Josette DuPres: She’s Complicated

I wasn’t always fascinated by Josette DuPres, by the way. Quite the opposite in the beginning, particularly her name.

“Josette? What a dull name! Why is Barnabas, who has such a complicated name, in love with someone who has such a dull one?” Then I heard Alexandra Moltke pronounce it “Zho-zette” and I thought, “Okay! I can work with that.”

Then came her last name, which once was referred to as la Freniére, then DuPres, but how is it written? Many different ways! DuPres, Du Pres, du Pres, duPres, Dupres, and I’m likely missing others.

It’s been suggested, over time and even recently, that I am taking a simple character and growing her into something more.

I WISH!

I quote myself in response to the idea Barnabas Collins was my “main character”. I rejoined this with, “He is not my main character. He’s the darn shows‘ main character that everyone falls for. Josette stinkin’ I’m-going-to-reincarnate-myself-endlessly-and-detatch-myself-as-a-ghost-to-reach-my-spiky-banged-lucious is unfortunately as main character as I get because she’s such a pain in the tush to figure out!”

And she is, or perhaps was?

My own, and others, fascination with Josette DuPres can be summed up, simply, in these words:

“Don’t think of a pink elephant.”

This is also known as: ironic process theory.

You have just forbid a topic and, therefore, whom you forbade to think about it wishes to understand it TEN TIMES MORE! (Thanks, folks.)

Josette DuPres has been a puzzle, still is, but then I noticed all this hate/insecurity and dismissive regard over her character. This both confused me and, of course, got me that much more curious.

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Similar occurrences in life came my way upon asking about other topics outside my experience, such as: blueberries, red grapes, Jonestown, World War One, Canadian History, the Irish language, punk rock, and many other topics. I’d ask people about them and they tended to do their best to not talk about the subject, or find a way to make it seem unimportant. This repeated behaviour always got my dander up or just made me far more curious!

The hate for Barnabas Collins and the dismissal about Josette DuPres from “fans” made no sense and drove me nuts. (Then I FOUND the fans who loved them both, HA HA!)

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Long ago all I wanted was relief for most-to-all of the key players, so Barnabas and Josette wanting each other was no big shakes to me. I was looking at the bigger picture. Josette DuPres was merely part of that. When it became obvious the main romance of Dark Shadows was ‘taboo’, I did not care one iota. If outcast fans were the only ones interested in what I was doing? Fine! I wanted them. (And I found them too. ❤ )

Now, working with Josette? Well, she actually IS so complicated that a ton of fans just simplify her, really. It’s the easiest way to get around any complex subject as I learned by so many other topics I was curious about years ago.

Portrait of #JosetteCollins by Dave Shipley re-imagined …

The original series went all over the place with her ghost and then did more than hint at the reincarnation stuff, so I managed working with that to adapt and create more resolution, whereas on the soap-opera they stretched Josette out to be more confusing than resolving. (Later on the actress quit and one of the writers jacked-up the continuity dreadfully.)

They managed to fix this in the 1991 Revival of Dark Shadows, though. The reincarnation of Josette went back in time and met herself!

(Both played by Joanna Going; Episode Ten of that show.)
I’m STILL floored and stoked by that outcome! VERY resolved!

________________________________

Alec Newman and Marley Shelton

“Her name was Josette…”

They do switch the reincarnation of Josette in 1991 DS and 2004 DS to be Victoria Winters instead of Maggie Evans, and this is likely why in the 2012 Dark Shadows film they started with her being Maggie and changing her name to Victoria for the governess job. (Yes, I am a geek! 🙂 )

Of course, it IS complicated, but then again so is “Star Trek” and so is “Doctor Who”, both of which we grew up on.

So my husband and I were watching the old “Dark Shadows” and cracking-up, “Oh- duh, reincarnation! Ha ha, very clever, guys.” It really was *too* obvious. That’s why I made jokes about it in The Pit (Ep#7), where Maggie refers to The Blue Whale as The Eagle Tavern, because her references get scrambled between the two lives.

The trouble is people don’t remember Josette very much due to her being subdued, minus the 1897 Kitty incarnation. THEN she gets feisty. She goes to throttle Angelique too, because Kitty, as Josette, is having flashbacks from the 1790’s and recognizes Angelique as always getting in her way.

