Postscript: Introductionless Death1

Abstract

In Stoker's Dracula, Harker loses consciousness as he approaches the vampire's castle: "I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake I must have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place"; in Murnau's Nosferatu, Harker loses consciousness while leaving the vampire's castle. The frontier, the place of entry of the labyrinthine realm of undeath is inaccessible since hidden by the trance that seizes one there (entrance n. 2. A means or point by which to enter, entrance v. tr. 1. To put into a trance [American Heritage Dictionary]). 2 If someone who is not a spiritual master is not entranced at the entrance of a place, this indicates that it is not a labyrinth. The entry into and exit from the realm of undeath occurs in a lapse, hence is missed. With the exception of the yogi/Zen master, one is always already undead. 3 You can neither enter nor leave the labyrinth; and you've always been lost in it, that is you cannot be found there. Are you then ever in the labyrinth from which you cannot leave? The labyrinthine has aura. On a map, a labyrinth is formed of one line that meanders on and on, twists and involutes, forming a fractal object with a dimension between one and two, with the following two consequences. First, the labyrinth is all border, hence one cannot be fully inside it: if one can hide in the labyrinth, it is not because one is inside the labyrinth, for the labyrinth maintains one on the outside (thus it has aura), [End Page 185] but because it is in the labyrinth that one is lost. Second, lapses are sure to occur to one in the labyrinth since it does not have a dimension of 3, is not a full volume.