Are You Interested in Vampires?

[Gerry]

I was wondering, are you guys really interested in vampires? I am. I don't know too much about them but I'm interested in learning more. Like the history aspect of the vampire figure. And not just a superficial interest from like Twilight or whatever other pop culture vampires there might be. I know there are a lot today and they're surging in popularity but yeah, what does everyone think of vampires?

[Ridiculous]

My family are vampires.

Seriously:
-my dad (and his mother and sister) are allergic to garlic
-my sister has photosensitivity; i.e. she burns very easily in the sun. Although it isn't as bad as it used to be
-we are all pretty pale
-I have quite pointy canine teeth
-I scream uncontrollably when approached by people with silver crosses
-we sleep in coffins

I can't shapeshift though, although I haven't tried before. Hmm.. I'll be back in a moment..

[sanguine]

im more into warewolves, much more hunky compared to vampires

[Yuya]

not the twillight or buffy kind

ummm some of my favorite vampire movies are Blade and Underworld.



league of extraordinary gentleman has a vampiress as well



For vampire lore, I think magic the gathering has been doing a gothic theme recently and some of their articles do cover vampire lore.





Hope it helps

[Gerry]

Originally Posted by Yuya

not the twillight or buffy kind

What kind interest you then?

[Porphyrogenitus]

This one, for sure. And not just superficially :P



And I've enjoyed some of the old Hammer horror films too (in moderation). Christopher Lee as Dracula = awesome. Oh, and Tesla from Sanctuary (yeah, I'm a massive nerd :P )

But the thing with vampires is, they barely exist outside of popular culture. We've got an uninterrupted stream of interest in them since gothic novels of the 19th Century (culminating in Dracula, of course). Certainly any idea of vampires being sexy, attractive or even remotely possible to relate to are very new, in historical terms. Sure, there were folk beliefs in various undead blood-sucking (or life-feeding) entities in numerous cultures throughout time; but the exact content of these differs wildly between each other, and none of it really all that much like what we'd think of as a vampire.

[maverick]

Yeah, I pretty much love all vampires. (Except the Twilight kind.)

I think my favorite vampire is the one in this short story though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popsy_(short_story))

[Gerry]

I was just looking around online and saw that my local community college offers an 8 week course on Vampire History called Fangs: Vampires in Fact and Fiction. I am so considering taking this class just "for fun" now. Haha.

The course description is:

Examination of the figure of the vampire in folklore, history, fiction and film with particular attention to the way the depiction of the vampire has evolved over time to reflect the issues and concerns of the society that creates it. Includes consideration of why this archetypal figure retains its popularity.

[Rosina]

Originally Posted by Gerry

I was just looking around online and saw that my local community college offers an 8 week course on Vampire History called Fangs: Vampires in Fact and Fiction. I am so considering taking this class just "for fun" now. Haha.

The course description is:

Examination of the figure of the vampire in folklore, history, fiction and film with particular attention to the way the depiction of the vampire has evolved over time to reflect the issues and concerns of the society that creates it. Includes consideration of why this archetypal figure retains its popularity.

Mind if I join you on that course? That sounds awesome. I have to admit I have a deep fascination with vampires, the folk-law and myths that surround them and then their evolution in the media through the years. The Twilight saga utterly ruined them, quite frankly; whilst I can appreciate the spin Mayer did on them, but I couldn't read the books without laughing hysterically! There's just something so attractive about the vampire concept in general, their allure and how much they're romanticised at the moment, which is radically different from their days in Nosferatu.

Originally Posted by Ridiculous

My family are vampires.

Seriously:
-my dad (and his mother and sister) are allergic to garlic
-my sister has photosensitivity; i.e. she burns very easily in the sun. Although it isn't as bad as it used to be
-we are all pretty pale
-I have quite pointy canine teeth
-I scream uncontrollably when approached by people with silver crosses
-we sleep in coffins

I can't shapeshift though, although I haven't tried before. Hmm.. I'll be back in a moment..

Hey fellow vamp! My mum's severely allergic to garlic and neither of us can wear silver, we both get horrible rashes. Ah well, least I'm just doomed to wear only gold and platinum from now on, the shame!

[Gerry]

@ Rosina -- Yes! You're more than happy to join me. I'll definitely let you know how that course is should I choose to take it (which by the looks of things I probably will). Yeah, Twilight did kind of ruin vampires, huh? I'm hoping I'll learn quite a lot about the myths of them since I really know none, sadly.

[Zontar]

I like weird guys/girls who think they're vampires.

They dress so fucking hot.

[Mercy]

Originally Posted by Zontar

I like weird guys/girls who think they're vampires.

They dress so fucking hot.

I went to school with a girl who thought she was a vamp she was the most ill stop there lol

[needshelp]

i wouldn't mind being one. there's something that is so cool about biting somebody's neck.

I think I am interested in them. I've read some of Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" (I plan to read all, eventually) and watched both movies based on them. I've also watched all of "Buffy" episodes, the first season of "True Blood" and all "Underworld" movies and I liked them all.

Oh, and I like to read about Slavic demonology - vampires are an important part of it. I have this rather thick book about history and legends of vampires and werewolves waiting until I have time to grab it.

"Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" is one of my favourite computer games (even though I've never finished it).

If you like European or just a bit different movies, I'd like to recommend you Låt den rätte komma in ("Let the right one in").

[Ghostly]

well I certainly love vampires! I'm try to get find clothes that a vampire would wear lol I just think they're so awesome and scary looking and awesome!

[malachite]

I love Cryptozoology all together. I wrote a paper on vampires in college. It’s what I’d refer to as a living mythology, since people add and take away things about them all the time.
Here are a few fun tidbits:
Vampires were believed to drink the blood of the living because when a person dies, in the advanced stages of decomposition, their organs liquefy; so, when they would dig up a “vampire” and see a body swollen and would puncture it and see blood and puss come out, they assumed they had drank the blood of the living.

Vampires were often to scapegoat for disease, many time in which the person would be pale, so it would assume they had lost blood.

The idea that vampires die in sunlight was a creation of Hollywood, in the film Nosferatu.

People believe garlic would keep away vampires because it was the only thing that smelled worse than the corpses.

[Zontar]

Originally Posted by malachite

People believe garlic would keep away vampires because it was the only thing that smelled worse than the corpses.

That, and people found out it wasn't quite practical to hang corpses around your neck. xD

[solarcat]

Vampires are awesome! I did some research for a bit back in high school, but I kept getting nightmares every night (I did the research right before bed), so I sort of stopped for a bit. Still super interested in all folklore, especially vampires.

[Hot Pink]

I've actually always found vampires to be pretty lame. It's why I never got into Buffy back in the day. I don't find them cool, threatening, or even interesting. Despite this, I could tolerate them if the story was good. Their increase in popularity recently has made this impossible, however. Anything vampire-related doesn't get any chance because it's so played out.

[Super Trouper]

I agree with Yuya, Underwold is absolutely amazing <3