Final

The author of the Twilight Saga, Stephanie Meyer, is a Mormon. This is transparently obvious in many instances of the book but perhaps the most evident in Edward’s struggle with himself. Edward finds himself to be an abomination. He is ashamed of what he has become and believes he has no soul, that he is forsaken basically, and further that it is his fault. He calls himself a selfish monster. And despite this and his determination that he is damned we still find him trying to do the right thing, even though he claims to believe he is damned. Some interpret this as trying to save him self from this, but I think otherwise. I think on some level he finds that simply being a vampire and having this separation from the one he loves in and of its self is his damnation and see that as being unalterable. The fact that he continues to strive to be good “person” to me is an indication that he has as much a soul as any human could ever claim to have had. Time and time again Edward shows the ability to do the right thing no matter how hard it is or the cost to himself despite the belief that in the end this will not bring him salvation or change the facts for him. Honestly, what human does this? Who does the right thing when they know doing the wrong thing will have no ill effect on them and bring them the prize they are after and doing the right thing will give them nothing. Certainly not many people, if any at all.
In Twilight Edward leaves Forks because he is tempted by Bella and doesn’t want to harm her. In the end, of course, he comes back. He left because he was trying to avoid and resist temptation, which relates because giving into temptation is generally considered a sin. To listen to Edward the fact that he ever came back further condemns him but I, as do most who have read the book, disagree. Many of the saints were those who suffered to do what they believed was right. So the fact that Edward came back to Bella and owned up to his longings and desires shows bravery, not selfishness since in the end he saves her, not destroys her. In protecting her he is tempted to take the lives of those who threatened her and yet still resists this savage instinct. He is her savoir, of a kind and she is solace. He is more sorely tempted than us all and still preservers over his animalistic instincts. He could lie to her and keep the fact he is a vampire to himself, but he does not. Honesty is a virtue. He also shows trust for Bella even when advised not to, and when he can’t see into her mind and find out her intentions. It has been a century since he has trusted someone with out this assurance; literally he has entered an entirely new life. Despite all this though he has faith in Bella, another virtue.
After this Bella learns of Edward’s past, which could be considered sketchy by some, and Edward numbers himself among those. However I think his past shows more virtuous traits. The bible preaches an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth, as well as turn the other cheek. For a while Edward practices the first method, with killing those who would do others harm. Eventually he realizes that this is not the right path for him. It’s unfair because he is playing god which is sort of a foul on the whole ‘though shall worship no false idol’. I think, at least, that acting as god yourself falls into that category. Realizing this Edward chooses to turn the other cheek which is, of course, harder for him. I don’t see the fault in learning from your mistakes and correcting your actions in the future, and any god that was not merciless would as well, and the Mormon god is supposed to be all forgiving. I also think that Edward’s leaving Carlisle as a learning experience and Edward obviously gathered the correct lesson from it, and therefore would not be faulted for this either.
Edward’s next trial comes in the form of the vampire James who loves nothing more than a great chase, and the Cullens have provided him with one in protecting Bella. Edward insists that he was selfish throughout this and blames himself despite the fact that it’s painfully obvious Bella would have found a way to get herself into trouble on her own. Edward shows clear judgment and gives justice to Laurent who leaves his coven but chooses not to side against James who Laurent believes to be the most formidable of his kind. Edward shows charity in telling him of a place to stay with a coven of vampires that are close friends of the Cullens. Edward continues to show restraint throughout the ordeal separating himself from Bella when he knows it’s best for her. He shows prudence when he kills James. James is truly an abomination that has lost his spirit and in the book seems to be an embodiment of the ‘devil’. This is also another display of Edward’s chivalry and justice. Edward undergoes the most laborious trial of all during the chaos of these events, when Bella is bit by James.
Edward must suck the vampire venom that is burning through Bella’s veins. He must do this and then stop before he kills her. He is, of course, terrified of doing it but he shows prudence in agreeing that it must be him, for to let anyone else do it would be to give him the ability to shift the blame to them should anything happen to Bella. He shows great restraint in stopping and he also shows something he has lead the reader to believe he lost. Despite his belief in his own damnation, his lack of soul, that he is ‘essentially a selfish being’ Edward shows hope. He hopes that some how he will be able to stop, even though he knows he will never be able to stop on his own when just the smell of Bella’s blood is more potent to him than the free running blood of any other human. In this moment Edward shows what is probably held as the highest virtue by those who are religious. He hopes and “places trust in Christ’s promises, and relies not on his own strength but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit”. This act alone shows he still has hope of a heaven, or even a hell, but some sort of final resting for his spirit and it shows faith in a god, or a higher being. God preaches love and his acceptance to all who have faith in him and ask for forgiveness.
Edward’s struggle is the real climax in each of the books in the Twilight Saga and the other events portrayed as the climax by many, such as the movie Twilight portrays the flight from James and Victoria as the climax, are truly only events used to give Edward’s personality and struggle a way to express itself. This is why I say religion is probably the strongest of underlying themes in this book seeing as Edward’s struggle with himself highlights so many points of it, as well as the outright discussion of it in the latter books in the series, specifically the scene in New Moon when Carlisle explains to Bella the fact that Edward believes becoming a vampire would cause her to loose her soul.

Dracula 3

It seems really obvious to us what is going on with Dracula, what he is, as the book goes on.  The boxes of earth in the tunnel leading from Dracula's room, not being allowed to fall asleep in any room other then his own, everything.  We have a very clear concept of the vampire at this point in time, it's nothing new.  So our dread comes from him not leaving the castle, not figuring it out.  It's like in a horror movie when we know that someone is about to be eaten by a monster or stabbed by the killer and we want to scream get out get out!  Because it hasn't all been from their point of view and we saw the last person who was killed.  But for the then population of England imagine how terrifying this novel must have been.  They saw only what the main character saw knew only what he knew, vampires weren't as defined and obvious they didn't have the same distinctive persona yet, because it was the book Dracula that gave it that.  So they had no way in the world of knowing what would happen and the book was, a result, much more scary to  them because it was more foreign.  Further in, I think it was, chapter three, when the character is aproached by the women it is even more strange to the readers.  Their idea of a women is very prim and proper and this, a women unabashedly approaching him in such a way, is unheard of.  We fear the unknown the uncommon and this book certianly was such in that time period.  Then when Dracula provides them the half dead child they are further removed from the common idea of a women, we loose the idea they could be mothers, and protective of children because it seems they are going to kill this one.  As we know, drink their blood, and though I can't be sure the original readers of this book would have figured out exactly what would happen to the child yet certianly they would know it wouldn't be good.  So another fear, beyond just death or imprisinment even, has arrisen in the readers mind.  This Dracula controls these women and now he is a threat to society as well.

Dracula

Okay, so I have been reading. I'm sorry i just haven't had a chance to post. So here's one of them. First of all I'd just like to say picturing Dracula with a long white moustacheas described took away from him being intimidating in my opinion. Which is probably why they took that out of the movies. As the book continues Harker is continuously given more facts towards Dracula not being a living creature. He shakes his hand and it's the cold dead firm grip of the undead. But he dismisses it as he dissmissed the carriage ride before hand. He also calls the castle uncanny. He's been brought up to think that he is beyond the kind of things like believing in vampires and such so he refuses to think like the transilvanians and go back to "primitive thinking". I think that's one of the main themes in the book, a comment on the fact the western world doesn't accept and examine the beliefs of other countries thinking that we're beyond that stage. Anyways I did look up some stuff about Bram Stoker and his story, one thing that kept poping up was Sigmund Frued's essay "The Uncanny" which discusses what brings up the feelings of dread and horror and it's one of two things; when primitve disproved beliefs seem to be proved true, as in the case of Jonathan Harker, or when "repressed infantile complexes are revived". The next day we don't see much of Dracula, I think this has to do with the fact that what our unconcious mind comes up with is going to be scariest to us, not what Bram Stoker thinks is scariest. That's why Jaws is so scary, we never see the shark. Though that was a fluke they couldn't get the thing to work. Hitchcock does the same thing, specifically with psycho. Does it not set off alarm bells that Dracula wants to purchase an old isolated manor surrounded by a lunatic asylum? Really? Harker should be going, um, creeper... And Dracula keeps him up all night then leaves at sun rise? Well Iguess that slightly disturbs him but then he writes it off again. Seriously dude, listen to your instincts. Just wondering, why does Dracula what a mansion near a church? Then of course Harker cuts himself and Dracula almost eats him and gets rid of the mirror. By this point in time any remotely intelligent person would be runnig screaming from the castle. And I think Harker tries, though he's telling himself he's exploring, and finds himself locked in.

