Need help with an essay on vampires in modern culture

KissMeDeadly · 07-04-2011, 07:59 PM

...or more specifically, why they are popular. Obviously I can't say "'cause twilight hurr", because that's saying vampires are popular because they're popular.

Anyway, here's what I have so far. Keep in mind it's a rough draft. Much revising and editing will ensue. Tell me what you think, if you agree, disagree, etc. I'm out of creative juice for this one, and it's 30% of my grade.

Blood Is Sexy

To feel the sweet, warm embrace of succulent, thick lips around your throat, the tingle of sharp canines biting into your flesh. As the blood flows, trickling down your neck, your heart skips a beat. The feeling is like eating a fine dinner, having an orgasm, and walking into an air conditioned room after a day in the sun all at once. Nirvana. Bliss. Heaven. It is a sad fact that many people will never know this feeling of such sweet release. Dancing in the night, perhaps atop a crypt, in the moonlight where everything is beautiful, singing along with the dark refrain of nature’s symphony. The calling of owls, the screaming of bats, and the howling of wolves all fill your mind. You’re no longer human. You’re an animal, a creature, a beautiful being created to be in perfect harmony with the dark abyss of night.

One doesn’t have to look far to find some evidence of vampire lore. They’re everywhere. Refraining from my almost homicidally insane hatred of the Twilight saga, the vampire is almost everywhere. It’s in our music (Marylin Manson’s If I was your vampire), our films (Underworld, Dracula, Blade, Nosferatu…the list goes on), our literature (Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles) and even our fashion and culture. Drawing from personal experience, I can say with some certainty that the vampire subculture is more alive than ever, due in no small part to the abundance of vampires in the media today. Why though, have vampires come back into the spotlight?

One could say it stems from the (so-called) new-found sexual freedom in today’s society. It is no doubt to anyone that the vampire is a sexual creature, and what do we as humans love more than sex?

Another probable reason for the surge of popularity is the element of escapism. To become that which we fear most is a very inviting concept. To be free from pain, free from aging, and ultimately free from death is probably one of the biggest fantasies we as humans enjoy. To take that step out of our comfort zone, into the dark and beautiful world of the living and the dead, to a life (Or anti-life, as I like to call it) of sex, blood, and violence, to fulfill every one of our darkest desires is indeed an easy way to explain the vampire’s fame.

For the average person, life is exactly that. Average. The average try to fit in. They wear the clothes that everybody else does. They talk about the things everybody else does. They live in a world of fantasy, where everything is as it should be, and everyone is pleasant, and normal, and not at all frightening. Then, come the Vampires. They look like everyone else, in fact, aside from a certain…Victorian state of dress, you might not be able to tell them apart from all the other regular schmucks out there, and yet, they are a dark, malevolent being filled with insatiable blood-lust and the urge to kill. To act solely on selfish desires. To be what they want, to talk as they want, and to dress the way they want. Completely free of society’s restrictions and boundaries. Mostly, however, they are the point of fear, instead of the person being afraid.

This is the ultimate reason people like vampires. To become what they have always wanted to be: independent. While most people would recoil outwardly in horror to a man dressed in all black, blood dripping from his chin, a little part of them wishes they were him. People want to be feared. People want to be respected, and, to some, people want to kill… to act on pointless aggression. People are too afraid to act the way they want to act, and so, bottled up inside of them, they, in a metaphorical sense, become the vampire, sucking the life and personality out of anyone who dares to be different. It’s a self-destructive cycle that we have all fallen in to at one time or the other. Vampires are simply more honest about it.

Saya · 07-04-2011, 08:15 PM

Hope this isn't for school because they might find this and accuse you of plagiarism.

KissMeDeadly · 07-04-2011, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saya

Hope this isn't for school because they might find this and accuse you of plagiarism.

That's a good point, however if I prove this account is mine I should be fine. Plus this isn't much of what the essay will look like when I turn it in it would be difficult to find

EDIT: I should also mention I'm going to a very small community college. I'd be amazed if anybody should find it.