It’s pretty intense. So? I just run with it and see what I can work with. I guess it’s from compartmentalizing. Probably, huh?

Maggie & Josette (DS 2012)

But they did great with Bella Heathcote’s Josette because they just had the ghost of Josette be visions to Maggie/Victoria of her previous life.

Josette & Victoria at Collinwood

It was more this echo from her own psyche reverberating to guide her toward her destiny. No one else saw the vision but herself.

The other component to Josette, be it from the original show, 1991, or 2012, is, somewhere in each, she gives Barnabas no choice but to share his vampirism with her. He doesn’t want to but she demands it or creates a situation where he can’t resist.

So, it’s not exactly ‘my world’, I’m just gathering the information too many people dismissed.

And yeah! When I found the fans that validated these characters? They’d play “nice” online with the non-canon topics, but when I talked to them on the telephone? Way different story! They were rip-roaring angry! They were getting tired of all the baloney about the couple and the dismissal, and mostly it came from watching other viewers put up totally inaccurate details. We were all faced with these “fans” that were actually phonies.

Of course, this makes sense because this is the only show I’ve seen where tons of people do everything in their power to avoid the narrative. They’d talk about nearly every non-essential aspect of “Dark Shadows”, but God-Forbid they discuss the story! W-E-I-R-D! (Star Trek & Star Wars fans live for chatting the narrative and the characters. And I grew up with that instead, as did the rest of us.)

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So the Josette character grows further in The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows from understanding who she is and being helped by other fans of DS along the way. (Many fans helped in big and small ways on my journey. Please forgive me for not listing everyone.) Osheen helped me with the astral-projection element, Lisa and Melissa helped me with the Kitty Soames 1897 part, all helped with the 1790’s period, as well as the 1960’s Maggie incarnation and who she is. Then providing more clues when Maggie would have memories she didn’t understand. Tons of bits that apply.

Kinda like playing Simon

or adjusting a Rubik’s Cube.

It’s complicated!

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And this complexity in character-development of Josette DuPres, through four different versions of “Dark Shadows“, brings to mind something I’ve often heard about most televised series,

“Shhh-shhh! Don’t give me any spoilers!”

I’ve got news for you.

Unless you have a petabyte flash-drive wired to your brain… when it comes to Dark Shadows?

There is NO SUCH THING as a SPOILER!

(Because having to keep that much continuity in one’s mind isn’t impossible, but it is extremely improbable.)

❤

(June 2020) “I Got The Memo”

 

Another oceanside chat for people who enjoy them. Apparently quite a few people enjoy them!

I get started talking about a pen friend and a phone friend, good stuff and various reasons things in communications have been clogged.

General pep-talk about the current upbringing in kids to the previous upbringing I experienced with pretty crappy distractions that weren’t as bad as now, but still pretty bad.

I make it very clear here that I never wanted a parasocial relationship with my listeners. I wanted a social one. And? I still do!

However much the technology changed to alter anyone’s sociability? It didn’t change mine!

Why letter writing is very, very, important, even now. How the friends I’ve finally made in this have rewarded me with great company. (The whole reason I began this series.)

A little study time with a DS episode, a wee, wee bit of Magda… and then: “*Spoiler*”: The phases of Quentin Collins, very basic: 1969; Evil Ghost (dead), 1897; Playboy (alive), Killed (dead), Zombie (dead/alive), Not Zombie (alive), Werewolf Curse (still alive), Magic Portrait takes curse and then he is immortal (indefinitely alive). Then fun chat about Kitty Soames.

More on the topic of the non-canon romance, Julia/Barnabas phenomenon. Very calmly expressed. As well as my experience with healthy rejections and unhealthy reactions over the years. (A little more Jo March too.)

Sprinkled in this are thoughts on a new “hero” of mine: Tim Wu. (I’m just not sure where all I mention him, pardon.)

I wrap up with sober thoughts over more concentration on maintaining the help, pulling away from commercial sites, and focusing more on personal life, correspondence and friendship.

