• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Vampires

It's nice to see people having fun with symbolism, but don't get too dis-anchored from reality.

"Society" doesn't know a darn thing about STDs. "Society" is an enormous bunch of individuals, most of whom know myths or nothing at all. One in four teen-agers in America has an STD (thank you, abstinence-only education), and HIV still spreads in the adult population worldwide for reasons ranging from disempowerment to self-deception. And HIV+ people still have to deal with fear and villification - it's a long time since anybody called for a quarantine, but it isn't that long ago that a man was charged with "assault with a deadly weapon" for spitting on a cop. Yet people still go around having anonymous sex in tea rooms, perfectly intelligent characters with plenty of access to prophylactics on TV shows get unplanned pregnancies all the time (but nobody gets STDs except on "very special episodes"), and education is limited by law in many places to "just don't have sex till you're married and you'll be fine."

Buffy's dangerplay with Spike in the fifth season is probably the closest American media has come to talking frankly about the subject in the last 20 years. :(
 
PeniG - I should have put a few limiting factors in that last post - I should've distinguished between the representations and reality of society, which isn't unified or monolithic or average at all. What representations in tv and movies tell us about society is limited and affected by the points of view and interests of the writers, directors, producers, studios, stations, governments, what is deemed to be acceptable for broadcast, and everything else. The audience needs to be interested in the story, and the story needs to feel right, familiar, almost like real life, just somehow more exciting and colourful. Any message, by the time it's out there to be received, is almost invisible unless you look for it. No-one wants to be lectured to (unless you were on my course - another Aliens lecture? Fantastic!).

When there's an old idea that suddenly gets dusted down and finds a new resonance, it's usually chiming with a fear or concern in it's audience, but that particular thing might not be the only meaning or purpose it serves.

The vampire myth from it's development in the dark ages until it's explosion in popularity with Dracula did nothing to stop the spread of TB, rabies, the black death, or bubonic plague. The church and background of Christianity wouldn't've been much help - with the cultural upheaval of the catholics fighting heretical sects and the emergence of protestantism in Europe, either denying vampires existed or confirming them as evil beings and sending the priests in. Pretty much the same trouble as we have now!
 
There was another lass on my course who'd just got her BA in painting with a dissertation about vampirism in surrealist art, and was moving on to representations of the werewolf for her MA. We had some verrrrry cool conversations. Werewolves are my favourite creatures, and I'm still trying to figure them out. (Mine was about the inability of photography to represent any minority as anything but a stereotype...
The tutor who was into Buffy's other pet subjects were the Alien films and Elvis. The other 2 tutors on the course were experts on (among other things) Frida Kahlo, religious and sexual symbolism in the gardens of English stately homes of the 16th-18th centuries, the map of the London Underground and miniaturised reconstructions of sea battles of the 2nd world war. I bloody loved that course!)

ooh I could go dangerously off topic and tell you all about my memories of uni!! <<far away look in my eyes>> :lol:

You've also got me thinking about how the state of being undead is a little like how the rest of society perceive "the teenager": living a strange, disconnected half-life.

I haven't read the Twilight series of books but a colleague of mine (I'm a secondary school teacher) commented that the main boy character is a very "safe" love interest, despite the fact that he is vampire - something about him not being able to touch the girl???

Perhaps the fact that STDs are still so prevalent in America (and probably the rest of the Western world) is something to do with this denial of the historically documented sexual power of the idea of a vampire? If popular culture didn't try to make everything safe maybe awareness of the real dangers of the real world would be higher?

Just an idea! (and I don't really know what I'm talking about here, so please don't anyone get offended! :oops:)
 
Police reward in 'vampire'-murder
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8325879.stm

Police say Mark Adrian Perry may have changed his name and appearance
Australian police have offered a reward of Aus$1m ( US $926,000, £567,000) to find a man suspected of ordering the killing of a self-proclaimed vampire.

Mark Adrian Perry allegedly ordered the 2003,murder of Shane Chartres-Abbot, a prostitute,who said he drank blood.

At the time of his death, Mr Chartres-Abbot was on trial for allegedly raping,Mr Perry's former girlfriend and biting off part of her tongue.

Police in Victoria state say they believe Mr Perry is in Australia.

A 'centuries-old vampire'

Mr Chartres-Abbot was shotin broad daylight in Melbourne, in front of his father and pregnant girlfriend.

