Vrykolakas…Strigoi…A Vampire By Any Other Name…

On Sunday (was it Sunday?), I talked about angels.  Today, I want to talk about vampires.  Why, you may ask?  Well, several reasons, the foremost being that today is Bela Lugosi’s birthday, and as you know, he was the most famous portrayer of Dracula on-screen (though he was kind of hokey).

It’s been interesting to watch the latest revival of interest in vampires with the publication of the “Twilight” series.  Of course, Twilight seems to have seeped its way into every marketing gimmick ever imagined – candy, cards, music, clothes, games, posters, jewelry, bookmarks, switchplates, and heaven only knows what else.  Kelsea said it seems to be taking over the universe.  I haven’t read the book, but I have seen the movie, and I am missing the appeal.  Unless it just sparks the imagination from a romantic standpoint – the whole thing of two people who meet and feel destined to be together, who seem to understand each other so well, who seem to be irresistably drawn to each other, who feel they want to be together, protecting and supporting each other, for eternity.  Ok, that sounds pretty good when I put it that way.

Just ignore that eensey detail that one of them happens to be undead.

But this is not a Twilight rant.  Nope, I’m not going to let Twilight take over MY blogging universe.  This is about vampires in general and my rambling thoughts.

I’ve had a fascination with vampires since childhood.  I was younger than Kelsea when one of my favorite Christmas gifts was “The Annotated Dracula.”  I still have it.  It’s a wonderful book, the original Bram Stoker manuscript with footnotes out the wazoo. 

In 5th grade, my English teacher showed our class the 1922 silent German film “Nosferatu” with Max Schreck in the role of the vampire.  Mrs. Bugg (my English teacher) thrilled us with the rumor that Schreck actually WAS a vampire.  I’ll allow that he is one creepy dude in the film, in his previous and subsequent roles, and apparently in real life as well.  Anyway, that film has always remained in my mind.  It was truly vivid….those fingernails…those teeth…ewww.  A real classic.

Bela never lived up to my expectations of a vampire.  But most other film vampires didn’t do the trick either – Christopher Lee?  No.  John Carradine?  Nope.  Louis Jourdan?  Closer (much closer).   And then we got to Frank Langella, and he was wonderful.  Handsome, suave, romantic – my dear friend Lisa Rohaly and I just adored him, and stayed out way too late one night in Columbus, Ohio to sit through the movie twice. 

There it is – that fantasy-romance thing that currently appeals to teens, showing up in me when I was a teen.  Hmmm.

Of course, as an adult, one knows such things more than likely aren’t real.  There are people who are metaphorical bloodsuckers.  And there are cultists who are sort of vampire-wannabes.   And there’s some interesting viral stuff out there, purported to be from real vampires (who, by the by, are not undead), like this site: http://vampirewebsite.net/index.html.

I find it interesting that my daughter has a similar fascination with vampires and general supernatural stuff.  It’s not something I intentionally focused on with her, although she has “the shine”, too, so it may just be innate for her, as it seems to have been for me.  I will say she has more stomach for the disgusting side of creepiness than I do, like theatrical haunted houses and horror flicks.

Do I know if vampires exist?  Nope.  I know the mythology.  And that, as with angels, almost every culture has a touch of vampire lore.

I know that I have seen people on the streets of New York who were so fascinatingly vampirical in their everyday appearance that they took my breath away and I literally could not stop staring at them.  And that was really wierd for me, so wierd that I remember it now, almost 20 years later.

I know that, as Shakespeare said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  (That’s from Hamlet, if you’re not up on your Shakespeare.)

I know that there are many kinds of energy in this universe and, just as with angels, a vampiric energy could likely be used for good or for evil.

I know that, even though Halloween is not my gig,  this is a spooky time of year, and it’s fun to speculate.