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podomatic link here

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Also available on iTunes

Pit Update March 2017

 

A “sickie” podcast for new pen pals and old listeners alike.

This is a very newsy and studious monologue. I’ll address what’s going on with the letter-writing method of listening to the series and knowing that many who want to hear this can’t always download or play it via having poor equipment.

Lots of discussions of people I’m talking with lately: Auntie, Jonah, etc.
Identifying interruption fan fiction and how it works with Osheen Nevoy and Lisa Weyenberg’s works as key examples.

Tons of spoilers for The Pit and later on a lot of spoilers for the marriage novel I’m creating in tandem. As per usual, this talk and explanation is quite cerebral, as well as moving back and forth discussion on various show characters being responsible for solutions in The Pit, including Endora and Uncle Arthur from “Bewitched”, as well as Wadsworth, Captain Gregg, Lily, and Morticia.

Plenty of goodies about Doctor Who coming into play for The Pit and exactly why he will.

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And yes, it is downloadable from iTunes, as always...

Margaret Josette Dupres, Chapter 41

 

 

-LINK TO CHAPTER FORTY-ONE-

Some of this has adult content but most of it doesn’t. I didn’t anticipate it to go there but… you know… this couple.  (Very likely that portion will go over most readers heads.) Pardon that it gets wordy. Barnabas and I asked Edgar Allan Poe for a little help. 😉  I listened to a lot of music by Adrian Von Ziegler while writing this. (Also available on bandcamp, like Nave Artificial I mentioned for the previous chapter.)

For this we have the delving into Episode 70 of Dark Shadows written by Art Wallace. As said on this blog, Josette is not an under-developed character, if anything she is over-developed into a plethora of facets. Her ghost is one of these facets and what with Josette’s Ghost manifesting on Dark Shadows during times Maggie Evans has been asleep (or as near to asleep in her activities as makes no difference) we can see how astral projection comes into play. As Episode 70 is Pre-Barnabas Dark Shadows, I hope you delight in the catch-up time our couple shares here. To me their love is a continuous dance, and one I could never invent, only help to heal.

Please hit the link above if you would like to read.

(Same author’s notes are in bold before the chapter begins.)

I couldn’t decide which image was appropriate to celebrate this one, so I’m using three that I created for this entry. ❤

Reincarnation & Lovecraft

 

Originally a “minicast” but since that experiment showed unworthy, this is now a full-on podcast. I still await discussion for Episode 14 so I remain creative while we all “wait”. (If you have time for this how do you *not* have time to answer the Q & A for Episode 14 of The Pit?)

Updates in my creative pursuits. Explanation of the importance in help from others while trying to learn and maintain accuracy. Reincarnation research via Dark Shadows, Maggie Evans as Josette, and Sam Evans as Andre in The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows. Episodes of Dark Shadows are delved into with various clues for why The Pit works toward what it does. (DS Episodes discussed are: 422, 697 & 853.)

There is a short reading of H.P. Lovecraft’s work while analyzing how The Leviathans in Dark Shadows came about. An offering of review-swapping for other radio dramatists and podcasters.

podomatic link

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archive dot org link

(If you have iTunes, again, you sure don’t need help from me! 😛 )

 

I hereby declare that anyone who is part of the audience is no longer allowed to discuss “the audience” with me. Doing that is incredibly redundant and doesn’t help me, your entertainer, in any way, shape or form. Thank you.

The Promise of What Praise Can Do: “Margaret Josette Dupres (A Novel)” [Note8]

I rather wish I’d titled this correspondence or insight, but I suppose praise is fairly accurate. You know what is scary? More and more people have snuck me little tid bits of what they’ve had to endure in all of this waiting. Almost every Maggie or Josette fan for Barnabas wanted the reincarnation. Several didn’t do it or tried and then couldn’t identify to how that experience would avail itself. Here’s where I step in. Not only have I explored many fictional characters and blended my psyche with theirs, I’ve also studied reincarnation a great deal and for this project I did two years of heavy study into it. With channeling so much, taking what my cousin suggested, “Be them at 85% but keep %15 percent of yourself so that you can come back to reality.” Little did she realize I was doing that automatically, but it’s good advice.

