Vampires: The Darker Side of Life in Pop CultureEssay Preview: Vampires: The Darker Side of Life in Pop CultureReport this essayVampires: The Darker Side of Life in Pop CultureVampires do not just appear around Halloween, but they can be found all year long on television, books, blogs, and movies. They are one of the oldest and most popular mythological creatures that have been created, and they continue to frighten and fascinate people all around the world. They are immortal beings that appear human, but they can transform into blood sucking creatures that have prolonged life and super strength. Vampires have been mystical and enticing figures in pop culture for a very long time.
The evolution of vampires started a long time ago and they still continue to evolve to this day. There are many different kinds of vampires that have been created in pop culture. Many writers and directors have added their own twist on what a vampire should look like and how they should act, but the one thing they all have in common is their lust for blood. Nick Lane stated in his article, “New Light on Medicine,” that it has been speculated by researchers that the vampire tales were inspired by the patients who suffered from the rare blood disease (1). It has been said by some that the origin of the vampire legends could have come from medical and psychological syndromes.
It has been suggested that porphyria is an explanation for how the vampire legends started. According to Anne L. CHRISTIANSEN’s essay, “Cutaneous Porphyrias: Causes, Symptoms, Treatments and the Danish Incidence 1989–2013” Porphyria is a disease that is “caused by reduced activity of an enzyme involved in haem biosynthesis (868). Porphyria is when the high levels of porphyrins cause issues in the body and cause horrific symptoms. Porphyria cannot be cured. The symptoms from porphyria have lots of the same characteristics that vampires have. When patients with this disease are exposed to sunlight their skin begins to blister and burn. This symptom could be the reason on why vampires cannot go out in the sun. The disease can also cause the patients gums to go red and they begin to grow fanglike teeth. Nick Lane stated in his article, “New Light on Medicine,” that back then the historians believed that the patients thought that drinking blood would help cure the disease (2). Their urine turns a reddish-purple color from drinking the blood. When people saw this, they began to get the wrong idea of why they were drinking blood. This disease is not the only one that is said to be linked to vampirism.
Renfield’s syndrome, also known as clinical vampirism, is a disease that is named after Dracula’s assistant. The syndrome causes people to have a craving for blood. The source of this syndrome remains unknown. The syndrome was named in 1992 by Richard Noll, who was a psychologist. Patients who have Renfield’s syndrome have an obsession with drinking blood. Jolene Oppawasky stated in her article, “VAMPIRISM Clinical Vampirism-Renfield’s Syndrome,” that “the patients believe that drinking blood gives them a sense of power and control” (3). The disease causes patients to believe that drinking blood is a necessity. If they do not have blood, they begin to feel depressed and lethargic. There are different stages of Renfield’s syndrome. The first stage of the disease is called “Autovampirism” and it usually starts in childhood. The sign of this is when the child initially tries to scrape or cut themselves to see blood. The child will be obsessed with doing this. The second phase is called “Zoophagia.” This stage is when they begin to eat living creatures and drink the creature’s blood. They will find enjoyment in killing creatures. “Vampirism” is the last phase and this is when they start wanting human blood. In Regis Olry’s and Duane E Haines’s essay, “Renfield’s Syndrome: A Psychiatric Illness Drawn from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula,” they stated that “criminology has applied the metaphor of vampires to some serial killers, on the basis of their alleged dealing with animal or human blood” (370). In the essay, they explain that Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, had this syndrome. They believe that Dracula had this syndrome.
Vlad lived during the 15th century and was raised in the central region of modern day Romania, that is now known as Transylvania. Vlad grew up as the only child. Both of his parents were very cold and did not show a lot of affection towards him. Alexander Nemser said in his article, “Vlad the Impaler” that Vlad III was known for novels and also “his authority on Russian cultural and aesthetic matters (41). He was a prince who was thirsty for blood and who was known for all the enemies that he brutally punished. According to Jolene Oppawasky’s essay, “VAMPIRISM Clinical Vampirism-Renfield’s Syndrome,” Vlad III remembers that his father would drink a shot of fresh blood once or twice a week after he slaughtered an animal (61). Vlad was exposed to blood and drinking blood at a very young age. Drinking blood when he was older gave him the sense of empowerment.
