Vampires and Evil: the Romantic Antihero Reborn

Vampires have historically been considered evil, and were blamed for many little understood situations in the cultures that spawned them. But fictionally they are currently not considered 100% bad. Since they’re the living dead – creatures to be feared rather than desired – they deserve a closer look.

Body image and wealth are worshipped in our society, and if you add a bit of trendy perversity to the mix you might get an instant hero, or the 20th century equivalent – the antihero. This character is often dark in nature, and they have their own set of morals. They kill and frighten fragile humans, but they are no longer the monsters or villains of yore. Dress evil in smart clothes over a beautiful body and it doesn’t seem so unappealing anymore. Antiheroes are the ultimate outcasts, and if they are self-loathing, that’s even better: the romantic, but evil, protagonist is born . . . or reborn. Who better to personify those attributes than the modern fictional vampire?

Vampires are seen as evil when they lure nubile beauties into blood ritual. Their sensual side is not new. Dracula dawdled over Mina for days, during which time she appeared besotted, deceptive, and furtively aware of puncture wounds to her throat, an entrance into her body that she has allowed. He could have dispatched her as he did Lucy, but instead he lingered until she was begging him for it. It being his blood and her final transformation into another one of his vampire brides (he’d left three of them back at the castle). We didn’t want her to change; we wanted Dracula to be vanquished. This is the fundamental difference: if that story were written in the 21st century we'd want Drac and Mina together in everlasting bliss.

Vampires from an older period fed rampantly on the innocent, but in many books released today, they don’t randomly attack people and kill them. They offer many of their chosen the choice of transformation, and a “blood bond” is created instead of a “blood curse.” These vampires are depicted as torn by the pull of opposite urges, wanting to honor the remnants of their human side but still irresistibly drawn to seek blood. Their fictional human counterparts (buddies, lovers, misguided Renfields) witness their moral struggle, almost as if they were watching a human contend with a substance addiction. They stand by wanting to offer support, but usually make the process worse, their bodies a pulsating temptation. They are the enablers upon which the plot twists.

In fiction today we want the vampire to get the girl, or boy (Louis and Armand in the Rice Vampire Trilogy; Edward and Bella in Twilight; Bill and Sookie in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series).

Vampires have changed, but our notions of evil have changed as well. I’ll examine this aspect in my next installment.

Top 70 Vampire Movies

Top 70 movies rated by Rotten Tomatoes and imdb.  Their average rating determined their standing.How many have you seen?*

I'd add "Thirst" to the list.  Here's my review.

