Some theorists argue that the vampire can be a symbol for hope. Explain how you believe this is possible: how can something that many view as a monster offer people hope?
Support what you are saying with at least two of the readings we have done this quarter. Engage with your peers. 250-400 words.
Due: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 by class time.
The vampire has been a symbol of fear and repulsion throughout history, but behind his sharp, pointy eyes and long, yellow fangs, can the vampire be a symbol of hope? Unfortunately, the media creates a negative image of the vampire through characters such as Dracula; however, it is not the media’s content that offers the purest form of the message; instead, according to McLuhan, it is the media itself that communicates the most comprehensive understanding of the vampire we know today. Behind his cruel actions and repulsive appearance, the vampire is a symbol of our inner desires. The vampire is powerful, immortal, sexy, and attractive. He gets what he wants, whenever he wants it, whether it is blood or sex. The vampire is glorified as a menace to society; however, we cannot deny our unexplainable attraction to this creature. Perhaps our fear for the vampire stems from our hope to one day become this creature. I mean, who would not want to be immune from death, have super strength and speed, and still be loved by thousands of fan girls?
ReplyDeleteHaraway talks about how the cyborg, which can be compared to the vampire in this case, is a symbol of feminism. She hopes for women to one day acquire the power and respect that cyborgs hold in our society. Although the cyborg is almost always associated with the male gender, at the same time, it is also a symbol for what women aim to become. Similarly, although the vampire is a symbol of havoc and violence, perhaps we hope to acquire the freedom that this creature is associated with. Maybe we are too afraid to admit our desire to become such a “repulsive” creature…
I think that our undeniable attraction to these creatures is grounded in the fact that society places a taboo on some of our most basic and instinctual desires. The vampire is a symbol of lust and love. We are too afraid to admit that each one of us has an instinctual sexual drive and basic primal needs. As a result, we created this monster deemed “unfit” for society, when in reality, we were looking to place our unexplored feelings and functions into a tangible entity. Unfortunately, the vampire was our victim. We mistakenly fear this creature, but how can we be afraid of a monster that is simply a reflection of a hidden part of ourselves? The vampire’s sole purpose in society is to hold these desires, so we feel like we have conquered our inner desires. We are tricking ourselves into being scared of the vampire.
I totally agree with Abi when he says that "behind his cruel actions and repulsive appearance, the vampire is a symbol of our inner desires. The vampire is powerful, immortal, sexy, and attractive". Vampire in popular culture today are extremely desirable - they are attractive, powerful, sexy, talented...everything that we, as humans, want to be. Most vampires in the media embrace who they are, like Dracula, who truly wants all the power in the world and believes he can have it by physically sucking the life and wealth out of people. However, there are many vampires out there in the media today that are extremely UNhappy with themselves, and this is where I see the vampire as a symbol for hope. For example, Edward Cullen hates that he was designed to kill - that this is his true purpose in life. He calls himself a "sick, masochistic lion". He wouldn't wish this upon anyone. However, we see Edward in the beginning of the Twilight saga as this vampire who doesn't appreciate himself at all, but by the end of the saga, we see that he even turns the love of his life into someone like himself. I could see this as being a symbol for hope because of his transformation from low self esteem to finally appreciating who he is and what he can offer to other people. To young people out there reading the books, I feel like it could teach a lesson about embracing your flaws and making the best out of it. I know that's cheesy, but I love love love Twilight.
ReplyDeleteI really also like how Abi said that "we are too afraid to admit that each one of us has an instinctual sexual drive and basic primal needs." This is so true. We create this vampire who seems to be so crazy and taboo and unlike us all, but honestly, I feel like this is what people strive for (not sucking blood obviously. Well, maybe if you're Don).
I agree with what Abi said, that the vampire has things that we as humans desire – immortality, sexiness, etc. I think that this goes along with McLuhan’s media ecology theory because the vampire not only tells a story, but also portrays an aspect of humanity. We read vampire novels and watch vampire book not only for the stories but also for the characters themselves. We find ourselves relating with characters like Edward Cullen, even though he is a “vampire” and we are “human”.
ReplyDeleteAnother element of hope is best seen in Dracula. As readers we find ourselves rooting for Mina and the men that fight to protect her, but Mina reminds us to think of Dracula. The hope in the story doesn’t only come from Mina’s purification at the end of the novel, but also from Dracula’s soul becoming free. Mina is now cleansed and able to return to her “normal life,” but there is so much more to the story. Dracula, whose soul has been tormented for centuries, is now finally able to find real peace and rest and enter into the afterlife. He is no longer forced to be undead, but his spirit can move on from a world in which it doesn’t belong. I think this contains a huge amount of hope because humans want peaceful afterlives and Dracula is able to manifest our desires into literature.