Saya · 07-04-2011, 08:27 PM

Okay, just checking.

I'm kinda tired so I might not phrase this very well. I think you should look at the changing attitudes towards vampires. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, I mean the book, Mina doesn't love Dracula, she fears him, despises him, and he taints her purity. He is the sexual deviant and a symbolic rrapist, and its up to the men who love Mina to save her, and avenge Lucy's death. Let The Right One In took this way to the extreme and the book had a brain dead vampire who could only think about drinking blood and rraping a child. The movies couldn't have this, of course, although the pedo is hinted at.

I'd say vampires didn't become sexy until Anne Rice, or at least I don't think it was a popular notion before that. Before, Dracula preys on innocent women. After Anne Rice, the ladies love Lestat, we have the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, and they changed it so that Dracula is not a deviant, he and Mina are in love and its wonderful and magical. Vampire romance novels were around for a long time, Twilight didn't add anything new except maybe Mormon undertones and made the vampires more..angsty? Tragic? Whatever.

I think what happened was that we took the Beauty and the Beast narrative and applied it to vampires. With the Beast we know its only how he looks, he's not bad inside, but with vampires he looks awesome, but he can kill you. And really wants to. So there's more of an obstacle and he's dangerous, but ultimately his love for you will prevail. He's just misunderstood!

Fruitbat · 07-04-2011, 08:44 PM

Doesn't youth associate with vampires because 16 year olds tend to think they are immortal/invincable? And really who wants to be a werewolf - they aren't very sexy.

There'd also have to be the perceived power of the vampires - most of them have lived forever and are wealthy and can 'rip your head off' sort of attitude - and who doesn't want to be that powerful - you could kick some serious moron ass.

And there is the escapism of them - something sucky happens or you are in a shit place, so you pick up a book about vampires and pretend you are one for awhile (or you are in their world).

Mr Bat brought up a list of movies made, by decade, about vampires (can't remember where he found it or the numbers) but the number of movies made in the 00's was 200++.

I'm like Saya, my brain is just about dead - running on four hours of bad sleep... I just hope this post is readable when I'm not sleep-drunk.

Jonathan · 07-05-2011, 05:10 PM

I don't know if youth literally think they are immortal - more a function of most negative consequences simply not occurring to them, or disregarding unpleasant possibilities in favor of the moment they're in. Exceptions abound I'm sure.

Vampires are neat. In spite being a supernatural critter, they're relatable. They have similar "needs" on some level as most of us, food, shelter, companionship... Nosferatu's Count Orlock was done in by being "seduced" by his prey, an interesting spin on the expected power dynamic we usually see. Back in 1921

There's a case to be made for an inherent link between danger and sex appeal being present before there was a deliberate attempt to ramp up the superficial allure of the vampire. Even Stoker's bad boy had a live in harem..

Apologies for the hasty reply, I'll see if I can flesh it out a bit when I'm not about to dash off. Best of luck on the essay.

Fruitbat · 07-05-2011, 05:57 PM

Sorry Jonathan, I used the wrong word - immortal, they are more invincable/bullet proof/got their whole life ahead of them, sort of thing.

When I was 16 I thought I was pretty cool, then a few people started dying around me and I realised that life was pretty short.

And maybe that's the appeal of vampires. A lot of life is consumed with responsibilities - work/school, and vampires seem to gloss over that and get the good things in life (sex, money) and we, the reader/watcher don't seem them doing the hard yards for the money, we just see the flashy car that the author's have them driving around.

Jonathan · 07-05-2011, 07:06 PM

Right on Fruitbat. I was replying to something you put up there, but I didn't mean to single you out. "Kids think they're invincible!" has been a meme forever, but I don't recall ever personally thinking I could handle everything. Serious, life affecting stuff was probably a possibility, but so was winning the lottery - so removed from day to day existence it just never really got heavy consideration as a real possibility.