A man has already been convicted for carrying out the shooting,but Mr Perry - who is believed to have ordered the killing - is still at large.

"There will be some people who know where Perry is and $1m is a lot of money," said Victoria state police Det Insp Steve Waddell.

Mr Chartres-Abbot had allegedly told Mr Perry's former girlfriend that he was a centuries-old vampire who drank blood to survive.

Mr Perry was last seen in Queensland in 2007. Police said they believed he had changed his name and appearance.
 
New Zealand man 'attacked by vampires'
A New Zealand man has been bitten by three people who drank his blood during an alleged vampire-style attack in the dark.
By Paul Chapman in Wellington
Published: 7:00AM BST 06 May 2010

Details of the bizarre late night incident on Mount Victoria, an unlit beauty spot that overlooks the capital, Wellington, emerged after two people appeared in court jointly charged with wounding with intent to render a man unconscious.

James Phillip Brooks, 22, and Xenia Gregoriana Borichevsky, 19, were both remanded on bail without entering a plea.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of a third accused, James Eric Orr, 19, who failed to appear at Wellington District Court.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail.

It is believed the victim, whose name has been suppressed by the court, passed out after being bitten on the night of February 20.

Outside the court, Mr Brooks said he understood there was blood drinking during the incident but added: "That wasn't me.

"Do I look like a vampire? I'm out during the daytime," he told the city's Dominion-Post newspaper.

Mr Brooks, who has a number of facial piercings and a mohawk haircut, said: "I may look like a punk but I'm not a punk. I'm just different.

"Yeah, I bit a guy. He hit on my missus. My girlfriend and my mate were biting him.

"If I'd hit him, I'd have really hurt him, so I thought I'll bite him seeing as they're already biting him."

He said drinking blood "wasn't my agenda".

Police refused to discuss the case because it is before the courts.

Ms Borichevsky's bail conditions were relaxed by the court after her lawyer asked the judge to lift a night-time curfew on her.

Dr Marc Wilson, a senior lecturer in psychology at Wellington's Victoria University, who specialises in studying paranormal beliefs, said drinking human blood was "incredibly unusual".

He said human teeth were not designed for breaking skin and sucking blood.

"You could do it but you would have to really want to."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... pires.html
 
Colorado woman blames vampire for car crash

FRUITA, Colo. - If a Western Slope woman is to be believed, vampires may be lurking in Colorado's Grand Valley.

The woman claims she spotted a vampire in the middle of a dirt road near Fruita, Colo. Sunday night. She told Colorado State Troopers she was startled by the undead being, threw her SUV into reverse, and crashed into a canal.

She was not injured.

State Troopers say the woman's husband arrived at the scene and took her home. The vampire, which was not seen by anyone else, apparently let her get away.

Troopers do not suspect drugs or alcohol to be factors in the crash.

He must not have been hungry - or more likely, had a dislike of SUVs. :roll:

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-vampire-c ... 0779.story
 
I wonder if Vampires ever hold up Blood Bank Vans? Hmmm, could be a good idea for a film.
 
PeniG - pardon my ignorance but you mentioned people meeting in tea rooms for casual sex, what is a tea room? Is it a euphemism or is it like Betty's in York?! :shock:
I'm English so apologise for needing an explanation. Thank you in advance.
:D
 
Apologies in advance if I'm just being dense, but exactly how did the Colorado lady realize that the person she spied on the road was a vampire?
 
No need for an answer, just googled it and found a book - Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex In Public Places by Laud Humphreys.

You do learn something new every day. I didn't know what a coconut or banana was until yertserday.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Apologies in advance if I'm just being dense, but exactly how did the Colorado lady realize that the person she spied on the road was a vampire?

That's a very good question actually...

Also - I don't know anything about tea rooms, bananas and coconuts either so it will be an interesting evening on Google I suppose. :lol:
 
To demonstrate just how obsolete my world-view is, to me a "tea room" remains a quiet and secluded little restaurant over on the south side of Shady Street where spinster Miss Jessop and her life-long friend the Widow Abernathy share luncheon every Thursday at two p. m. :)
 
I must have been hanging out in the wrong tea rooms...
 
