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RIGHT TURN ONLY!! - Bleach Holic


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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:13 am Reply with quote
Youkai Warrior wrote:
That is partially true. It depends what books with vampires that you read. Blood sucking has been made into something sexual. In real European folklore, however vampires did indeed drink blood (not for sex) (they were also know for eating raw meat, as they are demonic carnivores). Vampires targeted humans of any age and gender. Blood is a vampire's food source, just like how bats drink blood. In many vampire books, it is a male vampire who preys upon a female human, thus making it seem sexual. But in folklore, a vampire would prey upon males and females, young and old. They particularly preyed upon virgins because they were considered "clean". In modern media, they have turned the vampire into a sex fiend, rather than a fiend. I mean, in all honesty, sex is not scary (I prefer the blood guzzling vampire who attacks anyone, by the way), which may be why the vampire image has changed. They are actually alot more frightening than what you see in the media. After all, they are monsters, not humans.


Oh absolutely! The original vampires from Eastern Europe are disgusting walking corpses, and you still get interpretations that match that; I'm thinking 40 Days of Night here.

But the overtones of sexual domination, penetration, and bloodplay, in the hands of repressed Victorians - for whom sex was seen as "dangerous" - started to take on sexual overtones in works like Dracula or Carmilla. And as a result lots of works ever since maintain the metaphor. Think Twilight, where Edward's desire to bite her and Bella's desire to be bitten pretty much stands in for teenage sexual urges, which they both must resist until theyr'e married (after which she becomes a vampire as well as having sex). The bite scene between spoiler[Angel and Buffy] in the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer also applies.

My impression of Kurozuka was that it went with the later, sexualized interpretation. Personally, I don't have a preference for which version you go with; the one scares the hell out of me, the other can be rather hot if done right (so not talking about Twilight here).
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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:33 am Reply with quote
Youkai Warrior wrote:
But in folklore, a vampire would prey upon males and females, young and old. They particularly preyed upon virgins because they were considered "clean". In modern media, they have turned the vampire into a sex fiend, rather than a fiend. I mean, in all honesty, sex is not scary (I prefer the blood guzzling vampire who attacks anyone, by the way), which may be why the vampire image has changed. They are actually alot more frightening than what you see in the media. After all, they are monsters, not humans.


I think this is where the whole sex thing stemmed from, them being monsters, and not at all human. A lot of those old tales had them as completely different from human from the get go with no human origins, but then others have it so every day people are suddenly given this blood urges they can't control, evil or not, giving it a bit of a romantic aspect, and causing people to even feel bad for the poor monster at times, and also making someone wonder if they still have other human urges.

Either way, sex or just predator, I like vamps as long as they're well written, which seems to be lacking in the mainstream lately.
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UtenaAnthy



Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Posts: 694
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:38 pm Reply with quote
DavidShallcross wrote:
Mohawk52 wrote:
It's all Christmas stock now with us in the UK. We won't have a holiday until then.

They haven't figured how to commercialize Guy Fawkes Day?


All that really involves is fireworks and your typical sugary and/or deep fried festival food offerings, and considering the fear of somebody catching on fire and the dislike of seeing one's pets need to be tranquilised, fireworks don't get that big an advertising push. Plus, christmas, when set apart from the religious aspects (and I actually don't celebrate it aside from fitting in with others' vacations and parties/dinners and the sale prices and widespread availability of mince pies because I don't believe in the religious aspects, but I'm talking about the popular view) is mostly associated with friends and family and presents, where as Guy Fawkes' day involves burning an effigy to death... it's a little less cosy.
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