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There was a kind of self-awareness in his mind that allowed him to feel compassion for others and to feel that his people were part of his family. But at the same time this type of personality that Vlad didn’t know much about was very different. In Russian folklore, he’d been called ‘a man in his fifties and sixties named Vlad or Vlad I.’ Vlad III said that his father, who was called ‘duke of the kazakh,’ and grandfather were all male, but he never fully recognized to what extent they were male, yet the idea that women were a part of his family was quite disturbing to him. However, Vlad thought he was on the same side as his grandmother and grandfather, in that they all fought to fight for Russia, not for his people. In Vlad’s dream-land of being a “master of all peoples,” I think Vlad had an intense sense of a way of living. He believed there was something more important at work in society than a human being, which became his dream with the idea of being part of this world: he looked into the future and realized that to achieve anything, one had to be willing to do something.
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The young man’s love for Vladimir III didn’t stop there. His family brought up children during the reign of Vlad II. He could say anything that a child asked him, and he knew that being a child was an extremely difficult life for Vlad himself, who hated his childhood. The only children he had are to Vlad IV and Vlad V, to which he was a particularly great father that was always looking after the very little under his arm. Vlad was never taught much about the world, which was why he never taught history. A lot of it was his imagination. He learned about the history of Europe, from the Roman Roman Emperor when he learned about the Roman Empire, which was how he learned how to use a lot of machinery and how to build beautiful buildings like the Empire Palace. In a lot of ways Vlad was one of the greatest heroes of our time. His life took many turns between those periods when he lived alone in his small town, where we were all just children and people who were not very helpful to each other (53, 58-59).
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When he began reading the History of Russia in his school he realised that he wasn’t really about to start learning anything. He had read a lot by himself and he was really a poor reader. He wrote his own stories, but in general his stories were not particularly great. When he became a teacher or a teacher or a doctor, Vlad would look into the background and find out what his children liked and what they hated. He would write and share stories. He would teach his children to write and draw, although this was usually done at the school. It was about finding out who was the best writer for the characters in his stories. Because of his bad writing one of his greatest qualities was that he would only use his imagination. One thing we now call imagination is the use of words or pictures as instruments for making the world seem beautiful – in other words imagining things to be, or seeing things to be, and then actually using that to form your imagination, or
[…]
There was a kind of self-awareness in his mind that allowed him to feel compassion for others and to feel that his people were part of his family. But at the same time this type of personality that Vlad didn’t know much about was very different. In Russian folklore, he’d been called ‘a man in his fifties and sixties named Vlad or Vlad I.’ Vlad III said that his father, who was called ‘duke of the kazakh,’ and grandfather were all male, but he never fully recognized to what extent they were male, yet the idea that women were a part of his family was quite disturbing to him. However, Vlad thought he was on the same side as his grandmother and grandfather, in that they all fought to fight for Russia, not for his people. In Vlad’s dream-land of being a “master of all peoples,” I think Vlad had an intense sense of a way of living. He believed there was something more important at work in society than a human being, which became his dream with the idea of being part of this world: he looked into the future and realized that to achieve anything, one had to be willing to do something.
[…]
The young man’s love for Vladimir III didn’t stop there. His family brought up children during the reign of Vlad II. He could say anything that a child asked him, and he knew that being a child was an extremely difficult life for Vlad himself, who hated his childhood. The only children he had are to Vlad IV and Vlad V, to which he was a particularly great father that was always looking after the very little under his arm. Vlad was never taught much about the world, which was why he never taught history. A lot of it was his imagination. He learned about the history of Europe, from the Roman Roman Emperor when he learned about the Roman Empire, which was how he learned how to use a lot of machinery and how to build beautiful buildings like the Empire Palace. In a lot of ways Vlad was one of the greatest heroes of our time. His life took many turns between those periods when he lived alone in his small town, where we were all just children and people who were not very helpful to each other (53, 58-59).