Cucumber sandwiches, eh. You dirty devil. :lol:
 
OldTimeRadio said:
To demonstrate just how obsolete my world-view is, to me a "tea room" remains a quiet and secluded little restaurant over on the south side of Shady Street where spinster Miss Jessop and her life-long friend the Widow Abernathy share luncheon every Thursday at two p. m. :)
It's what they're doing at 3pm that'd make your eyes water. Filthy devils - who knew, eh?
OTR said:
Apologies in advance if I'm just being dense, but exactly how did the Colorado lady realize that the person she spied on the road was a vampire?
Exactly my first thought - she didn't stop to talk, so what was the giveaway? A face that looked pale in her headlights? Hardly conclusive evidence, is it?
The woman claims she spotted a vampire in the middle of a dirt road near Fruita, Colo. Sunday night. She told Colorado State Troopers she was startled by the undead being, threw her SUV into reverse, and crashed into a canal.
Sounds like an interesting insurance claim! As excuses for driving into a canal go, though, it's a good 'un. As you say, there's nothing in the very brief account to say what evidence led the woman to believe that she's seen a supernatural being, and not just some poor soul wandering home from the local bar.
 
I expect she saw his fangs, or the voices in her head told her. Very handy, those voices.

How did people suddenly get all the way back to my STD rant from September? And inquiring minds want to know -- how weird do y'all feel that you learned that particular alternate meaning for "tea room" from someone who writes books for young people? (It should not surprise you that such a person cares so much on the subject of sex miseducation, however.)

Although I think there are places in like, New York, that still use "tea room" for a legitimate business, if you want a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, you'd better ask the policeman for a "tea shop" to fend off misunderstandings. And then order tea and cookies when you get there.
 
I know there is a Tea Room in Greenwich VIllage, where a woman literally reads your tea leaves. I thought that's what she did..... :oops:

There are many "Happy Ending Massage Parlors" in the city, know enough to stay away from those. One has been turned into a fancy Norwegian Cocktail Bar......they kept the sign and the back room intact for novelty.
 
I still don't that tea room business - I suppose we must call them something else here...

I once had dinner in the Russian Tea Room in Boulder, Colorado. It was lovely and no one wanted to grab my crotch for money.

What am I missing here?
 
The tearoom trade as described by Humphreys was about recreation, not money, though. The term 'trade' here means 'business', as in monkey business. ;)

What Humphreys found was that some ostensibly straight men knew where to go for impersonal homosexual contact with minimum risk of discovery, at a time when these acts were still illegal. They were in it for fun, not money.

Of course, the 'tearooms' are actually public lavvies, so there's little danger of being served the wrong type of sticky buns.
 
Peripart said:
Exactly my first thought - she didn't stop to talk, so what was the giveaway? A face that looked pale in her headlights? Hardly conclusive evidence, is it?

Well, I was going to suggest that it was the fangs, save that Peni stole my thunder there. :)


But of course vampire fangs can be purchased at any novelty shop year-'round or indeed at any large American chain drugstore during the month or so before Halloween, and for 50 percent off the week after.

Or maybe it was simply the fact that the vampire had great black bat wings and was hovering four feet above the ground? ;)
 
I don't want to derail this thread again, but I wish to reply to PeniiG tat I find your education beautfully ironic. I genuinely had no idea what it meant. Thank you for educating me.
Now, back to vampires...
 
Yeeaaaa! Shes left the Dark Side!

Top author opts 'to quit being a Christian'

ALISON FLOOD

Sat, Jul 31, 2010

TWELVE YEARS after choosing Christianity over atheism, bestselling author Anne Rice has “quit being a Christian” because of the religion’s attitude to birth control, homosexuality and science.

In a message posted on her Facebook page, Rice said she was “out”. “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen,” the author wrote.

An atheist for decades, Rice returned to her childhood faith of Catholicism in 1998. In 2002 she “consecrated her writing entirely to Christ, vowing to write for Him or about Him”. She began to write novels about the life of Christ, completing Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt in 2005, and publishing Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana in 2008 when she also released the memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession , about her conversion at the age of 57.

Rice posted on Tuesday revealing her distress about a news story in which an American “punk rock ministry” said that “executing gays is ‘moral’”.

“No wonder people despise us, Christians . . . I don’t blame them. This kind of thing makes me weep. Maybe commitment to Christ means not being a Christian,” she said.

Later, she linked to a report about the Westboro Baptist church in Kansas, which “spreads the message that because the United States condones homosexuality, abortion and divorce, all Americans are going to hell”, according to the story.

