Happy Thanksgiving

Happy (U.S.) Thanksgiving!

As usual, we’ll be attending Darkover Grand Council north of Baltimore on Thanksgiving weekend. Sadly, the long-time organizer and chair died this year, so this will be the last official DarkoverCon. The committee plans to continue it next year under a new name, ChessieCon. This year, though, one of the con’s biggest attractions, the folk band Clam Chowder, will present its farewell concert. We’ll miss them a lot.

One of the panels I’m scheduled for discusses “Werewolves vs. Vampires.” Why do so many books and movies show werewolves and vampires as hereditary enemies? I’ve seen a few in which the werewolf serves as the vampire’s ally or henchman, which seems to me just as reasonable, but that relationship doesn't appear so often. Shouldn’t it be natural for the two “species” to cooperate? The vampire drinks blood and doesn’t necessarily have to kill every time she feeds. After she finishes with a victim (unless she’s a “good” vampire who won’t let her donors be harmed), the werewolf can eat the flesh (unless he’s an ethical lycanthrope who hunts only animals, in which case he’d have even less reason for rivalry with vampires).

Friends or foes, however, the class hierarchy never seems to change. In monster society, vampires tend to be portrayed as aristocrats, and werewolves, in keeping with their beast nature, as low-class brutes. If anybody has ideas to offer about vampires vs. werewolves, I’d love to read them.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt