Some people trace vampire mythology to Vlad Tepes of Romania, for his impaling his enemies on stakes, drawing and quartering or burning them alive during his revolt from the Ottoman empire. It turns out that he wasn't the only one doing this in the 1400's. His contemporaries did similar things including most other Middle Ages Rulers and even the Catholic Church.
According to Paul Barber, author of "Vampires, Burial, and Death," nearly every culture have some version of the vampire, and those myths are similar to the European one. In the Middle Ages, when misfortune struck a person, family, or town, the vampire or other boobyman would be put forth as the origin. Vampires are an easy answer to illiterate people trying to explain why bad things happen to good people.
Add to this people's inate fear of the dead and misunderstanding about the cause of the death. History shows that normal body decay wasn't understood and people assumed that it always happened at a fixed rate. Yet in the summer a body would decay fast while a body buried in winter would not decay, making the body appear undead. People would unearth graves when things went badly and find bodies more intact than anticipated and assume that the person was undead and therefore the reason for the misfortune. As we became more informed about death and decay, the vampire legends disappeared.
If you go back in history you will also find other vampire related horrors such as Lamia, a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a snake. The Greeks also feared the empusai, the malicious daughters of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. The empusai, who could change form, came up from Hades (the underworld) at night as beautiful women to seduce shepherds and then devour them. A similar creature, the baobhan sith, shows up in Celtic folklore. Indian folklore describes a number of nightmarish characters, including rakshasa, gargoyle-like shape-shifters who preyed on children. All of these alternative vampire historical figures add to the potential movie horror themes.
Interest in Vampire disappeared for decades but has become commonplace in movies and literature in the last 10-20 years. Is it a case of people enjoying the bad boy image, the power over others, or fascination with supernatural things? What is scary is that they are real and have entire websites to determine if you or someone you know is a vampire. There are many such sites and they seriously talk about Slayers (from Bucky the Vampire Slayer fame).
So now we ask are they real. Checking on informed sources (wikipedia, lol) you can find the following response.
First is the medical condition porphyria, which may cause a combination of anemia and psychological disorders leading to the belief that one must drink blood to survive. Secondly, the existence of psychologically impaired individuals organizing into "vampire cults", such as the so-called Kentucky Vampire Clan, makes the existence of persons who attack other humans and drink their blood a real phenomena, though an exceedingly rare one both pathologically and criminally speaking.The article goes on to talk about Viral Vampires, Immortal Vampires while others add Pranic or Psychic Vampires (feed on energy). Are they real? Yes, with the exception of Immortal, because there isn't proof that they do or do not exist.
So why do a blog about them. I love the special effects of the movies. The New Moon, Interview with a Vampire, Underworld, and Blade movie shows some interesting special effects, and I like special effects. I also like other movies with great effects including Shrek.
Besides, it is hip. It seems that there are real vampires. It just depends upon how you define them; they are a myth, so we can be loose with our definitions. To be serious for a moment, are there blood sucking people taking advantage to drain the lifeforce of others? We all feel that someone is taking advantage of the system. We might even call them blood suckers. Those people are called __________________________________ (Fill in the blank). Suggestions might be Welfare recipients, Democrats, Republicans, Investment Bankers or Lawyers and you get to pick your favorite.
As we think of our current blood sucking enemy, remember they might look at you the same way. Seriously, who really cares if people enjoy a good horror movie if it is all in fun.
And now to vampire humor -
What does a vampire fear most? Tooth decay
Why did the vampire's lunch give him heartburn? It was a stake sandwich.
Yeah, childish attempt at humor but so are vampires......
Blood sucking is an interesting description of (fill in the blank as described in your blog). Too bad there isn't a Red Cross blood drive to cure the problem as one day we will be a society of anemic tax payers.
ReplyDeleteThe government is just asking for a blood donation.... if you believe them. Don't ask if it is is quarts of arterial blood or just a pin prick request because then you aren't a team player. The problem is we let too many different groups take a little bit of our blood and eventually we will be anemic or dead poor. Sort of death by a thousand cuts.
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