Vampire Culture:
Vampire culture seems to be everywhere, at first I thought Twillight was just for young middle school and high school girls but even some of my friends and their moms are obsessed with it. On a personal note, I am not into science fiction at all so maybe that’s why this obsession seems to be a little weird for me. I found five articles that dealt with vampirism obsessions. The first two articles are from two journals. The first article is called “Cultural consumption of History and Popular Culture in Alternative Spiritualities” in the Journal of Consumer Culture and the second article is called “Vampire Gothic” and that is from the American Literary History journal. The last three articles are all found online.
The first article found in the journal of consumer culture was really interesting. It discussed how new age healing centers and other spirituality ‘products’ led to what is called consumer religions. It also talked about the church of scientology and science fiction religion and how religion plays a role in things such as the popularity of vampires but in a different way then we might think. Science Fiction as a genre stared in the nineteenth century with such books as Frankenstein. Teenagers and the society as a whole are now reading these types of books not just for scare but also for entertainment.
The article also mentioned some interesting facts, in relation that this obsession with monsters is not just an American thing. In the article it discussed a Star Wars Appreciation Society in which they had some sort of religion/theology moral compass called “A way to the Force by Yoda of Dabobah.” This group is located all the way in Australia and tried to ambush the 2001 national census.
I think that the more exotic, ‘vodoo’ type of entertainment attracts people because it is outside of the mainstream, or at least it once was. Our society is learning to accept things that were not once mainstream into our mainstream culture.
The second article I read was a little bit stranger but also a good source of information. Before doing this project I did not realize how much information there is about vampires and culture out there. The second article called ‘Vampire Gothic,” opened with a news story about a vampire cult, in which case had four of its members went to Florida to murder one of the girls’ parents. A local station that reported the incident also ran a special report on ‘the soul.’ This article also discussed growing popularity of such things as Halloween and movies like Silence of the Lamb and Stephen King films and such people as Jeffrey Dahmer. Also it is important to note about how sexuality plays a major role in the erotic horror of vampires.
The Newsweek article was an interview with True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard. One important idea that I got from this article was that Skarsgard is from Sweden and there and in Europe vampirism is popular. The “Love Bites” article mentioned some good points as well about how the “Twillight plot arc sells a pseudo-empowering fantasy (men as the sexual and moral gatekeepers, leaving women free to express their desires) while wholeheartedly embracing patriarchal norms.” (Seltzer). Lastly the New York Times article discussed similar topics of the history of the monster and what makes the vampire so special in comparison to other monsters.
Please respond with comments/questions in regards to the following questions:
A.) What is your favorite monster and why?
B.)Why do you personally believe that Twilight and other vampire shows are at an all-time high right now?
C.) Do you read Twilight or watch any vampire shows? Why or Why not?
D.) What do you think this obsession with vampires and monsters means about popular culture today?