“This is chilling. I wish I could say this is inexplicable. But it’s not. That’s the horror. Given the history of Christianity, this is not inexplicable at all,” Rice wrote, pointing to Gandhi’s statement: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” – (Guardian service )

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wor ... 06275.html
 
This doesn't surprise me very much, since Rice's "Christianity' was heterodox at very best.

For one thing she seems to have taken seriously the old Gnostic "gospels" (!!!) which portrayed the child Christ as a noisomely-evil little monster whose chief delight lay in murdering his playmates....and their parents, too, when they objected to such shenanigans.

I can tell you from personal experience that it's difficult to leave any belief-system you never joined in the first place.

As for Fred Phelps, a leading Conservative Christian cult-watch list describes that man as "an enemy of the Cross." Does Rice think this description was intended as a compliment?
 
'Vampire' skeletons found in Bulgaria near Black Sea

People believed the rod would pin the dead into their graves and stop them from becoming vampires

Related Stories

'Dracula Castle' put up for sale
Burton takes on Batman's legacy
Byron's influence on vampires

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have found two medieval skeletons pierced through the chest with iron rods to supposedly stop them from turning into vampires.

The discovery illustrates a pagan practice common in some villages up until a century ago, say historians.

People deemed bad had their hearts stabbed after death, for fear they would return to feast on humans' blood.

Similar archaeological sites have also been unearthed in other Balkan countries.

Bulgaria is home to around 100 known "vampire skeleton" burials.

Searchers stumbled across the latest two specimens, dating back to the Middle Ages, in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.

'Terrorise the living'
"These skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th Century," explained Bozhidar Dimitrov who heads the National History Museum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

People believed the rod would pin the dead into their graves to prevent them from leaving at midnight and terrorising the living, the historian added.

Archaeologist Petar Balabanov, who in 2004 discovered six nailed-down skeletons at a site near the eastern Bulgarian town of Debelt, said the pagan rite had also been practised in neighbouring Serbia and other Balkan countries.

Vampire legends form an important part of the region's folklore.

The myths directly inspired Bram Stoker's legendary gothic horror novel, Dracula, which was first published in 1897 and has since been turned into numerous filmic versions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18334106
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Think this will fit in here. Now vampires are being blamed for abandoned dogs.

Vampire film link to abandoned wolf-like dogs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ox ... e-18958591

Blue is one of the Alaskan malamutes now at the charity's Burford centre

Related Stories

Husky owners take the lead Watch
Man charged for Canada dog 'cull'

Vampire-themed films and TV shows may be to blame for an increase in wolf-like dogs bought and then abandoned, an Oxfordshire charity has said.

The Blue Cross has released figures showing a five-fold rise in some species being handed to their centres.

In the first six months of the year 43 needed rehoming, compared with 15 in the same period of 2011.

Wolves have played a prominent part in recent films Breaking Dawn and The Grey, and TV series True Blood.

"The fashion for vampire-themed TV series and films may be a feature of their increasing popularity," the charity said.

'Rocketing trend'
The Alaskan malamute, Siberian husky and Utonagon are particularly popular because of their wolf-like appearance, and are putting "extra strain" on the animal charity.

It said that while the actual numbers were relatively small, the overall trend was "rocketing".

Continue reading the main story
National figures - First six months of 2011 / 2012

Alaskan malamute 2 / 10

Siberian husky 13 / 30

Utonagon 0 / 3

Animal behaviourist Claire Stallard said: "These beautiful and distinctive breeds have become fashionable over the years, but unfortunately they may be chosen on their looks alone.

"If not given enough exercise, these dogs can become extremely frustrated which may manifest in all manner of problem behaviours.

"This is why we urge people to do lots of research before taking on any dog, to find a breed that is suitable to your living conditions and lifestyle."

A recent addition to the rehoming centre in Burford, Oxfordshire, is Blue.

Centre manager Aly Jones said the distinctive Alaskan malamute, which has one blue eye and one brown eye, had a "great personality".

"He needs someone who can invest the time to take him on daily long walks to keep him happy and healthy" she added.
 
They might want to add the Song of Fire and Ice to the list of culprits, as the Dire Wolves are Wolfdog Hybrids aswell.

Is this really news though as it has been going on for decades, new popular film/series comes out featuring and animal and sales of that animal as pets sky rockets.

It happened with the various finding Nemo films and clown fish, Turtles and Terrapins with the Teenage mutant ninja turtles in the 80's and 90's. To be honest the only time that I can remember that it hasn't caused an issue in rescues is Ratatouille.
 
Back
Top