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Skyward for August 2020. Of a comet, a cosmic beacon, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life

From our esteemed guest blogger, Dr. David Levy

Skyward for August 2020.

Of a comet, a cosmic beacon, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life

David H. Levy

A few months ago I wrote in this space about Comet Atlas (C/2019 Y4), a comet that at the time showed signs of becoming a bright comet visible without a telescope or binoculars with just one’s eyes.  I also repeated my maxim that “Comets are like cats; they both have tails, and they both do precisely what they want.”  This comet indeed did not live up to its billing, and neither did the next one,  comet Swan (C/2020 F8).

The third Comet, however, did!  Comet Neowise (C/2020 F3) put on a beautiful performance in the morning sky at the start of the Summer of 2020.  (First picture.) It was a shining cosmic beacon amidst the terrible time we are all having this year.  Over the course of July, this comet faded slightly as it moved into the evening sky, but it moved so far north that for a time it was visible in the night sky all night long.  (Second picture.)

When I look at a comet, my thoughts often dwell on the role that comets have played in the origins of life, and in particular why and how I am here looking up at the sky to ask.  For a long time we have suspected that when a comet strikes a planet, it leaves behind four of its substances—carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen—CHON particles, the simple alphabet of life. For impacts in the oceans, long-lasting  hydrothermal vents might have helped form prebiotic molecules which began to replicate themselves before evolving into proteins, amino acids, then RNA, and finally DNA. 

Gene Shoemaker, the famous geologist, loved to say the “we are the progeny of comets.”  Comet Neowise itself had nothing to do with it.  This comet was formed when the solar system was very young, and trillions of other comets formed at the same time.    Some of these other comets might have.  Certainly at least one of them did collide with the Earth well over three billion years ago.  If the impact were in an ocean, it could have led to the start of one of those hydrothermal vents at the ocean bottom.  So much time has elapsed, and we are still here somehow.  We also have the opportunity to look at the sky and witness a cosmic cousin of the comet that did collide, that cousin being comet Neowise.  In all its magnificence, this comet is visiting, to tell us its story, and ours.

1)  Comet Neowise just after dawn, July 5, 2020

2) Comet Neowise after dusk, July 18, 2020.

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Erzebet in Film and Pop Culture

My book

This post was inspired by a 1963 Italian Gothic movie called The Blancheville Horror.  It's pretty much stock Gothic romance; a young girl is called home to a spooky mansion because her father has allegedly died.  Her older brother is creepy, a little handsome, just plain weird.  She has a fiance, people who try to save her, but she is destined to die for the family honor.  I won't give the ending away, but this was the feature film on Midnight Mausoleum, a local horror show that does its own films, too, hosted by Marlena Midnight.  Check them out.

Anyway, the sinister woman in the film has her hair styled like portraits of Erzebet; her hair, black is wound around her head.  She is part Dracula bride, part Erzebet, part Mrs. Danvers of Rebecca.  The film is loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe stories, including "The Fall of the House of Usher".  Really loosely based, but it got me thinking.

Most of the vampirism and silliness associated with Erzebet is what Ingrid Pitt herself, who played Erzebet in Countess Dracula, called "rubbish!"  Still, our Countess has captured the imagination of many artists, including myself.  I just finished the second volume of The Bathory Chronicles, The Doll Museum, and am working on the third and final volume.  I've written three poems about her, created a shadow box in her honor called The Vampyre Doll Collector, written one short story about her, and one picture book for children.  I've made one a mixed media collage of her where she holds a real glass, wears a blue satin dress and has long, black hair.  I was 14, and she was the topic of a health report I did.  I got an A+.  I needed it in those day.  Health was combined with gym.  Later, I was on the gymnastics team, and earned a presidential physical fitness award, but that was after my Erzebet report.

Since the late Prof. McNally got it all wrong in Dracula was a Woman, the myths about Erzebet have only exploded.

I have a doll representing her, and there are many others, some pictured here in this blog.  Below is a list of films I found on The Internet, some silly, some artistic.

I hope you enjoy reading them.

1. The Brothers Grimm (2005) where Erzebet appears as The Mirror Queen, aka, the evil queen in Snow White.

2. Immoral Tales (1973) French.  Very gory and erotic with lots of blood.  I don't get what is sexy about blood.  The sight of other people's in gory movies doesn't upset me much.  The sight of mine does.

3. Thirst (1979)   Australia.  A descendant of Erzebet must drink blood to satisfy a cult that has kidnapped her.  More or less.  Blood drinking is not usually associated with Erzebet to my knowledge.

4. Hostel II (2007)

5. Stay Alive (2006).  Erzebet plays a virtual villain in connection with a video game.

6. Chastity Bites (2013)

7. Daughters of Darkness (1971)

8. Countess Dracula (1971) with Ingrid Pitt.

9. The Countess (2009)

10. Bathory (2008)

11. Elizabeth Bathory (2014)

12. Bathory, Countess of Blood (2011)

While I don't usually mention Wikipedia, there is a good article on Erzebet in popular culture.

The best book on her life and legacy is by Tony Thorne, called Countess Dracula.  There are also documentaries about her; search on YouTube. E.g., the Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory Documentary 2019,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsbQfQUkdGE.

I'm working on my own bibliography; I'd appreciate any listings you would be willing to share with me. Don't forget she was supposed to be the inspiration for le Fanu's Carmilla.   Also, there is Dracula's Daughter with Gloria Holden, with allusions to Erzebet, and Erzebet allegedly was Stoker's first choice for Dracula.