Sadly, it doesn’t come into the realm of blasted audio editing. I barely got a scrap of that done for Episode 15 today. A needed phone call, sun hitting the screen, whatever distractions drive me batty, but thankfully I posted some original work for fun on fictionpress and have received the great commentary from my new buddies. ❤ I love me some new buddies, kindred spirits. That’s what I’m all about. ❤

View my Bloody Mary tale here

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Now onto the happier things.

Hmm… this is fascinating. Chapter 16 of “Margaret Josette Dupres” is the altered poem by Edgar Allan Poe. I just went to find a link for that to place here to show the difference, but as I did I found an old book on gutenberg.org from 1903 about a friend named Annabel Lee. In fact it’s the title of the book by what looks to be a Canadian author. Ah, so many darn books and so little time. I hope I remember this one. A passage of it speaks to me deeply:

XXII
THE MESSAGE OF A TENDER SOUL

“THE MESSAGE of a tender soul,” said my friend Annabel Lee, “is a thing that will go far, oh, so far, and lose nothing of itself.

“When all things in the world are counted the beautiful things are in the greatest numbers. And when all the things in the world are counted the message of a tender soul counts greatly more than many.
“A tender soul receives back no gratitude for its message, and looks for no gratitude, and does not know what gratitude means. And the tenderness of the message is all unmade and all unknown, but is felt for long, long years.

–Mary MacLane

This goes on for some time. But therein lies the truth of what I’m looking for in “reviews”, “commentary”, and correspondence. (Mind you, it has to be written by the person. Memes don’t count. 😉 )

I wasn’t sure how well I’d altered the poem of Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe as far as things like meter and form, but getting to that which was similar in the conception of Lolita with her first incarnation, Annabel, by Nabokov. What Poe described in this loss and the “kingdom by the sea”, and watching the growth of Barnabas and Josette reaching each other through her reincarnation, the pieces truly fell into place one day. As I express in a podcast, “We all deserve respite from evil and it is this constant that is worth pursuing towards a permanent and enduring peace.” — Michael Nesmith.

For me, with my sour and abusive history, I looked for spooky, but I also looked for what would enlightened in fiction. Whatever media entertainment might throw at us isn’t what I’m interested in and I feel it’s deeply important for each of us to understand ourselves rather than giving in to any kind of peer-pressure, asking oneself questions to find their own deeper meaning. What do I like and why do I like it? (I’d add “what do I hate”, but I think we’ve all been doing that too long and too plentifully.)

But of this taboo: reincarnation… I dunno, I’d think some forms of vampirism are likely worse, so some of us reach for more down-to-earth styles of it. But here is the tale awaited for decades with Barnabas and Josette, they struggle for nearly two-hundred years and then finally?

We’ve found one another, and here she is mine,

Reborn to me now,

dare I question how?

I don’t, I can not care any less

For our love is sublime

And we have all the time

To enjoy ourselves, ah, I am blessed

As the ocean waves roll

and the rocks take their toll

I turn away from them and what do I see?

Forever, my bliss

The fair woman I missed.

The Beautiful ANNABEL LEE.

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Since I was using Nabokov for inspiration on this novel I went back to one of his own inspirations, fitting for a gothic story, Edgar Allen Poe. I thought over the poem and saw so many elements that touched this story too.

So in this strange way, again that number three, all these relationships might have peace.

Barnabas has his Josette in Maggie.

Perhaps a redeemed and better Humbert has a loving, willing (& older) Lolita, not necessarily Dolores Haze.

And Edgar Allen Poe may have his Annabel Lee. (Who was named the first incarnation of Lolita.)

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This is not the end of the story, there is a great more to come, both in healing, passion and love.

Helena  chapter 16 . 
That was soothing for this occasion. I am not a big fan of poetry (although I appreciate some), but this version of “Annabel Lee” for Barnabas and Josette was fitting. You did well on this Daryl, and I’m looking forward to the aftermath (mostly positive) of this chapter in their relationship. 🙂

Yay! Thank you. I wasn’t sure where to put that darn poem in the rough cut and then when I had to re-live the Healing chapters, I knew it was time. ❤

Helena, you’re likely the only one to review the poem because I grabbed a smooching shot of Barnabas and Maggie with the text of the poem, as well as the link and splashed the post of it all over the DS group pages. It was sort of, “At last! I’m done with the horror! YES!” spell of relief.

