And Things that Go Bump in the Night

I’m pretty nostalgic for home this week, and its all because of Halloween.

Halloween is probably one of my absolute favorite holidays, and one that is, unfortunately, not widely celebrated in Japan. It seems like something they would absolutely love here, seeing as costumes are mandatory, but it is one western activity they have not appropriated. Yes, I have been wearing a costume to work all week, and teaching Japanese kids the joys of free candy, but its not quite the same aura of the macabre and atmosphere of celebration as home. And I find myself missing it.

So I’ve been trying to get into the holiday spirit, so to say, by planning a costume for Saturday night, listening to creepy The Decembrists’s songs, and skimming entertainment and pop culture blogs for news of the season.

But during my internet travels, I’ve run across an innumerable amount of articles about how vampires are the new “cool” thing. Seriously, every entertainment or news site has something written about it like it’s a brand new cultural phenomenon. Maybe its because it’s the close to beginning of the new TV season, maybe its because (apparently) the new twilight movie is coming out late fall, or maybe its because Halloween is literally right around the corner. Either way, the popularity of several franchises with a premise surrounding vampires have gotten all the media and entertainment blogs buzzing, trying to dissect the fascination, as if such a thing is new.

I almost want to ask where the hell they’ve been.

Now as someone who was a not so secret fan of the late 90s cult favorite, Buffy the Vampire the Slayer, I know that the vampire premise is fascinating, and the supernatural gave the writers license to explore real life issues in a fun and entertaining way. And while I found Twilight inanely stupid (I have to agree with my Aunt’s comments that the movie didn’t have enough blood or killing; I also found the lead more creepy stalker than romantic hero), the insane popularity just speaks to the interest that the genre holds.

But I repeat, this is not new.

Since Bram Stoker first put his pen to paper, Vampire stories have become its own genre in Western Literature. Bram shook up Victorian sensibilities by humanizing and, in fact, sexualizing the Vampire mythos, but that same interpretation has been a facet of fiction since then. And after Anne Rice, the mythology has evolved the vampire into, literally, a human with fangs. Someone who is inherently human, but uninhibited by the trappings of morality or self control.

So of course its appealing.

But who am I to really dissect why? I will never understand the appeal of the neutered, sparkly vampires of Twilight. But I do know that Buffy will always have a special place in my DVD collection. And that once I actually gave in to several instigators and watched it, True Blood has become one of my new favorite shows. (It truly is, as Alan Ball the creator, described it, “popcorn TV for smart people.”) So my attempt is not to explain, but merely balk at the media outlets surprise at the fact that vampires are cool.

I thought that was a well established fact?

So my musings turned into haphazard research, in which I discovered several interesting facts about vampires. So in honor of Halloween (and because I seriously love lists), I would like to share my findings, which I have comprised into a tiny list entitled:

Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Vampires

1. The original vampires of folklore were not the pale, gaunt, sinisterly attractive creatures of modern times. In traditional tales, vampires are described as bloated creatures with ruddy or purplish skin, with blood seeping from their mouth and nose. Very sexy.

2. Every language has its own word for it, but our word Vampire comes from the German Vampir, which in turn was adopted from the Serbian word вампир/vampir.

3. Indeed, as with the word, every culture all over the world for the last millennia has some form of vampire myth. Though our popular modern interpretation originates from the 18th century Southeastern European tradition, there are myths from every country throughout time. For example:

- The Persians were the first civilization to have tales of blood drinking demons, as depicted on ancient pottery shards.
- Ancient Babylonians believed in the Lilitu, a demon who lived on the blood of babies. (This is actually where Lilith of Hebrew folklore originates, but she was less picky about whose blood she subsisted on.)
- The Greeks and Romans believed in the empusae, a demonic bronze footed creature. She would transform into a young woman and seduce men, drinking their blood as they slept.
- In the Hindi tradition, India has the vetala, ghouls that inhabit corpses, drink blood, and constantly outwit their captors.
- In West Africa, the Ashani people believe in the asanbosom, vampiric creatures with iron teeth and claws that attack from above.
- In the Philippines, there are tales of the mandurugo, or “blood sucker.” It takes the form of an attractive girl by day, developing wings and a long, hollow threadlike tongue at night. Kind of like a really killer mosquito.
- In Chinese folklore, there is the Jiang Shi, reanimated corpses that hop around, killing people to absorb their life essences. They are created when an animal leaps over a corpse.

