# A question about vampires **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732 "2021-11-03T15:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/41 "2021-11-05T15:45:57Z")
I was just going to post that. Well, not the comic, but the argument that the holy symbol’s power is in the belief of the wielder, not the belief of the vampire. Didn’t we have a thread about that a few years back? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/42 "2021-11-05T15:47:53Z")
IIRC, that was Stephen King’s take in Salem’s Lot…the belief in the symbol was the power, not the symbol itself. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/43 "2021-11-05T15:48:16Z")
I suspect this board has had quite a few threads that have addressed this. I think this is the most recent: > [@Vampires and Islam](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampires-and-islam/952077): > > My question is how would a Muslim react to a (evil) vampire? The standard Christian response is to hold up a cross, of course, and I suppose the Star of David would work for a Jewish person. I may well be asking this in too simplistic a way-if someone has a better way to phrase it, please feel free or if you feel it belongs elsewhere. Perhaps more of a Cafe Society question: have there been any movies with Muslim vampires (apart from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night)? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/44 "2021-11-05T17:26:44Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > The Chabad link does not mention the whole logic behind telling whether an animal is OK to eat: cloven hooves, chews cud. Since us humans neither have cloven hooves, nor chew our cud, cannibalism is right out. I would extrapolate that to consumption of blood; animal blood is forbidden, human meat is forbidden, so it makes sense that human blood would be forbidden. > > Long story short: Dracula-stein is gonna have to starve, or join a Reform congregation. I’m not Jewish, but I’m not sure that’s right? My understanding of kosher laws are that, if the options are “starve to death” or “eat something non-kosher,” then its okay to break kosher rules, because preserving life is more important than keeping kosher. If a vampire is unable to derive sustenance from anything other than blood (and is not an inherently unclean abomination, as per the standard Stoker model) then drinking blood would presumably be okay, so long as he can do it without killing anyone. Of course, if you are talking about the “inherently unclean abomination” type of vampire (the “Stoker Original,” as it were) then break kosher rules is probably the whole point. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/45 "2021-11-07T20:35:45Z")
Oddly enough in the original novel crosses are used less often as vampire repellant than communion wafers. Van Helsing even says he has a special dispensation to administer the Eucharist. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/46 "2021-11-09T15:32:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > My understanding of kosher laws are that, if the options are “starve to death” or “eat something non-kosher,” then its okay to break kosher rules, because preserving life is more important than keeping kosher. But are you preserving life by keeping a vampire active? (I was going to say ‘alive’, but that sabotages my point). It is “undead”, I’m not sure there is a life to save there? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/47 "2021-11-09T15:57:18Z")
Putting the life of the vampire over the life of the victim? Doesn’t sound legit to me. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/48 "2021-11-09T17:52:16Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > But are you preserving life by keeping a vampire active? (I was going to say ‘alive’, but that sabotages my point). It is “undead”, I’m not sure there is a life to save there? > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Putting the life of the vampire over the life of the victim? Doesn’t sound legit to me. Again, depends on the lore. I would certainly argue that considering most ‘modern’ vampires (and fictional) do not need to kill to feed, but failing to feed can cause them to fall into a frenzy in which they feed indiscriminately. Thus, short of suicide (which is strongly frowned upon in Judaism and a mortal sin for most of Christianity), moderate feeding in order to prevent accidental slayings is probably a legitimate reading. I’m talking about blood banks, animal blood, and _voluntary_ contributions. Using fascination/charm, seduction, or the like to take blood from an unwilling individual would be an unjustified assault, although if a blood frenzy is the only other option, you could make a case for mitigation. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/49 "2021-11-09T23:28:35Z")
In the book “What Is The Name Of This Book?” by Raymond Smullyan, he presents a very different version of the Dracula story. The author, skeptical of Bram Stoker’s tale, visits Transylvania to investigate for himself whether Dracula was truly destroyed. There, he finds that Transylvania is a land of truth-tellers and liars, with an additional twist. He must then spend months of arduous social climbing (by solving a series of truth-teller/liar puzzles) before he can score an invitation to Castle Dracula, and even more before he can have an audience with Dracula himself (who may or may not even still exist). Finally, he is invited to an audience with Dracula. Dracula asks him the ultimate riddle, and finally crumbles to dust when the author solves it. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/50 "2021-11-10T14:07:18Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > when the author solves it 42? But I need to find that book - sounds intriguing? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732/51 "2021-11-10T21:50:59Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > But I need to find that book - sounds intriguing? It’s on Amazon and any of the other well-known book-selling sites. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-vampires/953732.md?page=2)