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visualgothic

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A member registered Apr 15, 2018 · View creator page →

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Yes, I thought about the Vordenburg-Swedenborg similarity, too! Perhaps you could see it this way: I robbed (or shall I say "spared"?) readers of their Vordenburg experience, but included parts of the younger "In a Glass Darkly" that pertained to Swedenborg. Perhaps LeFanu did allude to him in form of the Baron and later decided to be more explicit by introducing Heselius, Swedenborg admirer and recipient of Laura's narrative.

PS: I was often tempted to fix some of LeFanu's more blatant literary shortcomings, like using the same adjective five times in a row, but that would have opened a can of worms I couldn't have measured up to.

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Thank you for your kind words and critique. 

Well, the Baron had to go, because he was either a) an irrelevant filler (my personal view) or b) important, which would make him a kind of deus ex machina (your view?). Either way, why grace  a character with attention whom even the author himself couldn't bother to introduce before the final chapter. On top of that, his narrative had a very different style and flavour to the rest of Laura's story (and including him would have added at least two more development years ;) ).  

Frankly, I think LeFanu is a terrible writer,  but, after having read a lot by him (and his contemporaries) and being a Swedenborg-fan myself, I honestly do believe in my interpretation and never felt a need to 'cynically' distort the tale.

Would you mind telling me why you think the Baron's existence runs counter to my understanding. How is he important, beyond his obvious role as representative of a bygone era? 

I'm no native English speaker and therefore appreciate your pointing out the distinction between sensual and sensuous. I definitely got the former from an academic context, which doesn't mean I used it appropriately. 

Thank you very much for taking the time time to write such a detailed review.

Your impressions are, of course, perfectly valid. Yet, allow me to make one small objection in regard to your last point:

The fact that, intradiegetically, Carmilla (or any vampire) is fully materialized is of no consequence to an allegorical interpretation by an extradiegetic editor.

I'm glad you still liked it.

Thank you, Crazypreacher.

As a matter of fact, choices are very much "part of my vision". Carmilla was my first project, though, intended as a practice and I tried to keep it simple. The following games will have choices and different endings, as they are important to my main theme which is dogmatism.

If you are familiar with Gothic Novels then you may have noticed that Heselius, his love for Swedenborg, and mind-body dualism are frequently ignored by academic reviewers. I therefore ended up emphasizing those points.

I also wanted to target people interested in literature but unaware of all those hidden gems that have so heavily influenced the visual novel medium.

Thank you very much! 

I have hardly received any feedback, so it really means a lot.

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It's kinetic. 

You can't mess up Carmilla's love for you 😀.