Vampire stuff: Why? Who cares?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I hope this question doesn’t offend anyone because it’s not meant as such, but what the hell’s with all this vampire stuff?

In the last six months I’ve read 5,000 messages related to how people in high school are misunderstood and God knows I can relate to that. But what’s up with this recurrent “vampire” theme? One poster (forget who it was, sorry) actually used the word “Vampirism.”

Anne Rice. Vampire: The Masquerade. Buffy. Vampires, vampires, vampires; they’re getting to be as common as Jehovah’s Witnesses, except with radically different opinions on blood transfusions and the JWs dress better.

I don’t see a national obsession with werewolves, wights, or wraiths on quite this level. Nobody I know dressed like a juju zombie except for the that weird guy in 804. What’s up with the vampires? Is it the original Bram Stoker intent - repressed sexuality? Good Anne Rice PR? What? Why would anyone be the slightest bit interested in vampires beyond enjoying “The Lost Boys” and “Fright Night”?

2

I’d say there is quite the mystique going around vampires. They are social outcasts, dark brooding figures that only come out at night, and thanks to Anne Rice, quite the romantic figures, no doubt thanks to that repressed sexuality you mentioned. I’d imagine a lot of people can identify.

I don’t. I’m actually glad of the image vampires have showed in some of the more recent films, like Blade or From Dusk Till Dawn. These aren’t the angst-filled vampires of the Rice years. Just gangs of blood-sucking monsters.

3

At the risk of being unpopular with the angst filled goth crowd, I’m going to have to agree with the OP on this one. It seems that a bunch of folks decided to that vampires were somehow like them because they both wore black and hung out at night and thought depressing thoughts. Vampires romanticize the notion of doing so. They’re not only dark and depressing and hang out at night, but they’re also super sexy and can beat up on the mere mortals of the world. In thinking about it, it sounds a lot like pretending you’re Superman because the kids on the playground beat you up. Plus, it’s a lot easier to wear a lot of black and red makeup and wear black clothes and pretend to be a vampire than it is to find a decent juju zombie costume.

Why do we see so many in the media? Because the media panders to whoever will give it money and if the movie makers and book publishers notice that vampire stuff is selling, then vampire stuff they will make. It’s a cyclical thing where they make a movie about vampires, so more people notice vampires so more people will go to vampire movies, so they make more movies and expose more people… etc etc.

Oh, and I always thought that Wraith: the Oblivion was a much better game than Vampire: the Masquerade.

4

They’re also called ‘Goths’ for gothic.

Reason for them? I’m not sure, but I recall most kids of the same age, in my day, going nuts over these monster kits of Frankenstein, the Wolfman and so on, complete with a little ‘stage’ from a movie that you put together. A lot of kids had some sinister imaginations when putting them together. They’d add things from other kits, like skulls, bones, chains and such. Then they’d go into great detail in painting them and adding blood, dismal colors to background bricks and so on.

You could buy skulls of plastic, there were even mini-torture devices to add to some and so on.

The Vampire dudes don’t turn me on, but some of the girls look hot! I recall when everyone (kids) started acting like James Dean, from his roles as a misunderstood hood, or wearing T-shirts like in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ and ‘A Street Car Named Desire.’ Marlin Brand started a whole biker movement with his ‘Wild One’s’ movie. Then ‘Easy Rider’ touched off another bunch of wannabe’s.

Some kids seem attracted to anything ‘dark and mysterious’ when they’re within a certain age group. Especially if the news media these days makes darn sure that everyone knows everything about it.

5

I’m with you.
The Vampire was one character, like The Frankenstein Monster, The Mummy or Godzilla.

To remake it is lame. To make it into a genre is stupid.

6

Oh come on, have any of you actually ever tried someone else’s blood? It’s good stuff.

That said, Vampirism and Goth are separate, though there is overlap. Goth is mostly about being outcast, and a way of dressing to show it. Have you seen some of the stuff the goth girls wear? Mmmm.

Vampirism is a highly sexually charged practice. I’m not into the full scene, but tasting a few drops of your girl’s blood before/during foreplay is VERY exciting. TMI, probably.

