Undercover with Vampires in America Today
by Katherine Ramsland
(ISBN: 0061050628)
As Emerson, Lake and Palmer once sang, welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. I emerge from an involuntary seven month hiatus to bring you...out of date information. Hooray!
Originally published in 1998, Katherine Ramsland's book Piercing the Darkness capitalized on the Anne Rice vampire craze by linking fictional vampires to a real-world urban underbelly akin to the World of Darkness universe, a dangerous place populated by strange, macabre people. Capitalizing on crazes is nothing new: take the $10 Edward body glitter from Hot Topic, for example. But Ramsland uses her community status as well as her encyclopedia deal with Anne Rice to try for an investigative reporter approach, an approach that ultimately fails.
Her book begins with a simple thesis: retrace the haunts of missing reporter Susan Walsh, then suspected to be a victim of New York's gothic and vampiric subculture. (Many people now believe she was a victim of the Russian mafia, as her last assignment involved the mob's ties to strippers and strip clubs.) After briefly stating her thesis and giving an overview of historical, literary, and media-driven vampirism (peppered heavily with Ricean vampires, of course), she experiences the "scene" in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and briefly overseas in London and Paris. Ramsland engages in everything from BDSM club parties to good old fashioned LARP. I noticed that throughout her narrative she seemed rather amused by the community in concept, but when presented with the more visceral aspects of the community (whipping a submissive, witnessing a feeding ritual) she shied away from them. I guess one would have to steer away from illegal behavior in nonfiction--especially if the participant is also the author--but in my opinion one shouldn't be gung ho up until the knives come out. Just sayin'.
Ramsland also devotes much of her book to Sebastiaan van Houten a man who changes his community identity as often as his underwear. (At the time of Piercing the Darkness's writing, he was known as Father Todd.) As Ramsland chronicles it, Van Houten started out as a vampire enthusiast (my words, not hers) and LARPer before becoming a fangsmith and club promoter and eventually a leading figure in the late 90s New York vampire community. No doubt Ramsland's information and interviews are accurate, and indeed, quite fascinating. However, the vampire community comes with a caveat: to judge the product, one must consider the source. Van Houten is to the vampire community what Gordon Ramsay is to cooking or even Dave Ramsey is to finance: knowledgable, but near the fringes. And while Ramsland interviews other self-professed vampires and visits other scenes in the U.S. and Europe, her main focus is the Big Apple, and her main focus there is Father Todd. (Oh, and some mysterious ultra-Goth man who acts as Ramsland's
Did I also mention that she originally undertook the entire endeavor to investigate Susan Walsh? After gallivanting all over the place playing with the bloodsuckers, she barely manages to bookend her tome with her thesis, never resolving it. Way to write an investigative report there.
Nowadays, Katherine Ramsland works as a true crime writer with a minor in parapsychological happenings. It's rumored that she had a falling out with the vampire community, and alas, I cannot substantiate it, so it must remain a rumor. As for Piercing the darkness, it paints an interesting picture of the late 90s scene, the vampires before widespread internet and teenybopper crazes.