Dracula

This book was really hard for me to get into. The only part that really stuck with me was the coach ride to Dracula's castle. And how Dracula had things set up. Dracula is cunning. All his town folk fear/worship him. They dare not cross him, but any passing through don't believe them they think it is just typical superstition of small town folks. And simce Dracula is not much known outside his town he can prowl freely without worry of higher up officials getting on his case. I don't think however that he is wise, he wants his name to be known everywhere, which seems stupid becasue seeing what the times are like people would eventually come to the conclusion he's a vampire and roast his head on a spit or something equally fun. Rather ironic though that in the story Dracula he is feared by his subjects and not known of by outsiders when in the real Count Vlad's time he was loved by his people and well known as a blood thirsty war lord in the outside provences.
I enjoyed reading about the ride there. The blue fire showing through the vampire. The wolves howling around them. I've always pictured werewolves and vampires at eachothers throats so I liked that aspect of it. However that the horses were soothed by someone we have been lead to believe is a memeber of the undead was strange to me because I have always felt that animals would be able to tell about supernatural and evil things better than humans can.

Modern Vamps!

Okay, so the thing I found most intriguing was the modern age vampires and their clubs what they do, ect. I researched several people, starting with Katherine Ramsland. I found this article about her.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/01/style/a-night-out-with-katherine-ramsland-every-day-can-be-halloween.html?scp=1&sq=Katherine%20Ramsland&st=cse
It was good read. I also searched Susan Walsh and Father Sebastian, but I wasn’t finding much that was interesting and I was disappointed. Finally when they mentioned the Black Veil code of conduct type thing for vampires I googled it along with Michelle (can’t remember her last name) and Father Sebastian. I found an amazing site. It is SO cool. I’m going to blog about this as opposed to a certain person mentioned in the video. This site has answered like all the questions I had about vampires and more. A lot of the people who post there seem to just WANT to be vampires, not really are. Like one girl who posted about how she was a psi-vampire and she had two friends who were psi-vampires and one who was a sangui vampire. But a lot of the information on the site seems legit. They welcome people interested in learning about vampires, vampyres who are vampire lifestylers and attend the clubs while not actually being addicted to blood, sangui vampires, and psi-vampires who feed off psychic energy of others. And, of course, potential donors. A note, these psi-vampires would like to clarify, apparently, that they are not psychic vampires. The difference is a psi-vampire is a vampire who feeds off emotional energy or some other form of energy, while a psychic vampire is a vampire who has clairvoyance tendencies. The vampires who post do not believe that they are immortal; they do not profess to have special powers. They simply know that they craze blood. They are aware that other diseases have these symptoms but they have slowly eliminated all these possibilities and finally come to this conclusion- they can only be a vampire. They believe they are born this way. You cannot be “turned” by being bitten. The main theory that they seem to support is that blood may be addictive, or addictive to certain people. The psi-vampires profess to get a sort of “high” from feeding off the excess life force of others. They don’t think that their body naturally produces enough of this psychic/emotional energy. I loved the explanation in the video that the most dangerous type of psychic vampires are the ones who don’t even realize that they are. The people who provoke you and get your emotions going and you walk away feeling emotionally drained. I enjoyed reading the site, and I don’t really care if some of it is a work of fiction, the basic idea seems to be real and there is a culture out there that is addicted to blood and energy and feel that they need it. And if there is I don’t have a problem with it. If you get permission from someone to drink their blood then that’s your business. It might be little weird or even creepy, but it’s just a different life style from mine. Maybe I find this easier to accept because I’m use to having to accept the people who consume the flesh of animals with out the permission of the animal. Or maybe I’m just weird. Here’s the website, I suggest you check it out.