4. No matter the country, Vampires have OCD. In most folk beliefs, if they come across small grains, they have to impulsively count each and every one. In Europe, this meant poppy seeds or millet, in China and India it was sacks of rice.

5. According to legend, the most foolproof method for finding a vampire’s grave is leading a virgin boy through a graveyard on a virgin stallion. The horse would balk at the grave.

6. Vampire hunting societies still exist, though largely for social reasons. ( Of course, I am hard pressed to imagine what those reasons may be.)

7. The most recently recorded case of suspected vampirism in America was in 1892 in Exeter, Rhode Island. When 19-year-old Mercy Brown died, her father removed her from her tomb two months after death, cut out her heart, and burned it.

8. One of the most recent highly publicized cases of vampire activity was in 1970 in London, England. Two young men claimed a vampire lived in Highgate cemetery, and spurned a massive hunt by amateur “vampire hunters.” (Though perhaps they were all there for the social reasons.)

9. It is believed by some that belief in Vampires come from the attempts by pre-industrial societies to explain the natural, but them to seemingly unnatural, process of decomposition. Corpses swell with gas, and blood can ooze from the mouth. This makes them appear “plump” and “well-fed,” and as if they were in fact feasting upon blood. The skin and gums retract, making it appear as if their teeth, hair, and nails “grew.” And when a corpse was staked, the release of the previous mentioned gases could cause a groan-like sound, as if the “creature” was dying.

10. No folkloric tradition ever expressly states that vampires are either immortal or harmed by sunlight. Both suppositions are purely based on subsequent vampire literature.

11. The modern incarnation of the vampire as an aristocrat is believed to actually be a socio-political criticism of the Ancien Régime. A count alone in his castle, only emerging to feed on his peasantry, is symbolic of the parasitic nature of the old European ruling class. In 1979, filmmaker Werner Herzog took this political interpretation one step further, by having the young estate agent become the next vampire after Dracula. In other words, the capitalist bourgeois is the next parasitic class after the demise of the peerage system. (Now imagine him explaining all this in an esoteric rant with his self-possessed tone and surprisingly lilting accent. The thought makes me giggle.)

12. The charismatic and sophisticated aristocratic vampire did not actually begin with Bram Stoker. Though Dracula spawned the modern literary genre, the first vampire with these characteristics appeared in 1819 in a book called The Vampyre by John Polidori. Polidori was the personal physician of Lord Byron, and his vampire, Lord Ruthven, was based on his illustrious patient.

13. Varney the Vampire, a Victorian penny dreadful published in 1847 (so called because it was both inexpensive and grisly in content), solidified many tropes of vampire mythology we have today. He had fangs which left two puncture wounds, hypnotic powers, and superhuman strength. But most importantly, he was the first example of the archetype of the “sympathetic vampire.” In other words, a vampire who detests his condition; a victim of fate who is nonetheless a slave to it. It was the first instance of the tragic anti-hero that the vampire is today.

14. Dracula is a major character in more movies than any other character but Sherlock Holmes.

I lay full blame at the feet of Joseph Campbell for the compilation of the above list, as well as inspiring my interest in connecting worldwide folklore and tracing the mythos of an archetype through literature. But what can I say? Vampires are cool. Everyone is saying so nowadays. And researching them was a hell of a lot of fun. I just hope you enjoyed reading this even half as much as I enjoyed researching it.

Happy Halloween :)