70 - Bordello of Blood (1996) - 3.95
69 - Vampire in Brookly (1995) - 4.0
68 - Dracula 2000 (2000) - 4.15
67 - Queen of the Damened (2002) - 4.2
66 - The Forsaken (2001) - 4.2
65 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) - 4.7
64 - The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974) - 4.7
63 - Blacula (1972) - 4.8
62 - Van Helsing (2004) - 4.8
61 - Fright Night Part 2 (1988) - 4.95
60 - Vamp (1986) - 5.05
59 - Blade Trinity (2004) - 5.05
58 - Underworld: Evolution (2006) - 5.15
57 - Lifeforce (1985) - 5.35
56 - The Night Flier (1997) - 5.35
55 - John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) - 5.4
54 - Vampyros Lesbos (1970) - 5.4
53 - Innocent Blood (1992) - 5.5
52 - Ganja & Hess (1973) - 5.5
51 - Subspecies (2001) - 5.55
50 - Underworld (2003) - 5.65
49 - The Vampire Lovers (1970) - 5.65
48 - The Hunger (1983) - 5.65
47 - The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998) - 5.75
46 - Blood for Dracula (1974) - 5.75
45 - The Return of the Vampire (1944) - 5.75
44 - Son of Dracula (1943) - 5.78
43 - Frostbitten (2006) - 5.8
42 - BioHunter (1995) - 5.8
41 - Vampire's Kiss (1989) - 5.8
40 - Rabid (1977) - 5.85
39 - Love at First Bite (1979) - 5.85
38 - Nadja (1994) - 5.85
37 - Blood & Donuts (1995) - 5.90
36 - Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) - 5,95
35 - Vampire Effect (2005) - 5.95
34 - The Addiction (1995) - 6.05
33 - John Badham's Dracula (1979) - 6.05
32 - Night Watch (2004) - 6.15
31 - Blade II (2002) - 6.2
30 - Blade (1998) - 6.25
29 - Vampire Hunter (1985) - 6.25
28 - Brides of Dracula (1960) - 6.25
27 - Dracula's Daughter (1936) - 6.25
26 - Vampyres (1974) - 6.25
25 - House of Dracula (1945) - 6.3
24 - Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001) - 6.35
23 - The Monster Squad (1987) - 6.45
22 - Salem's Lot (1979) - 6.45
21 - The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) - 6.5
20 - The Last Man on Earth (1964) - 6.5
19 - From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) - 6.5
18 - The Lost Boys (1987) - 6.55
17 - Day Watch (2006) - 6.6
16 - Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1991) - 6.7
15 - Interview with A Vampire (1994) - 6.9
14 - Shadow of the Vampire (2000) - 6.9
13 - Fright Night (1985) - 6.9
12 - The Night Stalker (1972) - 6.95
11 - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - 6.95
10 - Cronos (1993) - 7.0
9 - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) - 7.05
8 - Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) - 7.2
7 - Near Dark (1987) - 7.25
6 - Horror of Dracula (1958) - 7.35
5 - Martin (1977) - 7.4
4 - Black Sunday (1960) - 7.5
3 - Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) - 7.55
2 - Dracula (1931) - 7.75
1 - Nosferatu (1922) - 8.55

*Twilight didn't make the cut.  Gee, I wonder why?

 

Eternal Question Posed by a Romantic Vampire

Love memory lust
Lust forgotten love
Love revives lust
Lust traces flesh
Flesh enlivens mind
Mind remembers lust
Lust goes mind remains
Remains memory sex
Sex memory echoes
Echoes flesh lust
Lust memory love
Love remains
Remains decompose?

