Vampire Vow

About the Author

Michael Schiefelbein spent ten years studying for the priesthood, living across Europe. Upon realizing that he was gay, Schiefelbein left to get his doctorate in English. During the time he was writing Vampire Vow, Schiefelbein was a professor of Writing and English in Memphis, Tennessee. Today he lives in Modesto, California, with his husband. He is a minister for the United Church of Christ. (@elise_rolle)

Summary

Vampire Vow tells the story of Victor Decimus, a successful Roman officer serving under Pontius Pilate at the height of the Roman Empire. Bored of Jerusalem, Victor goes for a hike and meets Jesus “Joshu” as a young man, and they develop a romantic relationship. Victor aspires to sleep with Jesus but is repeatedly turned down, becoming more and more hostile. Jesus then breaks things off.

Victor goes into a violent rage, taking his frustrations out on the Jewish people he is supposed to guard. To protect his job, he seeks a seer who can help him get a hold of his violent urges. She instructs him to drink blood from her breast, and he will gain powers that will allow him to seduce Jesus. He agrees, and the ritual turns him into a vampire. 

Victor harasses Jesus for the rest of his life, following him through the events of the bible, including his journey into the desert and his crucifixion. Jesus never accepts Victor’s seductions. When Jesus dies on the cross, Victor swears revenge on God for taking away his love. 

In the 2000 years after Jesus’s death, Victor enters the priesthood, going from abbey to abbey, corrupting and destroying monks. After drawing suspicion in Europe, Victor moves to an abbey in Tennessee and finds himself drawn to Brother Michael. Michael turns down his advances, and Victor instead seduces the young Brother Luke. Luke quickly proves to be an obsessive nuisance, and Victor kills him. 

This murder, paired with his nightly feeding frenzies in the countryside, makes him a suspected serial killer. Despite this, Michael finally gives in to Victor, and the two begin a passionate relationship. Victor almost convinces Michael to take his place as a vampire, but repeated visions of Jesus change Michael’s mind. Faced with rejection once again, Victor goes on a massacre throughout the abbey and local area. He forces Michael to join as torture for rejecting him, but Michael is killed in the process. The death causes Victor to retake his vow of revenge, blaming God for taking away another of his lovers. He moves to New Orleans (Michael's home town) to continue his undead life. 

Analysis

Genre and Intent

Vampire Vow straddles the line between dark erotica and serious discussions of the tensions between queerness and religion. The novella seems equally interested in discussing Christianity’s complicated queer history and in detailing grisly murders and extended sex scenes. For this reason, the goals of the novella can be hard to figure out, likely an intentional choice of the author.

Christian Sexuality

Vampire Vow is less interested in Christianity’s condemnation of queerness than it is in sex and sexuality. Early on, Jesus is established as a queer figure, so the novella resolves any questions about the righteousness of Catholic homophobia. Instead, the tension of the novella is carried out between the correct way to act of sexual impulse and the correct amount of chastity. 

This is primarily seen in the differences between Luke and Victor. Luke goes through most of his life suppressing his sexuality, leading to confusion and unhappiness. However, when he does act on it, his lack of experience and fear of returning to repression turns him obsessive, leading to his murder. Similarly, Victor is obsessive, dedicating his life to getting revenge on God. However, he has fully given in to his sexual desires, letting them control him.

Queer Unions

Vampire Vow repeatedly discusses what a queer union might look like when legal and spiritual marriage is barred to LGBTQ+ couples. Schiefelbein seems to argue for the importance of official martial unions, showing that cohabitation is not enough, something mirrored in his later sermons (@elise_rolle). Victor’s goal is to find a lover to join him in the vampire afterlife, where they will be united forever, and Jesus repeatedly tells Victor that they can have a romantic union in heaven. Only on earth does Victor lack the cure to his loneliness, which the novella posits, is the inability to find some sort of romantic union. 

God's Forgiveness

To put it frankly, Victor is not a good guy. Some might argue that that is an understatement. However, despite Victor’s repeated attempts to commit the worst sins possible, Jesus repeatedly tries to save and forgive him. Victor also repeatedly rejects this forgiveness and does everything he can to disrespect it. Yet, Jesus still returns to offer forgiveness. This naturally brings up the question: “What is the extent of God’s forgiveness?”

Cultural context

Biographical Criticism

Due to the similarities between Schiefelbein and Victor, it is hard not to do a biographical reading of the text. Both men spent extensive amounts of time in Europe before moving to Tennessee. And both struggled with their sexuality in spite of their holy occupation. It is easy to read this text as Schiefelbein’s examination of his sexuality and faith led him to leave Catholicism rather than as a reflection of public historical events. 

Gay Marriages 

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Vampire Vow was likely being written, a lot of changes and debates were taking place surrounding the legalization of gay marriage. In 1996, the federal government passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which made federal definitions of marriage exclusively between a man and woman, and allowed states to adopt the same definitions. 

Yet, only four years later, Vermont legalized same-sex civil unions, showing the growing tolerance and drive for gay rights in some parts of the country. They would be the first of many states until the full federal legalization of gay marriage in 2015. 

With some growing tolerance, those against gay marriage re-upped their efforts to prevent the extension of these rights. The Westboro Baptist Church, for example, began a very public campaign against homosexuality, especially gay marriage, in the 1990s.

The battleground for the right to marriage likely inspired some of Vampire Vow’s thoughts about marriage and unions. (“Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement”) (“Westboro Baptist Church”)

Works Cited

@elisa_rolle. “In The Spotlight: Michael Schiefelbein.” Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings — LiveJournal, elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/455650.html.

“Michael Schiefelbein.” Fantastic Fiction, www.fantasticfiction.com/s/michael-schiefelbein/. Accessed 8 March 2024. 

“Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement.” The American Experience, PBS, N.D., https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/stonewall-milestones-american-gay-rights-movement/. Accessed 9 March 2024. 

“Westboro Baptist Church.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, N.D., https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/westboro-baptist-church. Accessed 9 March 2024.