http://www.sanguinarius.org/

Vampire Secrets

This video was amazing. I really learned a lot. Probably the most interesting part to me was about the modern day vampires, but I’ll get back to that. I liked the explanation they used for why vampires have become pop icons and are being used as advertising gimmicks. To diminish their power over us. However I feel that, if this statement is correct, in trying to diminish their power, if they were real, we would be increasing their power over us. The reason I say this is because as we make vampires into cartoons and romantic figures we don’t believe in them, or what we do believe in has lost its potency. “Remember there are such things.” The vampires power is that we refuse to believe in them. Or if you want to get into the modern day vampires their problem is we DO believe in the vampires in books in movies.
I know that the vampire legends did not originate in Transylvania, but I was interested, though hardly surprised, to find that they originated in China and India. This is because I know many other legends and myths have originated in these two places, the most prominent of these probably being the myth of dragons from China. The connection of Christianity and Jesus to vampirism was surprising. It’s interesting that most people don’t seem to make that connection. Or if they do I’ve never heard about it before.
The whole bit about Elizabeth Bathory was very… I’m not sure what to say about it. I’m just incredulous I’ve never heard mention of this before. I’d think it would be more well known. At first I was amazed and startled at the simplicity of governments that would issue lists of symptoms for vampirism. Then I realized it isn’t so surprising, or shouldn’t be. In a time where people truly believed in vampires and countless unexplainable, even now, cases were being reported, it really makes sense that a list of “symptoms” would be issued to keep the malady from spreading.
The whole Vampire Masquerade RPG sounds fun. I googled it but didn’t spend much time on it and didn’t find anything. “It’s twister for vampires”. As for RPGs causing the problems with Rod Feral, BS. It’s obvious he was mentally unstable before the events and the press just wanted to use this to sell more papers and in doing so furthered the negative images for RPG players and modern day vampires. RPGs don’t cause people to have trouble distinguishing between the game and the reality, though I can see an RPG becoming the reality an already unstable person uses to further their violent impulses.

The Vampyre: A tale

I honestly did not enjoy this one very much. I read it, but I didn't understand it thouroghly so I looked up the summary of it on wikipedia. I find the plot intresting, but did not like the writing style of the author as it was lond winded and served only to confuse me.
So Lord Ruthven is not overly social, and seems free of vice. He is pale and his siloutte is handsome and he has cold grey eyes. He is also inteligent. All of which are traits of a vampire, at least by my definition. It seems that he gives money to beggers, but also sucks their blood. Aubrey seperates from Ruthven and finds someone who knows of vampyres and speaks of them often in a manner that implies Ruthven is a vampire to Aubrey. While walking in the forest during a thunderstorm Aubrey becomes lost. he is attacked by a being with superhuman strength, who I took to be Ruthven. Super human strength is another characterisitc of vampyres I have found to be common. It seems by the discritption of Aubrey's character after he was attacked he too has become a vampyre. Ruthven is killed and Aubrey agrees to tell no one of his death for 366 days and Ruthvens body vanishes. It seems that Ruthven killed the countess' family during this time. Aubrey reaches his home town and sees Ruthven and is reminded by a ominous voice of his oath not to speak of Ruthven's death. Ruthven has used the year in which Aubrey could not speak of his death to have his sister fall in love wth him and become betrothed to her. When Aubrey protests he is thought to be failing in mental health. Aubrey is finally able to speak of Ruthven's death and dies shortly after. His guardians attempt to save his sister but it is to late by the itme they find her she has been sucked of blood.

Vampire Knight

I've been trying to avoid starting to read Mangas as I spend entirely too much time reading them as it is. However I am very happy because I have an obsession with both vampires and manga. "The night class is an elite group of students. And they are all completely gorgeous" Isn't that practicaly a direct quote from Bella in Twilight refering to the Cullens? Oh and I loved how the flower withered in his hand. One thing about Manga. When new characters get introduced I'm always confused for a while because they'll be introduced as, for example, Kuname Kuran. And then I just remembered he was Kuname so when he got called Kuran at first I wasn't sure if he was the same person. I'm really bad at remembering japanese names apparently. Oh and the honorifics like Sempai and Sama and chan confuse me too because there are too many for me to remember. And random little things like kya confuse me too.

Anyways...The tattoo Zero on his neck and Yuuki has it on her arm on the white band. It also is on the top of the side column on the left hand side of the pages, and it was really bugging me. Now I guess it's the bloody rose. But I still want to know what it said in the coumn beneath it. Yeah I know, some of them are translated, but I want them all to be. I might have to check out the real mangas from the library. The day time teachers must think the chairman's crazy making the two that sleep all through classes prefects. Zero mentions the point that vampires only look like humans so they can more eficiently hunt us. This is also brought up in Twilight. And Bella's blood is also unusually sweet like Yuuki's. Was this written before or after twilight? Oh I din't think humans could smell blood, so I was wondering why Zero could I see now. And just how stupid are these girls? I mean Aidou asked one of them her blood type! Okay how many times do they need to use the square box things to say that there are two seperate classes at cross academy and the elite night class is made up off vampires? We get it already!

