Immortal Affairs by Ariel Moniz
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University of Hawai‘i at Hilo HOHONU 2015 Vol. 13 Hallab takes a deeper look into this essential “otherness” Immortal Affairs of vampires that makes them so enthralling. “The vampire Ariel Moniz has mythical significance as an in-between creature of English 200D this and the 'other' world, hinting to us that such a world Fall 2014 might exist, for the very reason that the vampire refuses to go there” (6). The concepts of life and death are Vampires may very well be immortal. The eternal, as they represent an inescapable cycle that all question of if they exist in our physical world or not has mere mortals must pass through. The vampire's ability to no effect on their longevity and the role that they have be the proverbial clog in such a cosmic wheel is unlikely played in literature and therefore, upon our society as a to lose its ability to grasp the minds of humanity any time whole. Literature, especially fiction in all its forms, has soon. evolved over time and across nations and so the vampire Vampirism and its common attributes go very has inevitably followed. The legend of the vampire far back, to before there was the word “vampire,” which sprung from many sources across the globe spanning compacted the characteristics that we currently know human history and so it continues to evolve, shifting to so well into one being. Many mythologies carry figures fit the anxieties and mysteries of the past and the future. with vampiric traits. Kali is a blood-drinking mother There has been perhaps no creature as aided in world goddess in the Hindu religion while Yama is the Tibetan domination as the vampire, which has managed to make lord of Death (Twitchell 7). In Egyptian mythology, there its way into every genre imaginable, from romance to is a warrior goddess named Sekhmet who drinks blood biographies. (Skal 12). It is clear that these connections have been The concept of the vampire as we know it today made on the basis of two of the currently most observed has steadily evolved over time and place. Tales and ideas traits of vampire kind: immortality and a thirst for of vampirism can be found long before what we know as blood. Vampirism has even been harkened to resemble “literature” ever came into being. In her book The Lure the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, due to its of the Vampire, Milly Williamson insists that they are underlying dark, sexual themes and otherworldliness “personifications of their age…always changing so that (Hallab 6). their appeal is dramatically generational” (29). There are Mythology steadily worked its way into folklore, many ideas of why the vampire has persisted within the where the vampire took more of a solid form, but still human psyche for so long. In Vampire God: The Allure varied greatly across cultures. A vampire could be of the Undead in Western Culture, Mary Y. Hallab states virtually anything, and be created by an absurd variation that, “the fascination of the vampire lies in his being of things, and therefore, could be extinguished in just both human and supernatural” (4). There is perhaps an as many ways. In Greece, there was a creature called element of truth to this, as we can see a similar undying the lamia, which was a female demon who drank the fascination with zombies—creatures that are also both blood of children (Skal 12). These demons later became human and something completely out of the realm of the more popularly referred to as succubae, female demons laws of nature as we know them. that drained the life force of men through sex. This belief In Matthew Beresford's From Demons to followed the Greek culture to Rome, where lamia, also Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth, known as striges or mormos, was believed to be followers he also acknowledges that the vampire as we know of the dark idol Hecate, goddess of witches (Beresford it has drastically changed over time and attributes its 20). The labartu of Babylonia and the aswang of the persistence in our world to the feature that seems to Philippines also drank the blood of children (Beresford unify all versions of the vampire as we know it: fear 20). In mythology, and in the dawn of folklore as we (12). Although not all vampires are as “scary” as they know it, vampires were mainly of a demonic nature. once were, they still breed fear, especially that of death James B. Twitchell defines them as “a demonic spirit and its ambiguously captivating antithesis, immortality. in a human body who nocturnally attacks the living, a Mary Y. Hallab attributes this ongoing fascination with destroyer of others, a preserver of himself” (7). the vampire to people's inability to accept death (4). It is Even though some of these vampiric creatures death's finality that many people have a hard time facing were of a demonic origin, there were many things that head-on. There is something both terrifying and soothing mortals could do to become, willingly or not, one of the about a loved one being able to return from the grave. undead. Most of these had to do with the church, which Perhaps part of the fear of this scenario is based on the used local superstitions of all kinds as the groundwork guilt that one experiences from not being able to come to suit their ideas of morality (Twitchell 14). Examples to terms with such a basic cosmic force. This may prove of these included not being buried in unconsecrated true ten-fold in today's society, in which it is a common ground, which could be a result of committing suicide, belief that one can prevent death as long as they know dying unbaptized, or being excommunicated (Twitchell how (Hallab 6). 9). Copulating with a demon, being born as the seventh Vampires help bridge that in-between space child of the same sex, being born on Christmas, or even of life and death that causes humans so much anxiety. being born with abnormal teeth were also signs that you 43 University of Hawai‘i at Hilo HOHONU 2015 Vol. 13 may be, or become, a vampire (Twitchell 9). These are we have” (Twitchell ix). From the way that the vampire only a few of the endless possibilities that folklore tied to has transcended the centuries, this is surely not far off. the curse of vampirism. It is clear to see that most of these Perhaps the most significant change that took place over “signs” of evil were raised by the church and the age-old the eighteenth to the nineteenth century concerning issue of social peculiarity (Twitchell 9). Of course, some the vampire in literature was the change from “bloated tales did extend beyond “explainable” reasoning, such peasant” to the “suave aristocrat” (Hallab 7). Vampires as what may be considered one of the oddest concepts went from being superstitious explanations of things concerning vampires, which was the belief that even such as the sometimes startling stages of decomposition fruit, in particular, watermelons and pumpkins—could and premature burial, to creatures that lived in the minds in fact become vampires (Beresford 10). and works of writers and thinkers, taking on metaphoric Folklore was not able to specifically define importance and allowing people to really “meet” the the vampire, because it was based in varying cultural creature that had so long been on the outskirts of human beliefs and superstitions. These were somewhat bridged knowledge. by Christianity, solidifying the themes of blood and Carol A. Senf states that, “the literary vampire immortality (Twitchell 13). This was perhaps the reason originated during a period when Romantic literature why vampires were often closely related with a large host emphasized the power of the individual” (144). This of other “evil” beings, including witches, werewolves, changed the background of the vampire from a pawn and ghosts (Hallab 1). Some believed that those who were in the battle between God and Satan and gave vampires werewolves in life became vampires when they died individualized and personalized issues, making them (Beresford 25). There can be an etymological connection appear somewhat more human than they previously had made between the Turkish word for witch, uber and the (Williamson 31). This finally brought the definition of the Slavic upir or upyr, which lent itself later to the word as vampire more clearly to “a human that does not die” we know it today, vamyr, or more commonly, vampire (Hallab 10). (Beresford 8). Perhaps the most important defining feature Matthew Beresford attributes the engraining of the vampire of folklore is the fact that they were most of the vampire into literature to four main texts: The often peasants, something that changed dramatically as Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori, Varney, The Vampire they made the leap to modern literature (Skal 22). (1845-1847) by James Malcolm Rymer, Carmilla (1871) In The Vampire in Nineteenth Century English by Sheridan Le Fanu, and Dracula (1879) by Bram Literature, Carol A. Senf states that, “initial changes in Stoker (Beresford 115). The Vampyre is often considered the folklore vampire came during the Enlightenment” the first vampire story in which the vampire appears (144). The Enlightenment was a period that began in as an aristocratic figure (Beresford 116). The story is the seventeenth century and continued to the end of known to be very macabre and fitting with the style the eighteenth century. Also known as “The Age of of the time, for the vampire is the victor, after killing Reason,” it was a time when people began to think of many innocents (Beresford 119).