
some advice: there are certain people here who it would be beneficial for you to make suggestions to, rather than to tell them what to do, lest you sound pompous and provoke nasty retorts instead of gratitude

I have read that story. Not surprisingly, there is a movie in production based off of that tale scheduled to come out some time next year.

hey, KMA
 
Not strictly true. Coleridge's Christabel poem was written in 1797 - 1800, first published in 1816. Geraldine, the mystery woman, exhibits several characteristics of your traditional vampire, and appears to have influenced Le Fanu's Carmilla (a lot later, 1872).

Many cultures have vampire mythologies going back millennia, and I suspect there would be many song or folklorere cycles in writing, well before 1816.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region

But it is true. Coleridge's Christabel is a poem, not a story. Geraldine, the mystery woman, was not a vampire.
 
The Immortalists- about half way through and it's OK

Little Fires Everywhere just got delivered though so I gotta read faster to get to that.
 
some advice: there are certain people here who it would be beneficial for you to make suggestions to, rather than to tell them what to do, lest you sound pompous and provoke nasty retorts instead of gratitude

I have read that story. Not surprisingly, there is a movie in production based off of that tale scheduled to come out some time next year.

Hey J.R. You know what you can do
 



"...No Templar castle housed only members of the order, and in Safad the white-mantled knight-brothers and black-clad sergeants made up only a minority of the inhabitants. There were a large number of servants, mercenary crossbowmen, Syrian turcopole light cavalry and civilians who had fled from nearby towns and villages and sought refuge on Baybars' approach. This was a varied group, and the sultan decided to exploit their potential differences, adopting the timeless strategy of attacking morale rather than walls. Having first ensured that Safad was cut off from reinforcement or relief, he instructed public criers to stand within earshot of the castle compound and announce that he was prepared to offer safe conduct for all Syrians— an offer that was gratefully taken up by a large number of the turcopoles and mercenaries. The sultan wanted to sow discord inside the fortress, and he did. Soon many had deserted. Now, with the barbican still occupied, the Templars were 'badly weakened' and in 'considerable disunity.'

Inside the castle the brothers called a council. After some deliberation they decided to send out a sergeant named Leon Cazalier (known as Brother Leo) who spoke Baybars' native Turkish language, to demand the same rights for Frankish Christians as had been offered the Syrians. The sultan heard this request politely and gave a noncommittal response. Later he took Brother Leo aside for a private meeting in which he informed the sergeant that he was mortally offended by the Templars' rejection of his gifts, that he intended to have every member of the garrison put to death and that this would certainly include Brother Leo, who would suffer the most agonizing end of all if he did not return to the castle and deliver a specific message to his comrades.

Weak, scared and unwilling to sample the inventiveness of Baybars' cruelty, Brother Leo hurried back to his Templar brothers with a fresh mouthful of lies. 'He returned to the castle and told them that the sultan had authorized a safe-conduct for everyone, and that the sultan himself would swear to it in their sight,' wrote the Templar of Tyre. He was sending them all to their doom.

The following morning Baybars appeared before Safad and announced that if the Templars would lay down their arms and hand over the castle he would escort them safely to Acre, which was fast becoming the only safe spot on the littoral for Frankish Christians. The deal was accepted and the brothers and their dependents mad preparations to depart.

Unfortunately for the Templars, Baybars was not Baybars. The sultan had selected one of his emirs who most looked like him, dressed him in royal finery and sent him out to sell a phony deal. Anyone who knew the sultan by sight might have recognized the difference by looking for the white-flecked brilliant blue of his eyes, but from high up on the battlements of their castle, the Templars were fooled. On July 24 fighting halted and the gates of Safad were opened. Out poured its inhabitants. Templar knights and sergeants together with more than one thousand others who had been sheltering behind the fortress walls for nearly two months. They set off with their escort in the direction of Acre, but had scarcely gone half a mile when they were stopped and corralled near a small hillock that the Templars had used as an execution spot. One by one they were all beheaded..."


-Dan Jones
The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors
New York, New York 2017.




How many years has it been that I have seen the phrase, "Knights Templar" and continued on reading without really knowing who and what the hell they were?

Browsing in the local library, I stumbled across this book. How could I resist? This 362 page history of the group traces its germination as bodyguards for European pilgrims to Jerusalem through its rise to a state within numerous European kingdoms to its utter destruction at the hands of absolute monarchs eager to acquire its wealth and destroy its power.

It's an interesting read.


 
But it is true. Coleridge's Christabel is a poem, not a story. Geraldine, the mystery woman, was not a vampire.

It's a poem and a story. I'm not aware of any rule that prevents something being both at once.

Geraldine's exact nature is ambiguous, and Coleridge didn't finish the poem, so it's not clear whether she is or isn't a vampire. But Goethe's Die Braut von Corinth (1797) is definitely about a vampire:

Aus dem Grabe werd' ich ausgetrieben,
Noch zu suchen das vermißte Gut,
Noch den schon verlornen Mann zu lieben
Und zu saugen seines Herzens Blut.


Roughly:

From the grave I was driven out
Still to seek the missing good
Still to love my lost bridegroom
And to suck his heart's blood.

Like electricblue66 said, vampire legends go back a long time, and earlier mythology doesn't always make a clear distinction between "vampires" and other kinds of evil spirits. Vampire myths were around long before Goethe, and there's no clear line between "story" and "myth", so trying to establish a "first vampire story" is not very meaningful.

But certainly Polidori's story was a big milestone in vampire literature.

*****

Me: just finished Chuck Wendig's "Damn Fine Story" (would recommend), rereading "Sunstone".
 
Taking up the Runes: A complete guide to using runes in Spells, Rituals, Divination and Magic by Diana L. Paxson
 
[This content has been removed due to a copyright violation.]
 
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Inside The O'Briens

Inside The O'Briens By Lisa Genova.

It’s a heartbreaker..
 
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