So I'm thinking the bloody rose is their culture equivelent to a cross? Ish, becuase it's suppsoed to kill them in the gun thing and Yuuki has one on a necklace as well. But it didn't seem to stop her from bein bitten. So are vampires besides the ones bitten by a pureblood. They're either a human who was bitten, or descendant from a human who was bitten, I take it. So wondering, would anyone 'donate' blood to kaname or Zero? Also the chairman is crazy. I mean who lies to a vampire? And he also seems to go out of his way at times to make little digs at Zero.

So if Zero is a vampire shouldn't he submit to Yuuki's will and let her kill Rido? Or is Yuuki simply unwilling to force anything on Zero after everything else? Or I suppose it's also possible that since he is a hunter and has drinken blood from two of the Kuran family as well as Shizuka through Kaname he is beyond Yuuki's control. When Rido says that Zero's entire life was violated and controlled by vampires it just kinda clicked... I don't know I just feel really bad for Zero. I like him a lot more then Kaname. But I wish he would smile, though all things considered I guess that's a lot to ask. Aw poor Aidou got fallen on from like ten stories up. So I think I understood the story behind Rido. He's Yuuki and Kaname's uncle, right? And was he in love with Juuri too? This is a really great Manga and I loved it. The only downside was that only in chapter 35 or so did I figure out wich night class student was which. And I still don't know if it was Kain or Aidou who used to live with Kaname. I'll have to go back and read it again at some point for better understanding. I really don't like Kaname much right now. He just seems to be more violent than Zero and he doesn't really have a reason. Kaname is power hungry and is more worried about himself than about Yuuki. For example he wanted to return her to being a vampire, even thogh she might have been happier as a human. And.. I don't know I just like Zero a lot more. How about every one else?

Okay one other thing, I think I have most of the characters' names figured out I think, but there's a a few whose first or last I don't know, and some who's names I cna't remember at all. Also I'm not sure if I paired some of the first and last names together properly. If someone does know kindly tell me? xD

Akatsuki Aidou
Hanabusa kain
Kuran Kaname
Kuran Rido
Kuran Yuuki
Kiryu Zero
Kiryu Ichiru
Shiki
Ruka
Then there's the vampire in night dorm with pigtails who was fighting with Rido when he was possesing shiki.
Zero's trainer?
Asato Ichijou
Asato Takuma
Yuuki's best friend?
Kaien Cross

Historical Evidence

Since this section is all addressing the same thing I've decided to make one post to address them all. There is much historical evidence of vampires shown in this book, however I must say it is still unlikely there are vampires. The main, almost only, point for the existence of vampires is that almost every culture has come up with some for of vampirism. This, however, can easily be explained away. Humans are scared of the unknown, it's a natural instinct because the unknown can be dangerous and our goal is to preserve our life. Death is unknown and therefore we fear it. We are the only animal that activly thinks of our own demise and worries about it before it happens or is happening. Since we fear death we imagine that those who have died to not continue into nonexsitence, the next world, whatever you happen to believe in. As mentioned in the book blood is a symbol of death when we see it, but is also thought to preserve life because we die when we loose it. So we believe that the dead must want to return to the world of the living by consuming out blood. And sicne this beleif is based upon natural human instincts it isn't hard matter to dissmiss the accounts of vampirism to this. And once the idea of a vampire is created it is used to explain things like strange deaths or people found in their grave seeming to be alive. The way I see it there are many possible explanations for this. Internal bleeding or people being burried while still alive but in comas seem plausible. And more than likely tales of vampires where exagerated and made to seem more real by the pree concived notion of them. Therefore when a grave was dug up looking for a vampire and they believed the signs of a vampire would be there the signs would be found whether they were actually there or not. So self fulfilling prophecy is what 'm getting at I guess. And of course there are the mentions of Vampires screaming when stabbed. Well if they were in a coma it is possible that they screamed. Or since everyone was expecting it they believed it happened whether or not it did. Then the matter of people seeing relatives and friends passed? Well we've all heard the expresion "the rumours of my death have been greatly exagerated" so there's that to consider. As for dropping dead after seeing this apparation, well this reminds me of a quote from Harry Potter. After Harry tells Hermione and Ron that he's seen the Grim, a sign of death for you non Harry Potter people, Ron says that Harry Shouldbe worried because his uncle died just 24, or maybe it was 48, hours after seeing it Hermine says "Well he probably saw it and thought 'oh well I better drop dead' but Harry's not that stupid, are you Harry?" I'm sure I didn't get the exact wording right, but that quote explains that aspect of vampirism.