---

Vampires drink blood, everyone knows that. With notable exceptions, that visceral detail is more often than not glossed over in various portrayals. It is often little more than a footnote in movies and movies, a box to check and then on to the "real story". Rather than a character-defining trait, it is generally handwaved away. Vampire novels routinely clock in at several hundred pages; perhaps a dozen at most deal directly with the care and feeding of such a thing. In most portrayals, the "vampire" might as well be any anthropomorphic overman. He just happens to need to drink blood once or twice a story arc.

JCC · 07-06-2011, 12:46 AM

Cut out all the first person. Your teacher doesn't care how you feel about Twilight or about your opinion on anything, your essay should be an explanation and an exploration of the point you are trying to make, not an account of which books you like. Also, there's no evidence in the whole essay. Find some quotes and use them or your points are just conjecture. Your priorities are out of whack too IMO, the sexual nature of vampire fiction is the foremost influence on its popularity, not because we are sexually liberal but because those societies were sexually repressive, and for alienated teenagers sex is as mysterious as it was for bored 19th century housewives, the real point is the way the sexualisation of vampires has changed over time like Saya said. Cut out the first paragraph, cut out all mention of 'I' and elaborate on your points with evidence.

Grausamkeit · 07-06-2011, 08:46 AM

I don't think any of us could've said it better than JCC. Academic essays are always done in the third person. Unless it's a reader response, you should never write your papers in the first person.

Do your research. There have been a lot of papers and research done on the themes of feminism and sexual repression and vampires. There was a book I was reading called Sexuality and Victorian Literature. A well-researched paper is an easier paper to write than something that you are guessing about. I hope that this is not due anytime soon.

This may help. Research, research, research and cite every source you use!

Didn't Jack say he got a failing grade after posting a school essay on the forum? When they say that they check the web for plagiarism they aren't fucking around. I go to a small community college and they crack down on that kind of thing hard. One of the kids in my Psych class last semester thought he could get away with just rearranging word order in sentences from a bunch of other people's essays. He thought they wouldn't catch him because he didn't use their exact word order, but the school failed him for it. You might want to write your other drafts and final essay completely different than what you've posted on here, KMD.

Saya · 07-06-2011, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

I don't think any of us could've said it better than JCC. Academic essays are always done in the third person. Unless it's a reader response, you should never write your papers in the first person.

XD I forgot about this because in Women's Studies and Sociology I was told to use "I", and they had to keep reminding everybody because the "No I" rule was ingrained into us in first year English.

And something to add onto about the changing ideas about vampires in regards to sexuality, don't forget the abstinence thing in Twilight.

AshleyO · 07-07-2011, 09:53 PM

Actually, I would expand on the whole thing. Vampires are topical, but a very interesting look into what becomes attractive in a society that's repressive in nature.

What you should really be talking about is the manifestation of sexual deviance in societies and their effects and how vampirism is a side effect of the repressive nature of societies at large.

I'd rather you talk about something important and not something so... trivial as the pop sensationalism of Edward Cullen.

The best way to go about doing this is to show evidence with works and quotes cited about cultural accounts of sexual deviance in those cultures most restrictive on sexual behavior.

It's really up to you. Plus, you lost me at the first paragraph. I don't really care about the experience or your explanation of what it's like to be with a vampire. I already know that and what you described is pretty much just a popular view on it, that most of your audience is already going to be aware of.

Alan · 07-08-2011, 12:51 AM

Vampires have been done to death. Vampire literary theory doubly so.
You've already started so it's too late for what I'm saying to be helpful.

CuckooTuli · 07-08-2011, 03:04 AM

If you're looking for theory to apply, you might find the uncanny useful.