Uh-oh, this next chpater got rather intense… in fact… um… it’s likely the chapter that people go back to the most often. I remember I asked on facebook, “Everyone keeps hitting the sex-on-the-floor chapter. Can folks please go back and review it to tell me what they enjoyed about it?” A few like-clicks ensued… which could mean anything! Of course Osheen was the kicker with the question, “Okay, which one is the the sex-on-the-floor chapter?” Still, it didn’t garner me anymore reviews as to why people keep returning to it. My theory is it’s Barnabas in the more “masterful” view most people likely write him in. I just figured at this point our reincarnated Josette was simply wiped out from taking the initiative all the time.

Going back to when this was during my troubled rough-draft “I-don’t-understand-what’s-happening-to-me” phase as I couldn’t find any fans of this pairing at the time since they’d all given up even looking for it, I asked a few friends for help. As it so happens some of your best friends of many years can be just as lazy at commenting on what they like as everyone else who enjoys it ten times as much. I just figured they weren’t reading it at all. Well one friend came to visit and I showed her a  few chapters. She nodded to say she’d read them. “Um, and you didn’t put down a review?” This was after she was complaining right along with me of the laziness of people online. Oopsie!

I told her, “Well I tried to get ‘The Boys’ into it. [Meaning the artsy fellows we know who press and distribute zines and underground comics and have for decades.] I’d been shouting out, ‘Come on, guys! Help me out here! Say something! Say anything! Be dirty! Say you got a boner! I don’t care!'”

After our rare visit together she went home, and later that night I found an odd delight in the review pile of the original draft for this chapter:

Guest

I adore the words you use. It gives such luxury and great detail to your story. I’m rather bashful to say I had a dirty grin while reading this one. *cough*ladyboner*cough* Thank you.

Hmm… was this the friend who just visited or was it Nikki? Hmm… Well, knowing me I can hardly get a hold of any old friends or loved ones much in the last two years. I asked around and got nothing but people who wanted to claim this odd phrase.

Time passed, the work was taken down for the re-write. When I got to this chapter it was decided to throw in the shout-out:

“Okay, the LAST time this was posted SOMEONE reviewed with the phrase *ladyboner*. Was that YOU, Nikki? Everyone I’ve asked wishes they *could *claim that phrase! Nikki, if that was you, you better sign in to FF dot net and say so or I’m going to be ringing your cel phone until the battery dies!”

And then:

nikwil chapter 17 . May 4, 2014
It wasn’t me! It must have been the one armed man!..or Mark!

Could a Dark Shadows project get more hilarious?

Okay, it was likely the gal who came to visit and then went home after confessing she recognized the chapters I was showing her…

Hee, hee, hee, moving on…

Chapter 17: To Love, To Speak, To Name

Josette is preparing for a romantic evening at The Old House while the staff are away and has set up an area with cushions and blankets in front of the main room fire. I still feel some of what she talks about is roughly out of character, but again, much of the original draft was created giving Maggie the fast-track on what being this reincarnation of her and Kitty Soames would be like. (I’m still hoping to explore that better in the radio drama along with everything else.)

Eventually the man of the house wanders in and gets the drift of what this means. What his mood is or how he would become masterful so swiftly? Well, maybe I’ll need another re-write. For now let’s just say he locked the door saw the scene she laid out and thought, “Mmm-hmm!“

Helena chapter 17 
You already know what’s coming, Daryl…*cough* LADYBONER! LOL! This chapter had my imagination and desire to see JF’s half-naked pics again 😀 Wadsworth and Willie POSSIBLY at the strip club? I hope they have plenty of cash for the lovely dancers 😉 And Josette/Maggie referring to Angelique as an “old friend”? I’m curious to how she will reach out to her “former” nemesis. Hmm…Loved it, Daryl 😉

Ah, yes, there was that mention of Angelique. Still working on her redemption and likely seeing it somewhere in 1897 for The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows. That’s the thing about Josette and Angelique, they were friends, so as bad as Barnabas got Angelique’s foul treatment, Josette getting maligned after being so warm to her really is a major component in creating a relief series. We also get to hear some love for Jonathan Frid’s winning charm, however much he wondered why on Earth everyone wanted to have sex with his character. But the thing about folks who dig this pairing is they are very often sweethearts with the adoration of, “Hey, Barnabas happy? Why not? He does look rather lovingly at this woman. It sure is turning me on!”