And this is rather random but the book made mention of vampire bats consuming entire herds of cattle in South America and I had the most random thought "that's what happened to Roanoke" Obviously not, and I have no idea what made me think of Roanoke since the two are hardly related, but it was funny. ^^

Ligeia

Again the character portraid as a vampire comes from an old family. She is described as being light, I think in weight seeing as she was described as emaciated, as was Roderick. It doesn't seem the vampires of Poe's stories feed often. Also the narrator trys to portray her beauty and cannot, which reminds me of the so perfect portrail of the girl in the oval portrait. Also "she came and departed as a shadow" shadows seemed to have a place in all three stories. Of course Poe's works are rather, depressing so I'm not sure if this is a common theme with all his works. She is unparralleled in beauty though not in the classic manner, with ivory skin, black hair, and ancient eyes. All of which speak of vampires, and the last of imortality or at least longevity. "...pale forehead --it was faultless --how cold indeed..." I know the word cold is directed at the term faultless but it's placed almost in such a manner that one reads it as possibly applyign to her forhead skin, as well. Maybe not intentional but that's what I gathered from it. "...speaking the free spirit." Free spirit as in spirit set free from the body? It might be that I'm looking to far into this fro signs of vampirism but much of the stories and sentances that seem unrelated could definatly hint towards this. Her teeth are startling brilliant, so they stand out as fangs would. Like in the oval portrait it seems that the vampire feeds off of something, this time the narrator's secound wife, and takes over it taking the victums life to gain a life of it's own. I think I understood the end correctly? Rowena dies then comes back to life a Ligeia. Also- Stringed intruments are brought up in this as well, in the Fall of the House of Usher they are one of the few noses that do not upset Roderick, in this it seems the narrator is reminded of Lady Ligeia by them. And it almsot sounds as though the vampire shortly possessed him until she could take Rowena's place. "I have been filled with it by certain sounds from stringed instruments, and not unfrequently by passages from books." It seems to be refering to Ligeia's beatuy which at times would pass into and fill his soul as the narrator earlier stated in this passage.

I did some background reading and the story was subject to debate, some believed that the story was a satire being based on an opium (latex based narotic) induced hallucination of the narrator's. Personally I don't think it was a satire as it seems to have many common themes with the other two short stories. Plus it's creepy.

The Oval Potrait

In this story it seemed to me the narrator was a vampire trying to resist the urge to hunt, his prey being young women. Maybe part of this is an influence from Twilight and I misunderstood, but then I also felt a similar thread in the Fall of the House of Usher the Roderick would not like to and avoids preying on the living, though he didn’t seem to know he was a vampire. So what struck me was the seeming distaste from the narrator for what he was. I mentioned tales of vampires that sucked the emotions from their victims in an earlier post of mine. It seemed to me this is somewhat a reflection of this, while painting his bride the man sucked the vitality from her and the painting gained it.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allen Poe never uses direct language but many small things to suggest it. The story immediately shouts vampire by describing the house as old decrepit, a gothic mansion, the owner being introverted, a traceable lineage, and even having a servant, and mentioning superstitions. And I am quickly brought to the conclusion the owner of the house is a vampire by his seclusion. The mention of superstition let’s us know the narrator is suspicious of something though he never has yet specified what. Maybe I was more acutely aware to these things because I came to the story looking for allusions to vampires. I immediately picture the house as being dark even though it’s never described as such. When he enters the first room he says that even the books and instruments fail to bring vitality to the room, therefore bringing to mind death, and possibly the connection to the undead. The light entering the house through the tall and lofty windows is described as feeble and encrimsoned, the colour of blood. So he continues to carefully construct the image of a vampire. Roderick is greatly changed and his skin is ghastly pale, his hair seems to float, summoning the idea of a ghoul or ghost, and he cannot connect the face to humanity. Animal spirits are said to affect the tone of his voice. Old myths and legends describe vampires as being able to transform into bats and other creatures, generally of the night. His voice is unhurried which I connect to immortality, and hollow I connected to soulless. His illness Roderick describes as a family evil. The use of the word evil seems, again, to allude to vampirism. It seems almost every sentence was weighed and searched for the perfect wording to allude to this with out being abrupt or direct. Usher cannot eat food, and his senses are painfully acute, and he avoids the light. Again the soul is brought up and the malady described as an intolerable agitation of the soul, and the moral of his existence is touched upon. All in all Poe is very direct about what it is. It’s well written and carefully planned out. The term Vampire is such a clear directly diagnostic term to Americans and can be very easily and directly applied with out any use of the word itself or even direct mention of blood or the undead.

