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.