Agreed. ❤

myhrr chapter 17 
Beautifully written!

Sandra chapter 17 
Very nice, Daryl :-). Love the romance and depth of love.

Thank you, thank you! Some of the words he was telling her was giving me the chills considering what was happening.

odiness chapter 17 
THIS is the most eloquently written, highbrow, classy porn I have ever read! lol 🙂

Oh, hey, another pal I rarely hear from, at least I think that’s who this is. Groovy, and fitting. And I do appreciate a number of these great smiles, especially considering that the trolls were about to come in droves, which I’ll save for a separate entry. I have a stack of about 20-30 troll reviews for this work. What the point of that is, beyond wasting time, is rather lost on me, but anonymous troll reviews have been expected for this marriage story for decades which is why no one put it together before nor posted it online to easily find.

You’ve heard my Roger performance, right? All the other words that come out of all the other characters? I’m hardly doing all of this on my own. What my adopted kids want I try to find their way to achieve but I let them speak. A three-in-one woman is a difficult undertaking which is why I’m having trouble with it, but then again, who else has done that with Josette Dupres and Kitty Soames as Maggie Evans?

In Search of… Josette Dupres (A Hard Study in Reincarnation)

I saw the signs that Maggie Evans was Josette Dupres rather quick. When Victoria Winters went into the past I was predicting she would automatically become Josette. Nope! Well, there goes that idea. And so I didn’t plan for Victoria and Barnabas to be together. Peter Bradford, however much people diss on Roger Davis, is the one who put himself on the line for her. And on top of that, there is her potential relationship as Elizabeth Stoddard’s daughter to work out.

Ideas for The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows don’t spring from my own imagination alone. I adopted these people to help and work things out. I listen to them, I watch the programs. I’m not the usual fanfiction writer blending up some studious contemplation and then throwing it down. Each character, Dark Shadows, or bonus, gets analyzed, spoken with and listened to. For Maggie Evans? She was the one, she was Josette and is Josette, but she’s also Kitty Soames, as well as herself.

Do I believe in reincarnation? Like many things I’m open ended, but it’s completely fascinating to study. In my analysis I found Bridey Murphy. I saw it as a total fake until I looked further. The woman who went through hypnosis and told her past life tale was not in it to do so. She wanted to quit smoking and was hoping hypnosis would work. As a result the tale of Bridey Murphy was littered throughout the globe and she received the worst treatment from it most of her life. She wasn’t out to make a name for herself. She just wanted to quit a bad habit. That’s when I questioned the claims of it being a publicity stunt. I also altered how Mrs. Johnson felt about it in my third episode of The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows. Mrs. Johnson had been much harder on Bridey Murphy in episode three. I decided to let her mention it dismissively but not as an outright lie. Showing a little compassion for the lady whose life was made worse.

 

I did more extensive research to online websites, watching videos galore and came upon a much more recent story of a little boy, James Leininger, who had nightmares about being a WWII pilot who died after his plane crashed into the ocean. (A link-up to Maggie’s night-terrors, perhaps?) James convinced his father who had always flatly refused to believe in reincarnation. He was dead set against any need for it as guided by his faith. James received closure by visiting the approximate vicinity of his “previous death” on the ocean near Japan and performing a ritual of farewell.

And as many children who have these experiences of knowing their past life so early, the memories began to fade for James around puberty. For Maggie Evans, however fictional, this is not the case.

A longer lived example is Barbro Karlen, who explains herself as once being Anne Frank. The text to The Diary of Anne Frank was so familiar that she questioned why everyone was reading her private journals in school. Anne Frank’s remaining cousin, Buddy Elias, got in hot water with the public when he expressed, “If anyone is Anne, it’s Barbro.”