Vampires online

There are several websites I've read that have to do with vampires including a youtube video clip from discovery channel discussing ''real life vampires'' unfortantly I couldn't find it again, but I might be able to find that discovery show taped or something at the library. Anyways my favorite websites are some of Vampire A-Z sites spawned by twilight. I actually once found one that I believe Stephanie Meyer used for her book... But so many new ones have been made since then I can't find it. I should start book marking this stuff. :) Anyways two decent ones based on the site mentioned in twilight are these. http://vampiresatoz.webs.com/index-2.htm
http://www.vampiresaz.webs.com/. Note: They have the same info just different layouts. Oh and also for Twilgiht fans who haven't read Midnight Sun yet here's a partial draft from Stephanie meyer's official website. And it is partial so be prepared to be sad when it only goes about 200 pages in. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

Assignment 1 part 3

I certinaly don't have any issues with any of the books you've mentioned. But I would suggest we read Midnight Sun along with Twilight because it offers a different and intriguing take on the story. I don't believe you mentioned doing any reading on short stories, so maybe we could read some on how the legend of the vampire originated in different cultures. Also Sweet Blood seems like it would be a really good read, it's something I've een intrested in for a while and just haven't gotten the chance to read yet. From what I've heard though it offers some intresting stuff on the history of vampires.

Assignment 1 part 2

The vampire book I've read is Twilight. (And the books that followed and Midnight Sun) I really loved it. I wasn't much into vampires until I read Twilight. I'm thinking I probably don't need to give much of a summary of it because most people have either read it or have a basis of what happens in the book. It's just the story of a teenage girl with equilibrium problems who falls in love with a vampire who is dangerously attracted to the smell of her blood. And the the vampire, Edward, hates himself for not leaving and therefore putting Bella in danger by staying. Of course the movie blots out Edward's internal struggle and makes saving Bella from James Laurent and Victoria the biggest plot point of the book rather than savign Bella from Edward.
I honestly didn't have much opinion in the way of vampires before I read this book. I guess I just pictured them as in Bram Stoker's Dracula. I defiantly liek Stephanie Meyer's version of vampires better though. :)

Vampires

Okay so my concept of vampires is not super defined.  There are lots of different types of vampires in mythology.  There's the typical type of vampires that suck blood, and that would be the image most people have of vamires, but there's also supposed to vampires who suck emotions.  There's a keltic myth about a warrior named Scathatch who is supposed to be such a vampire, as well as having al martial arts have base in her style of fighting.  Then the 'traditional' or best known vampire made famous by Bram Stoker in Dracula.  They live in coffins, are repelled by garlic, can't come out in the light, or enter your house without permission.  There are countless myths of vampires, one originating with almost every culture it seems.  Then there's the fairly new concept of vampires created by Stephanie Meyer in Twilight.  This is my particular favorite.  

"If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires.   Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates: the judicial proof is most complete.  And with all that, who is there who believes in vampires?" -Rousseau

There are historical figures who were believed to be vampires such as Count Vlad who Dracula was based off of and drank the blood of his enemies.  Then there's the symptoms from diabetes which include receding gum lines making it look like the person has fangs, and the symptom can be temporarily relieved by drinking human blood.  xD  And then there are cults with people who call themselves vampires and drink blood, but they don't need to do this in order to survive.