Vampires At a Glance

Vampires

Many scholars argue the word “vampire” is either from the Hungarian vampir or from the Turkish upior, upper, upyr meaning “witch.” Other scholars argue the term derived from the Greek word “to drink” or from the Greek nosophoros meaning “plague carrier.” It may also derive from the Serbian Bamiiup or the Serbo-Crotian pirati. There are many terms for “vampire” found across cultures, suggesting that vampires are embedded in human consciousness.b A group a vampires has variously been called a clutch, brood, coven, pack, or a clan.f Probably the most famous vampire of all time, Count Dracula, quoted Deuteronomy 12:23: “The blood is the life.”f The Muppet vampire, Count von Count from Sesame Street, is based on actual vampire myth. One way to supposedly deter a vampire is to throw seeds (usually mustard) outside a door or place fishing net outside a window. Vampires are compelled to count the seeds or the holes in the net, delaying them until the sun comes up.b Celtic for “stone tables,“ dolmens may have been placed over graves to keep vampires from rising Prehistoric stone monuments called “dolmens” have been found over the graves of the dead in northwest Europe. Anthropologists speculate they have been placed over graves to keep vampires from rising.c A rare disease called porphyria (also called the "vampire" or "Dracula" disease) causes vampire-like symptoms, such as an extreme sensitivity to sunlight and sometimes hairiness. In extreme cases, teeth might be stained reddish brown, and eventually the patient may go mad.c Documented medical disorders that people accused of being a vampire may have suffered from include haematodipsia, which is a sexual thirst for blood, and hemeralopia or day blindness. Anemia (“bloodlessness”) was often mistaken for a symptom of a vampire attack.f Considered a "true" vampire, Elizabeth Bathory supposedly bathed in the blood of young virgins One of the most famous “true vampires” was Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) who was accused of biting the flesh of girls while torturing them and bathing in their blood to retain her youthful beauty. She was by all accounts a very attractive woman.f Vampire legends may have been based on Vlad of Walachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler (c. 1431-1476). He had a habit of nailing hats to people’s heads, skinning them alive, and impaling them on upright stakes. He also liked to dip bread into the blood of his enemies and eat it. His name, Vlad, means son of the dragon or Dracula, who has been identified as the historical Dracula. Though Vlad the Impaler was murdered in 1476, his tomb is reported empty.f One of the earliest accounts of vampires is found in an ancient Sumerian and Babylonian myth dating to 4,000 B.C. which describes ekimmu or edimmu (one who is snatched away). The ekimmu is a type of uruku or utukku (a spirit or demon) who was not buried properly and has returned as a vengeful spirit to suck the life out of the living.a According to the Egyptian text the Pert em Hru (Egyptian Book of the Dead), if the ka (one of the five parts of the soul) does not receive particular offerings, it ventures out of its tomb as a kha to find nourishment, which may include drinking the blood of the living. In addition, the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was known to drink blood. The ancient fanged goddess Kaliof India also had a powerful desire for blood.a Chinese vampires were called a ch’iang shih (corpse-hopper) and had red eyes and crooked claws. They were said to have a strong sexual drive that led them to attack women. As they grew stronger, the ch’iang shih gained the ability to fly, grew long white hair, and could also change into a wolf.a While both vampires and zombies generally belong to the “undead,” there are differences between them depending on the mythology from which they emerged. For example, zombies tend to have a lower IQ than vampires, prefer brains and flesh rather than strictly blood, are immune to garlic, most likely have a reflection in the mirror, are based largely in African myth, move more slowly due to rotting muscles, can enter churches, and are not necessarily afraid of fire or sunlight.f Vampire hysteria and corpse mutilations to “kill” suspected vampires were so pervasive in Europe during the mid-eighteenth century that some rulers created laws to prevent the unearthing of bodies. In some areas, mass hysteria led to public executions of people believed to be vampires.b The first full work of fiction about a vampire in English was John Polidori’s influential The Vampyre, which was published incorrectly under Lord Byron’s name. Polidori (1795-1821) was Byron’s doctor and based his vampire on Byron.f The first vampire movie is supposedly Secrets of House No. 5 in 1912. F.W. Murnau’s silent black-and-white Nosferatu came soon after, in 1922. However, it was Tod Browning’s Dracula—with the erotic, charming, cape- and tuxedo-clad aristocrat played by Bela Lugosi—that became the hallmark of vampire movies and literature.f A vampire supposedly has control over the animal world and can turn into a bat, rat, owl, moth, fox, or wolf.c In 2009, a sixteenth-century female skull with a rock wedged in its mouth was found near the remains of plague victims. It was not unusual during that century to shove a rock or brick in the mouth of a suspected vampire to prevent it from feeding on the bodies of other plague victims or attacking the living. Female vampires were also often blamed for spreading the bubonic plague throughout Europe.d Joseph Sheridan Le Fany’s gothic 1872 novella about a female vampire, “Carmilla,” is considered the prototype for female and lesbian vampires and greatly influenced Bram Stoker’s own Dracula. In the story, Carmilla is eventually discovered as a vampire and, true to folklore remedies, she is staked in her blood-filled coffin, beheaded, and cremated.f Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) remains an enduring influence on vampire mythology and has never gone out of print. Some scholars say it is clearly a Christian allegory; others suggest it contains covert psycho-sexual anxieties reflective of the Victorian era.k According to several legends, if someone was bitten by a suspected vampire, he or she should drink the ashes of a burned vampire. To prevent an attack, a person should make bread with the blood of vampire and eat it.f Without an invitation, vampires in most legends cannot cross a threshold Thresholds have