7

I agree with the assessment that Vampires are very sexual in nature. Many people find them as a metaphor for repressed sexuality and such (as identified with such stories as Carmilla and others)

It has only been recently that I have gotten into Vampires more… I learned a bit about V:tM and I do roleplaying as vampires. I don’t know much about the vampirism stuff though. And as it was noted the Goths and Vampires are intermingled… its mainly that they both dress in black. shrugs I don’t know why so many people (as in numbers not the reason why) find them fascinating though. It probably has to do with the same reason why so many people are getting dark and depressed and such. We are turning into a world that is fascinated with the darker side of life. It was always there before just we are becoming more open with it.

8

Which demonstrates a woeful (IMO) lack of knowledge of the literature and folklore.

There is no one Vampire, never has been, never will be.

Dracula (Who, no doubt, you’re thinking of) is not The Vampire. He is a Vampire - and a latecomer at that.

Varney the Vampyre (1847) predates him significantly (50 years) in the realm of literature. (I don’t think he was the earliest fictional Vampire either, but he’s the earliest I could think of, and I couldn’t be bothered to try to find an earlier one.)

Elisabeth Bathory - a notorious Countess rumoured to have drunk (drank?) blood in order to achieve eternal youth lived in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Stories (Rumours, legends) about Vampires circulated for centuries before that. (Earliest citation I could find on a cursory search is to the Greek lamiai.)

Frankenstein has one (well, 2) Creature(s). Reanimated mummies and Godzilla were movie inventions.

But Vampires have been around forever. And they’re here to stay (as, one tangentially hopes, will all the characters you listed (except the Mummy…those movies are so BORING!))

As to what’s so fascinating about them?

The sexual aspect.

The lure of immortality.

The night has a certain glamour of it’s own, unattatched to, but enhancing that of the Vampire.

Power.

All these things, and more are offered by the Vampire.

They also represent the darker emotions that many of us have. The feeling of being an outcast. Anger. Fear. Fear of life, fear of death, fear of the unknown.

I’m begining to sound pompous (Cue chorus of ‘Beginning?’. I know you’re out there, wiseacres.), so I’ll stop now.

9

Well, this is nothing new. Just a different face. Currently there are like a couple of hundred midlevel ‘clubs’ around the states where people have fairs, dress the part and make their own costumes, armor and weapons. They even get into cooking ‘authentic’ foods and brewing ‘authentic’ drink. They do seem to tastefully ignore one aspect of the era, and that is that those folks reeked, stank, smelled, stunk and were not nice to be down wind of.

So did the villages. No garbage collection. It was kind of piled up and animals ate it or it rotted.

The movies, starting with Bella Lugosi, turned the vampire story into a romance of horror. Prior to that, it was strictly horror with hideous vampires. In most vampire lore, sex did not play a big role. It was mainly feeding, killing and making new vampires.

Drinking blood is not new either, but it’s usually confined to primitive rituals for religions created out of ignorance. You have no idea just how many diseases you can get from human blood.

Anyhow, this phase too shall pass. They all do. I’ve seen beatniks, hippies, greasers, surfers, punkers, metal heads and dead heads, folk rockers, cowboys, bikers and hikers, preppies and yuppies, poets, drop outs, you’re OK and I’m Ok-ers, therapy groupies, Guru followers, religious fanatics, flat-earthers, and the rise and fall of communes. I’ve known of communists and socialists, people who insist that space craft poke holes in the sky and change the weather, and now, the Goths, the Vampires and the phone psychics.

It will pass.

10

It will pass yes… but there will always be people who hang onto it tightly and continue to dress/act in that way… there are still people who do that.

11

It could be worse. Anyone else remember the folksinging movement of the early sixties? [Shudder!]

~~Baloo

12

Yeah. There are still hippies about, yuppies don’t seem to dwindle fast enough, I still spot the occasional metal head, and in California there are still Guru’s with some followers. I’ve not seen the greasers in years, with the tight jeans, jack boots, slicked back hair, leather jacket and a T-shirt underneath. (However, I still have my fringed leather jacket from the 60s and 70s and wear it now and then.) Surfers are still around, though not as much.

