Larry Benjamin's Blog: Larry Benjamin's blog - This Writer's Life - Posts Tagged "vampire"
Vampire Rising & Its Angel Number: An Explanation
A reader, who recently finished Vampire Rising, commented that it was different from my other books mostly because with the others I spent a lot of time on character development so readers really got to know the characters. And that is true, with What Binds Us we follow Dondi, Thomas and Matthew for ten years; in Unbroken we first meet Lincoln at age six and Jose at age 12. Their story spans 40 years and we watch them grow from children into brave young men and on into parenthood.
Vampire Rising is a very short book. It tells the story of the damaged Vampire, Gatsby, who is still reeling from a decision made 200 years earlier that saved a life and cost him his love, and the young human, Barnabas, who, abandoned by his mother, becomes a ward of the state, unwanted and invisible for too long.
But the story really isn’t about Gatsby and Barnabas; the story is an allegory, it’s a metaphor for how (poorly) we treat those considered the least among us are a metaphor. But, I tried to give readers a feel for who each is as a person and how he is seen through the eyes of the other, and I do hint at their personal histories, at their back story but I never fully explain either. And that was deliberate. I wanted to focus on the messages in the story.
I looked to great works of fiction as inspiration for Vampire Rising. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Harper Lee’s To Kill and Mockingbird, and the Bible, all informed the book.
“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
These words spoken by Atticus Finch in To Kill and Mockingbird inspired me to replace the signature bat with mockingbirds in Vampire Rising. For the Vampires, like blacks, like Jews, like gays, are not sinful, or guilty, they simply are. And they are innocent in their simply being, in their inability to be otherwise, in their authenticity.
“In manus tuas domine.”
These words spoken by Gatsby to Barnabas, are a quote from Dracula (Van Helsing mutters it on first entering the house of Dracula); the words are also an abbreviation of the last seven words Jesus is reported to have spoken from the cross. Translated as “Into your hands Lord,” these words underscore one of the book’s central themes: trust is essential to life, to love, to partnership.
But it is the address of Gatsby’s house—197 Chicksand Street—that most informs the book. The address, taken from Stoker’s Dracula was the address of one of the houses Dracula buys in and around London. In point of fact it is not an existing address but if it was, it would fall squarely in the center of the area where Jack the Ripper was most active at the time Stoker wrote Dracula.
But what intrigued me most was the number: 197. It is an “angel number”—it is believed that angel numbers are used by our guardian angels to communicate with us.
Keep Reading.
Vampire Rising is a very short book. It tells the story of the damaged Vampire, Gatsby, who is still reeling from a decision made 200 years earlier that saved a life and cost him his love, and the young human, Barnabas, who, abandoned by his mother, becomes a ward of the state, unwanted and invisible for too long.
But the story really isn’t about Gatsby and Barnabas; the story is an allegory, it’s a metaphor for how (poorly) we treat those considered the least among us are a metaphor. But, I tried to give readers a feel for who each is as a person and how he is seen through the eyes of the other, and I do hint at their personal histories, at their back story but I never fully explain either. And that was deliberate. I wanted to focus on the messages in the story.
I looked to great works of fiction as inspiration for Vampire Rising. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Harper Lee’s To Kill and Mockingbird, and the Bible, all informed the book.
“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
These words spoken by Atticus Finch in To Kill and Mockingbird inspired me to replace the signature bat with mockingbirds in Vampire Rising. For the Vampires, like blacks, like Jews, like gays, are not sinful, or guilty, they simply are. And they are innocent in their simply being, in their inability to be otherwise, in their authenticity.
“In manus tuas domine.”
These words spoken by Gatsby to Barnabas, are a quote from Dracula (Van Helsing mutters it on first entering the house of Dracula); the words are also an abbreviation of the last seven words Jesus is reported to have spoken from the cross. Translated as “Into your hands Lord,” these words underscore one of the book’s central themes: trust is essential to life, to love, to partnership.
But it is the address of Gatsby’s house—197 Chicksand Street—that most informs the book. The address, taken from Stoker’s Dracula was the address of one of the houses Dracula buys in and around London. In point of fact it is not an existing address but if it was, it would fall squarely in the center of the area where Jack the Ripper was most active at the time Stoker wrote Dracula.
But what intrigued me most was the number: 197. It is an “angel number”—it is believed that angel numbers are used by our guardian angels to communicate with us.
Keep Reading.
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