historically held significant symbolic value, and a vampire cannot cross a threshold unless invited. The connection between threshold and vampires seems to be a concept of complicity or allowance. Once a commitment is made to allow evil, evil can re-enter at any time.b Before Christianity, methods of repelling vampires included garlic, hawthorn branches, rowan trees (later used to make crosses), scattering of seeds, fire, decapitation with a gravedigger’s spade, salt (associated with preservation and purity), iron, bells, a rooster’s crow, peppermint, running water, and burying a suspected vampire at a crossroads. It was also not unusual for a corpse to be buried face down so it would dig down the wrong way and become lost in the earth.f After the advent of Christianity, methods of repelling vampires began to include holy water, crucifixes, and Eucharist wafers. These methods were usually not fatal to the vampire, and their effectiveness depended on the belief of the user.f Garlic, a traditional vampire repellent, has been used as a form of protection for over 2,000 years. The ancient Egyptians believed garlic was a gift from God, Roman soldiers thought it gave them courage, sailors believed it protected them from shipwreck, and German miners believed it protected them from evil spirits when they went underground. In several cultures, brides carried garlic under their clothes for protection, and cloves of garlic were used to protect people from a wide range of illnesses. Modern-day scientists found that the oil in garlic, allicin, is a highly effective antibiotic.k That sunlight can kill vampires seems to be a modern invention, perhaps started by the U.S. government to scare superstitious guerrillas in the Philippines in the 1950s. While sunlight can be used by vampires to kill other vampires, as in Ann Rice’s popular novel Interview with a Vampire, other vampires such as Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to walk in daylight.f The legend that vampires must sleep in coffins probably arose from reports of gravediggers and morticians who described corpses suddenly sitting up in their graves or coffins. This eerie phenomenon could be caused by the decomposing process.c According to some legends, a vampire may engage in sex with his former wife, which often led to pregnancy. In fact, this belief may have provided a convenient explanation as to why a widow, who was supposed to be celibate, became pregnant. The resulting child was called a gloglave (pl. glog) in Bulgarian or vampirdzii in Turkish. Rather than being ostracized, the child was considered a hero who had powers to slay a vampire.f The Twilight book series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) by Stephanie Meyers has also become popular with movie-goers. Meyers admits that she did not research vampire mythology. Indeed, her vampires break tradition in several ways. For example, garlic, holy items, and sunlight do not harm them. Some critics praise the book for capturing teenage feelings of sexual tension and alienation.i Hollywood vampires often differ drastically from folklore vampires Hollywood and literary vampires typically deviate from folklore vampires. For example, Hollywood vampires are typically pale, aristocratic, very old, need their native soil, are supernaturally beautiful, and usually need to be bitten to become a vampire. In contrast, folklore vampires (before Bram Stoker) are usually peasants, recently dead, initially appear as shapeless “bags of blood,” do not need their native soil, and are often cremated with or without being staked.f Folklore vampires can become vampires not only through a bite, but also if they were once a werewolf, practiced sorcery, were excommunicated, committed suicide, were an illegitimate child of parents who were illegitimate, or were still born or died before baptism. In addition, anyone who has eaten the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf, was a seventh son, was the child of a pregnant woman who was looked upon by a vampire, was a nun who stepped over an unburied body, had teeth when they were born, or had a cat jump on their corpse before being buried could also turn into vampires.f In vampire folklore, a vampire initially emerges as a soft blurry shape with no bones. He was “bags of blood” with red, glowing eyes and, instead of a nose, had a sharp snout that he sucked blood with. If he could survive for 40 days, he would then develop bones and a body and become much more dangerous and difficult to kill.f While blood drinking isn’t enough to define a vampire, it is an overwhelming feature. In some cultures, drinking the blood of a victim allowed the drinker to absorb their victim’s strength, take on an animal’s quality, or even make a woman more fecund. The color red is also involved in many vampire rituals.k In some vampire folktales, vampires can marry and move to another city where they take up jobs suitable for vampires, such as butchers, barbers, and tailors. That they become butchers may be based on the analogy that butchers are a descendants of the “sacrificer.”c Certain regions in the Balkans believed that fruit, such as pumpkins or watermelons, would become vampires if they were left out longer than 10 days or not consumed by Christmas. Vampire pumpkins or watermelons generally were not feared because they do not have teeth. A drop of blood on a fruit's skin is a sign that it is about to turn into a vampire.e Mermaids can also be vampires—but instead of sucking blood, they suck out the breath of their victims.e By the end of the twentieth century, over 300 motion pictures were made about vampires, and over 100 of them featured Dracula. Over 1,000 vampire novels were published, most within the past 25 years.k The most popular vampire in children’s fiction in recent years had been Bunnicula, the cute little rabbit that lives a happy existence as a vegetarian vampire.g Some historians argue that Prince Charles is a direct descendant of the Vlad the Impaler, the son of Vlad Dracula.h The best known recent development of vampire mythology is Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. Buffy is interesting because it contemporizes vampirism in the very real, twentieth-century world of a teenager vampire slayer played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and her “Scooby gang.” It is also notable because the show has led to the creation of “Buffy Studies” in academia.k From:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/05/02_vampires.html

