Within “Inca Mummy Girl” and “Carmilla” we see marked examples of the dangers (and allure) of the Exotic. However, rather than just presenting the exotic elements as ultimately bad, the texts shows glimpses of the exotic other’s own perspective and moralities. Both also explore the role of the female, with female villains and female protagonists.
Something I’ve been paying attention to in our explorations of “the Gothic” (and in life in general) is the idea of different moralities. What’s moral for a demon and what’s moral for a human are different – and outside of the Gothic we see this idea all the time – morality of the rich versus the poor [this is a really, really big one, even if it isn't discussed as much as, say, the following example], the Christian versus the Islamic—even ancient Greece viewed the world as continuously East (Troy/Persia/Asia) versus West. We see that in “Living Conditions”: Kathy’s demon morality vs. Buffy’s human morality (apparently, the demon culture doesn’t have or value college). We see this in “Inca Mummy Girl” – the whole idea of a human sacrifice is foreign to us – a very different kind of Chosen One. Carmilla makes a big deal of her different morality, such as when the topic of religion is brought up, and she says, “'Besides, how can you tell that your religion and mine are the same; your forms wound me, and I hate funerals.'” (“Carmilla” LeFanu, ch. 4) Yet in all cases, though it is considered wrong by the authors for Kathy, Ampata, and Carmilla to take lives in order to survive, it is considered ok for the demons themselves to get killed.
Carmilla brings up an interesting twist on that. Her former human lover pretends to kill the vampire Carmilla, so that she may go on living (Ampata’s lover, Xander, won’t do that for her – though she is killing his friends). However, when the General and crew kill Carmilla, Laura feel’s no compassion for the girl who had been living with her (and admittedly, killing her slowly). Likewise, when Kathy is sent back to her hellish dimension, no one gives a hoot. But while Ampata is dispatched without qualms, afterwards, Buffy feels for her – just as the reader can connect to the Gothic (in the case of Buffy, anyone who is in or has been in a highschool, which inevitable seems like hell at times), Buffy could relate to Ampata (both of the were “Chosen Ones,” girls serving a greater good without their own choice), prompting Buffy to say “Ampata wasn’t evil—at least, not in the beginning” and “She was gypt.” Even though Buffy recognized the necessity and her duty as Chosen One in ending Ampata’s corporeal existence, she can pity her, knowing what she goes through and feeling as she feels: the real person behind the mummy.
Ampata herself says, “I want to fit in, Buffy—just like you, a normal life.” Different moralities, different viewpoints—what she sees as normal, what she wants, Buffy sees as strange, crazy (though Buffy certainly got the better version of the “Chosen One” deal). This perhaps helps Buffy to come to better terms with her task as Slayer.
Both sets of characters being female is also integral. It certainly allows the protagonists to relate to the antagonists, especially in the case of Buffy I just outlined. “Carmilla” isn’t much of a feminist text – Laura is mostly helpless, and serves solely as the narrator/point-of-view the story is told from. Carmilla herself, though a powerful woman, isn’t much of a feminist symbol either, considering she’s evil and must be destroyed without any feeling (and while she embraces her sexual aspects, it doesn’t seem empowering). Both Buffy and Ampata can be seen as feminist though – the article we read by Byers outlines ways in which Buffy and the series in general can be viewed as feminist. Ampata, though the “bad guy,” is described as not being intentionally evil. She is, like Buffy, a powerful and important female – as I’ve mentioned, she is a Chosen One for the Greater Good of her people. She’s more powerful and important than the males she ends up destroying, even her manly “bodyguard.” She embodies the destructive force view of feminism, in a way Carmilla cannot. And though she is put down, it is not without acknowledgement of what she went through by the main characters, and how their differences, different moralities, (which can also fit in with feminism) shaped their behaviors. (Curiously, unlike Carmilla, she at first resists the destructive force of her sexuality. I don’t quite feel qualified to make a claim as to weather this is more or less feministic. It certainly brings up more issues of morality. ;] )
*PS. Please don't kill me for anything I said about feminism. There are a lot of different views about feminism, and I am not sufficiently well-versed on any to feel confident in proclaiming a veiw-point.
“Carmilla” isn’t much of a feminist text – Laura is mostly helpless, and serves solely as the narrator/point-of-view the story is told from." This is certainly a different approach, although I think that Carmilla is in fact a Gothic commentary on feminism. A way to convey such a message through almost pseudo-feminism. Just my thoughts.
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