Re-Entering the Vampire Castle | Hacker News Reader

Re-Entering the Vampire Castle

justinehsmith.substack.com

29 pointsangledense14 comments

> The title of the present essay is of course a riff on the late Mark Fisher’s notable 2013 cri-de-coeur, “Exiting the Vampire Castle,” but other than that the two pieces of writing have nothing in common.

I feel tricked, particularly since this wasn't mentioned until Part 5. If you were to choose, I'd recommend the original over "the present essay": https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vam....

"Dracula and his brother have abandoned their faith and have promised and sworn to darken the Christian faith.”

Is a terrible translation of

"Vnd der dracole vnd sein brueder haben abgetreten von yrem glauben vnd haben verhaissen vnd geschworen den cristlichen gelauben zu beschirmen."

"Beschirmen" meant the same thing in early new high german as it does today: to protect.

https://www.fwb-online.de/lemma/beschirmen.s.3v?q=Beschirmen...

Rather than to "darken" the Christan faith, they are said to have sworn to protect it.

> The English novelist’s tale

Nope. Irish.

Dracula's castle is actually in Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Slains_Castle

Well, the ones from the Hammer films perhaps -- or as it says in the links "[the above] castle provided a visual palette for Bram Stoker when he started writing the book in Cruden Bay".

Historical Dracula (Vlad III) lived in Romania tho

Oh, I thought this was going to be a response to Mark Fisher's 2013 essay "Exiting The Vampire Castle", which was not actually about vampires.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vam...

Same here. Fisher's essay stuck with me, and now it comes to mind whenever I see the words "Vampire Castle." It's also quite remarkable that it was written in 2013, because the problems Fisher described in the essay didn't really kick into overdrive until later in the decade.

I only read it a few weeks ago and I couldn't believe it was nearly ten years old.

It's briefly mentioned near the end.

Kind of uncool to use the w-word. Partly because it’s offensive and partly because it’s really outdated, Alf Garnet-style language. Made me wonder if the author understood its connotation.

I have to ask: w-word? I even searched the article and couldn't figure out what you are referring to.

Wog

Ah! thanks, and tough to disagree.

I'm sorry but what are you talking about?

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