Metamorphosis (Dark Shadows story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Metamorphosis
Author(s):	J.L. Miser
Date(s):	1995
Length:	serialized in a zine
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Dark Shadows
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Metamorphosis is a gen Dark Shadows story by J.L. Miser. It was published in five parts in Inside the Old House #50-#53.

Reactions and Reviews

I'm looking forward to the continuation of "METAMORPHOSIS". It's not often that writers deal with Barnabas' evil side and I wonder where J.L. Miser is taking this tale.

I'm also caught up in "METAMORPHOSIS" -- eager for the next installment.

"METAMORPHOSIS" is intriguing and so far has been enjoyable. I don't usually like continued stories because it usually takes too long between issues -- by the time the second and third or fourth parts see print I've forgotten what happened in the earlier chapters. Of course, ITOH has been seeing print fairly regularly lately, so maybe this won't be a problem. As I said, the story itself is intriguing so far -- which says a lot since Willie is a bit of a snooze in my opinion.

"METAMORPHOSIS" is certainly entertaining if not a little bizarre. but I'll reserve judgement until the final installment.

I've enjoyed "METAMORPHOSIS" all along and was glad to see a satisfying close.

The conclusion of "METAMORPHOSIS" was worth the wait and at first it appears to be a happy ending, of sorts, for both Barnabas and Willie. But upon closer epmination it really is rather depressing. Sure, Willie gains self-confidence and all but at what a price. He's still Barnabas' slave (if not more so) and as has been said before, a gilded cage is still a cage.

This story… becomes most interesting at the end. The first two installments were full of sado-masochistic pleasures, which are the stuff of pulp, romance, and television. We may feign to be appalled, yet there is something deeply appealing about Willie's predicament. I don't think we pity so much as envy him. We know he's in bad shape, but we can't take our eyes away, and come to wish that he could, perhaps, get into it.

I've read several stories now in which this thought process is played out to a greater or lesser extent. Most of them center on the torture of Willie -- his pain, his humiliation, and his helplessness. He is beaten, broken, and in every way subjugated. Some writers want him to fight back, but it's usually hopeless. Each act of independence earns him more severe punishment. (I'm personally let down to see Willie depicted as such a crushed victim, since John Karlen did not play him that way. The actor had so much life in him that the character's suffering never became cloying or maudlin. Any tendency in that direction was compensated for by his vigorous, sometimes over-the-top acting style which came across as an actual strength of character, in both senses of the word.) If Willie cannot successfully fight back, then what is left for him? Some writers feel so much for him that they want to ease his pain, get him some therapy, find him a nice girlfriend. (Willie is often assumed to be impotent because of his apparently passive role in the homo-vampiric relationship with Barnabas. Without taking a long tangent into sexual ichnography, I would like to suggest that this doesn't necessarily follow. The vampire, like the succubus and the incubus, is a very erotic nocturnal visitor, demanding full participation. Attempts to turn the bite into just a blood transfusion or an innocent, romantic, good-night kiss are ludicrous, and if it's treated as violent rape, then we miss much of the deep complexity of desire.) One popular solution to Willie's dilemma is to make Barnabas human and then make him apologize, the high and mighty brought low before the righteous victim, like the father before the son, the domineering husband before the wronged wife, the master before the slave. Then everything is supposed to be okay -- water under the bridge, let bygones be bygones; now we can settle down to normal life, perhaps get married to nice girls and have babies. Somehow this seems an awfully long way round just to end up pretending that nothing ever happened. In "METAMORPHOSIS" the solution is different. Strange specialists are called in to, in effect, cure Willie of his human-ness, to cure him of life. This cure consists of torture and brain-washing techniques which are humiliating to the point of embarrassment in the reader, culminating in group intimacy and exchange of bodily fluids. He doesn't want it, is forced to submit, and knows in his heart that it is not for his own good, but for Barnabas' benefit. He's told that as a result, he'll be free of pain and vulnerability, of fear, of suffering, of decrepitude and death. Barnabas suggests that he might still be able to love, but how can love exist in the absence of all other feeling? All of those things are the substance of life, and if life is the disease, then what is the cure in the world of the undead? Without a doubt, it is possession. He is to be made free of freedom itself. It is most telling in this story that when Willie reveals his new ability to detect lies (a prospect for the plot of a much longer story), Barnabas reveals nothing of himself in return, and only reflects that such an ability will be useful to himself. Here Barnabas is true to his colors, Machiavellian to the end. The power relations are still very firmly in place, but now the workers have been rendered incapable of rebellion. Willie will not be alive, not dead, yet not undead either. An additional, but not fully defined, state of being is proposed. Willie will apparently have some of the benefits of the superhuman without any of the real power. He's white collar now, but strictly and forever middle-management. Vampirism is a useful metaphor for many things, yet this is the first time I've seen the Curse depicted as something dispensable, like Prozac. After he's had his dose, Willie chills out. He says a last good-bye to the pain of childhood and then moves on, seemingly unfettered by guilt or sorrow. Now incapable of pity or terror, tragedy can no longer happen to him. Others tell him that he looks much better, so he must be better. Isn't that all that matters? Whether or not the writer intends it, I find the ending to be ironic and chilling. I'm faced with a bliss which blots out all former conflict. Without resolving it. If I relate to Willie's experience what am I saying at the end? The price of liberty is too high. How can we be free when we are ignorant and powerless? Let the specialists tell us what is best for us.

So long as I get my dose, I know there is no death, no consequence, no reckoning, no judgment. So long as I get my dose, I can feel strong and inflict my strength on others. So long as I get my dose, I have no deficiencies to transcend, so I will remain content in my proper place, content to serve my owner. For now on, if I'm happy, I'm happy for him.

The last episode of "METAMORPHOSIS" is my favorite of the series. I love 'happy endings'. I still don't like the Barnabas in the story. What are his goals? Just survival or a world wide vampire conquest?