More can be read about her here.

There were gobs of videos I watched, the best being the one claimed to have been banned but now it’s on youtube.

Reincarnation-Regression.

In one of these there was a woman who drew something in an old home she “knew” through hypnosis, but when they went out to investigate the grounds she “remembered”, she drew something else with the opposite hand. One commentator on youtube pointed this out and the program didn’t. (I often wanted a joke made of this on Dark Shadows when Professor Stokes writes out a message from Benjamin Stokes, but alas…) Also some people tend to speak in other languages during regression-therapy. Which is what Maggie Evans does in episode 12 of The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows.

How many people do this much research for one character in fanfiction? I’d wager not too many.

And so, as I was only writing the text I wanted to make bloody sure there wasn’t some other character played by KLS that might have some Josette lodged in her too. I did look up Rachel Drummond but I wasn’t seeing a straight reincarnation. I believe there was some idea to create that in her but it fell through. Later on I found out more about Kitty Soames, also known as Lady Hamphire, from England but also from Pennsylvania.

Swell.

I looked over what evidence about her I could find. Crap, she truly is a reincarnation. So I wrote her in simply but I was so damned frustrated that in order to get it all accurate my job was made this much harder I said, “SCREW IT! If I have to unravel the life of three women in one I’m going to throw a man in there too for good measure!”

Ah yes, one of my rare original characters in this series, who I picture looking like Cary Elwes, the World War One double agent, Hansel Bachmeier:

And, of course, with the gap between Kitty’s existence and Maggie’s life, and with my studying The Great War like so much else because no one would talk about it, Hansel is from that time period in between. I also made sure there were no Hansels, and no Bachmeiers in Dark Shadows to get in my way. I also wanted to give him the nickname Jaegar after the beverage Jägermeister. I checked for a Jaegar in Dark Shadows. There was a Yaeger but with a Y, not a J. So that’s fine. With Bachmeier I looked up a name I was barely seeing anywhere. So if you type “Hansel Bachmeier” right now on google search you won’t find much but my work.

And this all shows how hard I do work. The oblivious invalidation I receive as a result is beyond irksome. This is major research into tough regions, not making my own decisions but letting the characters decide, using multiple fandoms and researching those, acting all of the parts, paying through the nose to get everything done including the postcards, editing audio, adding sound effects and music and getting so little in return for this program as it continues to be downloaded. So much effort just to go into the waste-zone of the internet. Really, why not go to college radio after that?

Is it because for so many decades this pairing with Barnabas to a reincarnation of Josette has always been a taboo in fanwork? Reincarnation itself is taboo. The Dark Shadows movie of 2012 is a bitter type of taboo and has such a story. And now, for some reason, discussing The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows with its creator is the latest taboo.

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Tilda Swinton expressed to Charlie Rose that loneliness is a big taboo and no one wanted to solve it because it wouldn’t make any money. If people were together sharing their lives that cuts into money spent shopping for something to do, at least I gathered that from how she put together her explanation.

I’ve heard a ton of excuses as to why no one is filling The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows with the commentary it deserves. I’ve also heard plenty of reasons why I should be giving it away without that commentary regardless of how much it makes me lonelier and hurts to the point that I wish the whole thing would be over. These reasons are not only unwelcome to me, but I don’t believe them and I don’t believe they’re right. Is the true reason total awe or utter laziness?

Like much in the radio series itself, and this character of reincarnation, it’s likely a blend.

Margaret Josette DuPres

“There may have been no Maggie Evans at all, if I had not loved that Miss Dupres, and met her again over a century later and known this fiery devotion for both. Ha! Of course, is it not like a man, to want more than one woman? And is it not easier for one to enjoy the pleasures of two at once, like this?

One might resent me for enjoying this so thoroughly… but thankfully, who I was with… both in spirit and in body and with intensity… loved me… and even if she wanted to chain me down, or lacerate me with either a branding or perhaps simply her exquisite cuspids, I cared not… as long as she stroked me, as long as she loved me… as long as she lovingly hurt me with a pain so unyielding as to set my sinews aflame.”

— Barnabas Collins

(“Margaret Josette Dupres” by Daryl Wor)