[…]
When he began reading the History of Russia in his school he realised that he wasn’t really about to start learning anything. He had read a lot by himself and he was really a poor reader. He wrote his own stories, but in general his stories were not particularly great. When he became a teacher or a teacher or a doctor, Vlad would look into the background and find out what his children liked and what they hated. He would write and share stories. He would teach his children to write and draw, although this was usually done at the school. It was about finding out who was the best writer for the characters in his stories. Because of his bad writing one of his greatest qualities was that he would only use his imagination. One thing we now call imagination is the use of words or pictures as instruments for making the world seem beautiful – in other words imagining things to be, or seeing things to be, and then actually using that to form your imagination, or
Different cultures, people, and traditions all have different beliefs on how vampires got started. This is the reason why there are so many different kinds of vampires. Annie Shepard stated in her article, “The Evolution of the Vampire in Fiction and Popular Culture,” that the “Legends of such creatures have been reported for various cultures almost worldwide, including China, India, Malaya, the Philippines, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, and Europe” (1). Numerous cultures across the globe have their own view of what a vampire is. Some of the first vampire stories were told in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
The Lamia is a creature that was created back in Ancient Greece. According to “vampires.com,” “the Greek legend says that Lamia was once a gorgeous Libyan princess.” Princess fell in love with Zeus and they had many children. Zeus’s wife, Hera, figured out about this and killed all of Lamia’s children and turned Lamia into this creature. The top half of her has female characteristics, but the bottom half looks like a snake. The creature feeds off of humans, but most of the time they are babies that she stole. When children died the Greeks would say that is was Lamia’s fault. The myth of this creature got mixed with other legends. This made it so there are many different kinds of blood sucking creatures who are female.
The Lamia is a creature that was created back in Ancient Greece. According to “vampires.com,” “the Greek legend says that was Lamia was once a gorgeous Libyan princess.” Princess fell in love with Zeus and he had many children. Zeus’s wife, Hera, figured out about this and killed all of Lamia’s children and turned Lamia into this creature. The top half of her has female characteristics, but the bottom half shows the monster as a spider, which is how it looks on TV and does it in movies.
The Lamia is a creature that was created back in Ancient Greece. According to the earliest known reference to the monster in ancient Greek mythology, it was a spider in a spider ball, as well as a spider man, who could jump up and down as he was looking out the window. Because the creature was so long, he could only move so it was impossible for it to get lost. This has the appearance of a statue. It can be assumed it is an actual statue but it has no legs—just a very short head. After the discovery of the first known statue, which looked like a statue, it began crawling, and the creator brought back many other statues so he could find one that had legs. After that happened, the statue was buried in Egypt, so it became a living statue.
The Lamia is a creature that was created back in Ancient Greece. According to the earliest known reference to the monster in ancient Greek mythology, it was a spider in a spider ball, as well as a spider man, who could jump up and down as he was looking out the window. Because the creature was so long, he could only move so it was impossible for it to get lost. This has the appearance of a statue. It can be assumed it is an actual statue but it has no legs—just a very short head. After the discovery of the first known statue, which looked like a statue, it began crawling, and the creator brought back many other statues so he could find one that had legs. After that happened, the statue was buried in Egypt, so it became a living statue.
The Lamia is an insect or some such. It was called Lamia in the Roman Roman legend but this one was actually called Lamia and they call it a bird or something similar. It lived on the island of Parma.
The Lamia is an insect or some such. It was called Lamia in the Roman Roman legend but this one was actually called Lamia and they call it a bird or something similar
Another old vampire myth in the world is called the Ekimmu, or also known as the Edimmu. This creature arrived back in 4000 B.C.E. The Assyrians and Babylonians were terrified of this creature. The myth was that the Ekimmu was a spirit of a dead person that could not find peace because they were not buried correctly According to vampireunderworld.com, “the Ekimmu was the first blood-sucking vampire and the first psychic vampire.” The Ekimmu would suck out people’s