Playing with ‘dark things’ is OK, so long as one has the intelligence to realize that it is play. When one takes it too seriously and becomes a threat to oneself and others, then play time is OVER. Then it’s time for the general law to step in.

Like the folks who have the medieval conventions. They love it, but they go home to their jobs and families. They also don’t kill each other, practice current hygiene, start fires with lighters, and use safe food handling techniques. They don’t let chunks of beef hang in the shade and smack them to get the flies off to see which one to buy and cook and eat that day. They don’t dump bed pots out in the street to flow into the drain in the center of it.

They know when to enjoy their fantasy and when not to. (Tallow candles reeked and natural animal oil lamps gave off poor light, smoked and stank.) They use paraffin candles, electric lights, scented oil lamps or those electric lamps with the fire-like bulbs in them.

However, I have seen some Vampire girls with black lipstick, black nails, dark blue eye make-up, reminding me of Vampyra, Mistress of the Dark, long skirts on and I thought they were HOT!

13

Not everyone who is into vampires is “goth” or, even into vampires. (Yes, I know that made NO sense, but let me continue)

My favorite television show (which I am FULLY obsessed with) is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not because there is sexual energy or whatever, because the writing and characters and acting and plotlines are terrific.

I play Vampire the Masquerade. I also play Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and Changeling: the Dreaming. My friends and I don’t use the vampires we play as outlets for our repressed sadistic and sexual sides, or think we’re all depressed and cool for doing so. It’s a kind of acting which allows you access to different sides of yourself.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think the “vampire” theme is at least partly coincidental.

14

[hijack]
Greasers are alive and well in my high school. There’s a little clique of about 5 guys in the senior/junior class, all of whom are in Vo-Tec for auto mechanics. The only concession to modernism they make is wearing heavy metal t-shirts under their leather jackets. And they all drive primer-colored Camaros.

15

Vampires suck!

[sub]But somebody had to make that joke![/sub]

16

Even notice how vampires are so taboo and looked down upon when its in reference to Goths, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer and that show Angel are some of the most popular shows on TV. I know for a fact that most Goths are not the ones watching the teenybopper, popular cultures shows.

17

At least vampires don’t come knocking on my door tryind to sell ma a copy of the Watchtower.

18

Do you mean “medieval”?
Nothing wrong with Renaissance Faires. Met my current boyfriend at one. And yes, Ren Faire people can get pretty smelly, especially the ones who dressed like beggars and people who had the plague (No, Ray was one of the unsmelly people).

19

Well, you confuse pop culture silliness with the people who are into vampirism.
Vampires are sex symbols in a way. They allure, their place of entry is normally an errogenous zone, and their general appearance has sexual connotations to it. “Who wouldn’t want a very sexual encounter from an immortal?” can be a mentality there.

20

As has been said before, there is a big mixing of the Gothic sub-culture and the vampire allure. A large part of it is the power issue. No matter how mainstream, a gothic group is a tiny minority in a public school (where this sort of thing is occuring) and usually a ridiculed bunch at that.

To dream of the Vampire, with it’s mystery, power, and sexually charged imagery and history… ahhh, that really makes one out to be better than the average bear, so to speak.

I’ve done the gothic thing… it’s fun, sort of like role-playing all the time. I’ve been into the vampire thing, and it’s fun to think about, but there is a limit… It’s a phase, as the parents say… When I was in school, the cowboy thing was all the rage… the popular got rid of the sweater vests, and bought boots and buckles big enough to eat off of. Most of them had never seen a horse up close, but boy they sure looked the part!

Skribbler - Hey man, those folks have been doing the re-enactment thing since the late sixties, and it’s growing all the time… there is a fundamental lack of history in the US, and we missed out on the whole middle ages thing, so it’s an easy way to make up for it.
Also, it’s fun… don’t knock it till you’ve tried it… I’ve learned a lot of cool thing, like making my own Hard Cider and I’m about to venture into leather and metal working, cause I want to make my own armor…