Mother and Child

I learn about myself with my writing.  For example, mothers are often featured in my stories.  I didn't start out with the intention of doing this.  I do enjoy reading about relationships, and the mother-daughter one is basic.  It teaches one about love or the lack of it.

Motherhood was never a goal that I set for myself.  On the contrary, I told many people that I'd probably never marry nor have children.  I never liked playing with dolls and didn't have fantasies about the big wedding or a soul mate.  I refused motherhood until I chose it.  The soul mate (or best friend/spouse) came much later.

So you can imagine how surprised I was when I looked back on my short stories, flashes and novels only to discover not only mothers and sons and daughters, but adoptive mothers and blood mothers.  The search for mother love is integral in my stories.

If not for that, I would never have gone to see "Mother and Child." It's a serious movie with outstanding acting by a trio of actresses, Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Kerry Washington.


The plot revolves around Adoption, but it has more to do with


Abandonment


Aloneness


Alienation


Most will write off the theme as classic Lifetime Network material, but I didn't.

In each of these women I saw how we cut ourselves off from feeling, overprotect our delicate souls, and deny what we need most: each other.

There's a scene with Naomi Watts and a blind girl she has befriended. The character Naomi plays doesn't usually have friends, especially female friends. She's in an elevator about to flee her life again because people are getting too close when the blind girl enters, unaware of Naomi's presence. The emotions that play across Naomi's face are an intense piece of acting. Nothing is said, but she is unable to come out of herself, to reach out to another, even though it is achingly apparent that she wants to. She's as trapped in herself as the blind girl is trapped in a sightless world.
  

Her battles are with an unknown woman:  her mother.  She plays out that battle with every new female she meets, and feels compelled to repel them before they have a chance to abandon her. 

The other characters played by Annette Bening and Kerry Washington are also limited by nature and nurture.  Bening makes the most striking change in her life.  Yes, the story is about mothers, but for me it was about choices, and giving yourself a chance, reaching out to others, and opening up to love, despite some unlucky breaks in life.

Wine and Chocolate Indulgence for a Good Cause

Wine Tasting and Chocolate to benefit WriteGirl.org.  We mentor teenaged girls through their writing.  May 7, 7-9, yum!  I'll be there getting a wine and chocolate buzz on.  Come join us. 

May 7, 2010 (Fri)

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

LOCATION: Fancifull Gift Baskets 5617 Melrose Ave. (between Larchmont and Gower) Hollywood, CA 90038 ph. 323.466.7654

COST: $25 

EVENT DETAILS:

Join us for a delectable evening of gourmet delights such as artisan cheese, fine wine, imported sodas and exotic chocolates. It's great food for a great cause, with all proceeds going to creative writing nonprofit WriteGirl! There will also be a raffle for a delicious basket of Fancifull goodies. Cost: $25 donation to WriteGirl Place: Fancifull - 5617 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, 90038 (between Gower and Larchmont) Visit our website to RSVP and purchase tickets: http://www.fancifullgiftbaskets.com/winetaste.php ;

Coming Soon: Everyday Changes and Internet Clouds

I didn't write this piece, and I don't know who did.  It was sent to me in a forwarded email, but since I write frequently about memories, it seemed appropriate for this blog.  If you know who wrote it, drop me a line.

Coming Changes 
 
Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come!


1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.


2. The Cheque. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.


3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.


4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.


5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they're always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.


6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates simply self-destruction. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."


7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing all lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.


8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.


9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7 "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. All we will have that can't be changed are Memories.