Vampires

Olsen

Member
What do you think of the evolution of vampires in popular culture over the years? From Bram Stoker's blood-thirsty Dracula, who was based on the cruel prince of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler, to the sparkling vampires from Twilight, the vampire species has sure changed a lot, don't you think?

By the way, here is the famous Bran Castle, in Transilvania, where Count Dracula is said to have reigned as an undead being:



Not as scary as in the movies, is it?
 

Arachne

Member
I've read a theory that the myth of vampires was inspired by cases of people being buried alive, a tragically common happening in pre-modern Christian and Muslim countries (as both of these religions generally bury rather than burn their dead). A person who was buried while unconscious would wake up, and in their frenzied attempts to get out of their coffin/crypt would hurt themselves, whether by deliberately trying to kill themselves, or simply in their futile attempts to escape.

For whatever reason the coffin would be dug up shortly after - with the result being the bloody, still-warm corpse of a person who had suffocated or died of a panic attack just minutes, hours, or days before. This would then inspire myths of corpses that would go out at night to suck blood, and then return to their burial places after they had been gorged on their victims.

Both the possible reality behind vampirism, as well as the earlier legends about it, are not nearly as sanitary or sexy as modern-day images of vampirism.
 

Isis

Member
Both the possible reality behind vampirism, as well as the earlier legends about it, are not nearly as sanitary or sexy as modern-day images of vampirism.
You aren't kidding! In some ways, the possible origin gives me the creeps far more than the modern-day stories do. I practically have panic attacks watching shows in which one of the characters is buried alive.
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
What do you think of the evolution of vampires in popular culture over the years? From Bram Stoker's blood-thirsty Dracula, who was based on the cruel prince of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler, to the sparkling vampires from Twilight, the vampire species has sure changed a lot, don't you think?

By the way, here is the famous Bran Castle, in Transilvania, where Count Dracula is said to have reigned as an undead being:

Not as scary as in the movies, is it?
Hollywood must have embellished the place to make it creepier.

I've been doing some research on the historical Dracula. Have you ever heard of the Order of the Dragon? Not a very nice group of people, of which the whole Dracula clan were a part of.
 

Toni

Active Member
I have never liked vampires in any literature at all!!! However, when the Twilight series came through, so many of my students were reading them that I thought I had better get with the program. They are not bad and did keep my attention. I don't think I'll read them again though.
 
What do you think of the evolution of vampires in popular culture over the years? From Bram Stoker's blood-thirsty Dracula, who was based on the cruel prince of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler, to the sparkling vampires from Twilight, the vampire species has sure changed a lot, don't you think?

By the way, here is the famous Bran Castle, in Transilvania, where Count Dracula is said to have reigned as an undead being:



Not as scary as in the movies, is it?
I hate thje fact that she ruined a perfectly ok book by making vampires SPARKLE. it's so stupid. I'm a vampire Bella.
Oh...cool.
Wanna see me go out into the sun.
You can see me sparkle.
 

greekgoddess31

Active Member
I think it is somewhat humorous that vampires have gone to being super scary bloodsuckers to being super sexy marriage material. I wonder where the paradigm shift from one extreme to the other happened?
 

Enertia

Member
When I first saw the movie Twilight I had never read the books. When it came to the part where Edward gets in the sun and sparkles I just thought he was super sweaty. I did not realize the sun apparently turns vampires into a disco ball. Kind of a dumb idea, if you ask me. Vampires are suppose to sizzle and burn, not sparkle!
 

magickz

Active Member
I was fascinated from an early age and in high school I did a mini-thesis on Vlad Țepeș. It led me into the next write up I did on a few other semi-similar pieces.
 

Nadai

Active Member
Sparkley vampires are pretty hilarious.
It's intersting how ideas differ where Prince Vlad Dracul III is concerned. He was considered a great hero in his time and still is today. Because of his ferocity and the stories of his torture techniques, he was able to keep the Ottoman Empire at bay. Who was the real vampire was the Lady Countess Elizabeth Bathory de Esced. She was a Hungarian countess who was actually known for torturing her servants, eating their flesh, and drinking their blood.
Torture methods were believed to included: Severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death. The burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genetalia. Biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other body parts. Freezing to death. Surgery on victims, often fatal. Starving of victims. Blood draings by way of spikes. And sexual abuse.
Apparently one day a servant girl was brushing her hair and made the mistake of pulling too hard. The countess struck the girl so hard that she drew blood, some of which splattered on the countess. When she cleaned the blood away she saw that her skin had become smoother. From that point on she and her voodoo servant began collecting young girls. She opened a school for girls, non of which ever received any education or were ever seen again. She would torture them and try to draw as much blood from them as possible then bathe in it. Eventually, as corpses began to pile up and the female population began to dwindle, she was discovered and arrested. Her voodoo servant was put to death immediately after her trial(her fingers were ripped out with hot pokers before she was burned at the stake), but because Bathory was a countess, she was sentenced to house arrest, against the King's wishes. Unfortunately, without her supply of young virgin blood(according to the legend) she died shortly after her incarceration(4 years). Because there was a great deal of untouched food found in her room no one knows exactly when she died. A book was later found, written by Lady Bathory, listing 650 women killed between the years of 1585 and 1610(the book was later lost)! Though a few believed that the case of the countess was a conspiracy brought on by politics (she was an extremely well educated woman with a great deal of wealth and power) several testimonies said otherwise. Upon her arrest three women were discovered in her possession, one dead, one dying, and one severely injured.
She was a TRUE vampire.
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
Nadai, I assume you probably mean Vlad Dracula III, who should not be confused with his father, Vlad Dracul II. They were both members of the Order of the Dragon, along with Dracula's two brothers. His mother I am not sure, but I think she was a member of the Order as well.

Here's something I just learned. Draconist or Dracul was what a member of this Order was called, and the son of Dracul was called... DRACULA!
Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler#Names.

Two other paragraphs worth looking at are Family and Order of the Dragon, under Vlad II Dracul:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_II_Dracul#Family. Just that they're interesting, or I think they are anyway.
 

Nadai

Active Member
Nadai, I assume you probably mean Vlad Dracula III, who should not be confused with his father, Vlad Dracul II. They were both members of the Order of the Dragon, along with Dracula's two brothers. His mother I am not sure, but I think she was a member of the Order as well.

Here's something I just learned. Draconist or Dracul was what a member of this Order was called, and the son of Dracul was called... DRACULA!
Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler#Names.

Two other paragraphs worth looking at are Family and Order of the Dragon, under Vlad II Dracul:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_II_Dracul#Family. Just that they're interesting, or I think they are anyway.

Yes, thank you. I did misspell his name *Dracula*
I actually learned a great deal about the late prince a couple of years ago when the History channel did a special on him. He had a very interesting, but sad history and his death was particularly unfortunate.
 

Allie-Gator

Member
I may have to check that one out. I have read a LOT of vampire novels in my time and they were scary at one time. I've never read anything like what passes for a vampire novel these days. I recently got to watch the original vampire movie from the 30's and they had the same idea that I did about vampires.
 
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