I began writing this story about three weeks ago.
The werewolf is an interesting gothic character because, although strongly associated with the genre, there is no real definitive werewolf story from the nineteenth century. Universal's 1941 monster movie The Wolf Man made a huge impact on popular culture, so much so that people came to strongly identify Larry Talbot as being as iconic a character as Vlad Dracula and Victor Frankenstein. But the story (much like Universal's 1932 The Mummy) was written by Hollywood screenwriter Curt Siodmak purely from his own imagination. Even the famous 'legend',
was a fabrication of Siodmak's. So there's room for a great Victorian werewolf story...
For my sins I bought the much derided 2010 remake of The Wolfman (on Blu-Ray as well!) and I'll be honest with you- it's not as bad as I remembered. The sets are incredible and the plot works well enough, it's just the look of the wolves that's a problem but if you know its coming you can ignore it and appreciate everything else. Anyway, I was watching it whilst writing A Study in Blood and I started coming up with my own Victorian werewolf idea- Eve and I used to know this guy who went through these, essentially bipolar, cycles of temperament, from warm, open friendliness that lasted a week at most to unbearably aggressive dislike and distrust that would last upwards of three months! I thought that would make an interesting alternative take on the idea of transformation- what if a man slowly became more aggressive and wild in appearance, unshaven, unwashed, long hair and nails etc. but then after a psychological break would clean himself up (shave, wash, buy new clothes). if you were to meet this man the day he was 'wild' and then the morning after when he had cleaned himself up you would think he'd completely transformed- like a werewolf!
I decided to write it from the point of view of a doctor's case study to make it sound more authentic, since I was going for a realistic approach.
I'll be honest- I'm not too happy with this one. I had a lot of high hopes and conceptual ideas but couldn't reconcile them to a short story- it would work better two or three times longer (and it's already too long for a short story) and I made it end too abruptly to compensate for this. I could see it being a series, either stretching out the werewolf case or featuring other clients by the same doctor, but as a stand alone it's just not good enough for the subject matter. I also think I was too tame about the supernatural element- wouldn't it have been great if he was a real werewolf? I threw in a vague allusion to a Gypsy curse at the last minute to try to add a bit more of a supernatural flavour...
Maybe one day I'll rewrite it or recycle the idea into something much more important, but for now here it is- hope you enjoy!
B A Jones 30/05/2014
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