Freud's theory of the uncanny holds that we are unsettled by things that feel familiar yet foreign, and that it is often their familiarity, rather than their strangeness, that unsettles us the most. With monsters, the uncanny may arise from their humanlike elements, just as much as their monstrous - that commingling of the familiar and the alien, of transgressive violence and conventional desire, that underpins vampire mythology. This sprang to mind because others have been suggesting you discuss vampires as externalisations of repressed human sexuality - the ways in which they are both like and unlike 'us'. The uncanny would provide a relevant theoretical framework for a discussion of the ways in which vampire myths reflect human concerns from the age they hit their peak in (like all myths, really).

CuckooTuli · 07-08-2011, 05:07 AM

Also, after rereading your essay, I notice that your examples are drawn from current pop culture (and mostly bad stuff!).I would try to show at least a basic grounding in vampire mythology in general. Even Wikipedia would be better than nothing for background reading, although some secondary sources would be very easy to find on Google books, I think, even if your school library isn't well-stocked on the subject.

If it's 30% of your grade, I would definitely recommend approaching it with some academic rigour - to be blunt, the opening paragraph reads like a bad piece of creative writing rather than an essay. Introductions are tough, but think of your opening paragraph as a small and succinct introduction to what you'll be discussing. For this reason, I usually do them last.

Jonathan · 07-08-2011, 05:19 AM

Does "academic rigour" apply when discussing a completely fictional topic?

Granted, the sample of writing was something of an overwrought cliche, but really, what kind of evidence is there to present? Aside from citing the fact that hot actors get cast in vampire roles, there isn't a lot of objective material to base a thesis on.

CuckooTuli · 07-08-2011, 06:07 AM

Does academic rigour apply in the study of mythology? Absolutely! There are in fact numerous academic works discussing vampire myths.

For example, first result on Google books.

The author is a well-known folklore expert.

So, I would have to say, yes.

Fruitbat · 07-08-2011, 07:18 AM

KMD - I used to write a basic introduction, then tidy/fancy it up when I was doing the final drafts.

And don't forget, if you aren't sure, ask the lecturer if you can show them/ talk to them, about what you are thinking about writing to see if you are on track.

If they are half decent, they should be able to give you some pointers on it - pander to their ego a little.

And I recommend doing a lot of reading - spend time in the library and see if there are some academic papers on the subject (vampire mythology). Take a ton of notes and don't forget to do proper referencing for each section of your notes, that way when it comes time to write it up, it will be a hell of a lot easier.

JCC · 07-08-2011, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Does "academic rigour" apply when discussing a completely fictional topic?

See: all studies of literature ever. Of course academic rigour applies. KMD's essay is the equivalent of writing an essay on Greek mythology with no citations of anything other than the latest Thor film. As for evidence, I just mean some quotations from texts. Anyone can make a point about a book without any supporting evidence. The Picture of Dorian Gray is about turtles.

KissMeDeadly · 07-08-2011, 11:48 PM

Well, the final product wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I made a good score. I did get counted off because I used anecdotal research, but other than that I was fine.

JCC, I did use several websites as well as the original Stoker's Dracula in the final cut

Also, it's a narrative essay, so first person is excusable. It was to be written as if I were speaking.

Also thank you guys so much. I used a little of everyone's suggestions (well, except for the last few since I already turned it in.) I don't think it would have been nearly as good as it was without you guys. If anybody's interested I'll throw up the final draft.

Fruitbat · 07-10-2011, 04:45 AM

I love narrative essays.

Glad to hear you got a good grade. I'd be interested in reading it, but you can PM me if you wanna share

Drew Keaton · 07-15-2011, 07:39 PM

Consider the thematic aspect of the vampire in comparison to other horror creatures. They are the ultimate counterpoint to humanity. Powerful, seductive and alluring but they are unfeeling, undead killers. I just finished a book called Verland: The Transformation that was unbelievable! You should read it before submitting your essay. It's immense literature and covers many of the powerful themes the vampire myth opens. Is immortality truly a 'gift?' How does a creature live for centuries and retain any living essence? Why are humans so attracted to the vampire?

I would argue that these themes (and others) are the true allure. The vampire as boyfriend is great teen read, but for real literature fans it comes down to the power these creatures stir in the intellectual core...