Truly, Madly, Deadly_ The Unofficial True Blood Companion - Becca Wilcott [8]
Bats were associated with the mysterious and the supernatural long before Stoker’s novel appeared in print. As creatures of the night, bats fit in well with the motifs of Gothic fiction. A bat-like vampire appears, for example, as an illustration in the novel Varney the Vampire, which appeared 50 years before Dracula.
But it is Bram Stoker’s novel that cemented the connection between bats and the vampires of folklore. While he was working on his novel in the 1890s, Stoker came across a clipping in a New York newspaper concerning vampire bats, which directly influenced the following comment by Quincey Morris in Dracula: “I have not seen anything pulled down so quick since I was on the Pampas and had a mare . . . One of those big bats that they call ‘vampires’ had got at her during the night and . . . there wasn’t enough blood in her to let her stand up.” Stoker obviously did not know (or chose to ignore) the fact that the vampire bat is quite small.
But Stoker’s major contribution to the association of vampires with bats was his introduction of the idea that a vampire could shapeshift into the form of a bat (as well as a wolf and mist). For example, in his pursuit and seduction of Lucy, Count Dracula frequently disguises himself in the form of a large bat that flaps at her window. In Stoker’s novel such a “vampire bat” is, of course, quite capable of attacking and draining humans.
This motif found its way into the movies. While the first film based on Dracula, Nosferatu (1922) did not use bats (here the connection was with rats), the 1931 Universal Studios classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi certainly did. This was the movie that provided the 20th century with its most memorable and lasting images of Count Dracula (including the bats), images that survive to this very day.
Even the medical community has latched on to the Dracula-bat connection! A Venezuelan research team has isolated a previously unknown anticoagulant glycoprotein from the common vampire bat. This substance targets activated forms of blood coagulation factors, thus inhibiting them immediately. Named “draculin,” this anticoagulant agent promises to be significant in the development of improved drugs to fight heart disease and stroke.
Bram Stoker would certainly be amazed!
Elizabeth Miller is recognized internationally for her expertise on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. She has lectured throughout Canada, as well as in the United States, England, Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Romania. Dr. Miller has been interviewed extensively by major media including the BBC, ABC (20/20), CBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Her own publications on Dracula include dozens of articles and several books including Reflections on Dracula (1997), Dracula: The Shade and the Shadow (1998), Dracula: Sense & Nonsense (2000; rev 2006), A Dracula Handbook (2005), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon (2009). Visit Dr. Miller at Dracula’s Homepage (www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller) and the Dracula Research Centre (www.blooferland.com/drc).
To put the popularity of vampires into perspective, just think: all four books in Meyer’s series made USA Today’s Bestselling Books of 2009 list. In the same year, 17% of all book sales tracked were vampire and/or paranormal–themed, up from 2% in 2007. Charlaine Harris had nine of the top 100 bestselling books of 2009 from her Sookie Stackhouse series. And the mother/daughter team of P. C. and Kristin Cast had six of their books from the House of Night series represented. Even Jane Austen found new life with