While the vampire is seen as a sign of destruction, death, and demise, it also contains many hopeful wishes. It illustrates the hope of immortality and power while also showing us that what we most seek is a life that ends peacefully.
Hope is quite an unusual trademark of humanity. It's positive, yet it is derived from uncertainty. With omniscience, hope becomes impossible; if humans had access to all knowledge, which includes knowledge of the future, we would then exactly what is going to happen. The eternal question of “what is going to happen tomorrow?” would be eternally answered. However, hope does indeed exist simply because that question cannot be answered. Because we are unable to know the answer, humans have the ability to think that the events that take place tomorrow will be beneficial towards our health and overall happiness. Since uncertainty is the underlying theme, the essential base, the absolute origin of hope, the real question becomes, “How is the vampire related to uncertainty?” This is a question that Halberstam confronts in both of the chapters that we read.
ReplyDeleteIn his first chapter, Halberstam says, “Within Gothic novels, I argue, multiple interpretations are embedded in the text, and part of the experience of horror comes from that meaning itself runs riot. Gothic novels produce a symbol for interpretive mayhem in the body of the monster.” Because in gothic novels, such as Dracula, multiple interpretations exist and “meaning itself runs riot”, we are naturally exposed to uncertainty. We have no idea what Dracula is going to do, and therefore we hope for the best. But, even more important than the uncertainty of Dracula's actions, is the uncertainty of the protagonists actions. It may be difficult to have hope for a clear cut monster, but it is far less difficult to rest our hope on the hero. Therefore, I argue that while the vampire, by itself, may not be a symbol for hope, it becomes a symbol when attached to a story with a protagonist. That really isn't saying all that much however, because isn't the vampire nothing without his story? Analyzing a vampire without a story is like looking through the lens of Rai's “monster as a punctum”. Only through an assemblage, only through a combination of parts are we able to fully identify, or for that matter, even partially able to identify the true nature of the monster. One of these parts that serves is an ingredient in this “assemblage” is the story and the protagonist. Only through these specific parts of the assemblage, are we able to extract hope. Nowadays, the line between protagonist and monster is progressively becoming blurrier and fuzzier, because in many cases the modern vampire is the protagonist. This makes it very difficult to separate the the various technologies that combine to form the monster, which in turn makes it difficult to decipher the uncertainty which gives rise to hope within the vampire.
I agree with Abi. He brings up another aspect of the relationship between hope and the vampire. He says, “Perhaps our fear for the vampire stems from our hope to one day become this creature.” I never really thought about this love square between fear, hope, the vampire, and the human. However, it makes quite a lot of sense. Uncertainty is still the beginning; the unknown aspect of the future and the role of the vampire within this unknown allow for the synthesis of hope. However, this hope then creates an ambiguous sense of fear within the human. I say ambiguous because the fear is thrown into the melting pot with sexual desire and improved physical and mental performance. We are torn between the negatives and the positives technologies that exist within the assemblage of the vampire. Fear arises regardless of this splitting, but the jagged nature of the splitting itself seems to inspire added fear. Regardless, however, it cannot be doubted that hope and the vampire are closely intertwined.
I believe that hope is a distinctive human trait. Even in the deepest, most depressing times, humans are always able to find hope in many situations. This holds true for the vampire as well. While the vampire doesn’t appear to be a symbol of hope on the surface, digging a little deeper reveals that the vampire not only represents our human fears, but also our human hopes. I agree with Abi when he says that “the vampire is powerful, immortal, sexy, and attractive.” This form of the vampire is much more evident in more recent works such as Interview with the Vampire and Twilight. Count Dracula himself isn’t very attractive, but his hypnotic gaze performs a similar function.
ReplyDeleteMcLuhan repeatedly states that the medium is the message and this is evident in vampire tales. In written works, the vampire tends to be less attractive than in films, but even without this attractiveness, there is still hope in the form of the vampire. I can’t think of a single person who wouldn’t want to be powerful and immortal, even at the high price of being a vampire. In fact, even the characters in the books have a hard time refusing the vampire. (SPOILER ALERT!) In Interview with a Vampire, Louis is in the lowest point of his life when approached by Lestat. He doesn’t want the pain of living anymore and wants it all to be done. Lestat offers him hope through vampirism. Louis accepts because the hope of the vampire draws him to its power. (SPOILERS END HERE!)
However, we can’t simply look at individual instances of the vampire to form our definitions. I agree with Eric when he said that “analyzing a vampire without a story is like looking through the lens of Rai's ‘monster as a punctum’”. We can’t look at a single point and expect that specific point to be the definition of the vampire. The same is in effect with hope. Hope is not a single point in time or space; it is a dynamic, flowing constant that will always exist as long as there is humanity to have hope and vessels, such as the vampire, are effective ways to create the sublime – the combination of horror and hope that attracts multitudes of people to the pages and screens showing these blood-sucking monsters.
Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.” ~ President Snow, The Hunger Games Movie
ReplyDeleteThe way to triumph fear is hope – a hope that we wouldn’t be harmed, that our friends and family will be spared, that the world wouldn’t fall to disease, natural disaster, or atrocities of mankind, and that the monsters can always be vanquished. Beneath the pale skin, behind the pointed teeth, and dazzling eyes we want to hope that we can obtain the vampire’s characteristics but fear the repressions society would hold of us.
Any major change to civilization – monogamy, abolition of slavery, equal rights, etc. were once seen as a menace to traditional society. As Abi said, “The vampire is glorified as a menace to society; however, we cannot deny our unexplainable attraction to this creature.” We always want what we cannot have. The same reason why we want the better car, we want to have the perfect body and look ageless. The vampire acts purely on impulses, in society we don’t and can’t because they violate societal norms. Jenkins talks about savage acts of brutality, resulting in “clinical vampirism” can be seen as complete acceptance of our primal selves.
The monster shows that balance between change and tradition, hope and fear. As Halberstam said the vampire “is the triumph of capital and the threat of revolution.” The vampire represents someone who acts on his instinctual sexual drive but unable to have a soul mate or marry a mortal (depending on the story). The vampire can acquire numerous wealth but finds no pleasure in using it. The vampire lives forever but is separated because he cannot grow close to others. We hope to become what we see as perfection but fear the outcome.
I disagree with Abi though – I think we are not tricking ourselves; we are scared of change and not being accepted.
How can the vampire, one of the most repulsive creations throughout history, a creature that literally sucks the life out of its victims, be a symbol of hope?
ReplyDeleteI think the vampire can be a symbol of hope, because it can be defeated. And, just as Katherine said, in a vampires defeat, his soul becomes free. Dracula, a creature who has been trapped in his body as a demon, an undead can find peace in the end. His defeat offers hope for humanity to conquer the evils within society and people themselves. At the same time it offers hope to the people who commit those evils that they can be saved in the end. That through their sins and faults, people can find salvation and ultimately peace.
In modern society, the vampire is no longer something that needs defeated. Vampires like Louis and Edward don’t need their souls to be saved. Despite what they are and the circumstances surrounding what they are, killings and demons, they are still human and good. This offers hope in the idea that circumstances do not determine the identity of a person. In modern societies, people do not worry so much about demons and salvation as the humanity of the person. Steph said that the vampire becomes a symbol for hope in their own distaste for themselves. This fits a more modern perspective and makes the vampire a symbol of hope in the simple fact that you can rebel against what you are, or what you were born as to become what you believe in. It gives man independence from their origins and a hope for the future no matter their start in life.
Seeing the vampire as a symbol of hope seems to be contradictory. But, when you think about it, it seems to make more sense. Like Haley said, the vampire can be seen as a symbol of hope because they can be defeated. The vampire is portrayed as an incredibly strong and immortal being, and yet it still has its weaknesses. In Dracula, Count Dracula can be considered a being that is totally and completely evil, and yet in the end he was conquered. This ability that humans have to destroy this source of evil gives a lot of hope, because then we can still believe that humans are able to triumph over evil rather than succumb to it. In another point, I agree with what Eric said in that the vampire is a symbol of hope because of the uncertainty that they represent. Halberstam said that “Gothic novels produce a symbol for interpretive mayhem in the body of the monster.” Dracula, being the monster in question, is something that is chaotic and unpredictable. This does not allow for any type of solid future predictions, but the fact that the future always remains unknown brings hope. Yes, there may be eternal doom lying in our futures, but we still have the ability to hope for a better future in which that doom (or evil vampire) is defeated because of the actions that we take. Ultimately, the vampire can be seen as both a symbol of hope and a symbol of despair, but the fact that there is still room for one to determine their own fate allows for seeds of hope to be sown within the myth of the vampire.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Abi that the vampire is a distillation of our inner desires. Subsequently, the vampire is a source of hope in that it embodies some of the big goals of humanity, like being more confident and increasing our life spans. I also agree with Katherine that this idea relates to MacLuhan’s theory of media ecology in which the medium is also a message. The vampire is a medium that communicates the message of hope by representing some of the most sought after human characteristics like a long life and allure. I also think that the potential of redemption makes the vampire a source of hope. The vampire is supposed to be a damned soul and yet some vampire narratives depict the redemption of the vampire via their good deeds. This suggest the potential for humans to redeem past offenses by suggesting that nothing is written in stone.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Haraway’s cyborg metaphor can be applied to Dracula’s relationship with the concept of hope. Even though, as discussed above, Dracula represents our inner desires and as such is a source of hope, he is also intended to invoke fear in normal human beings, which could be defined as the absence of hope. In this sense Dracula’s form seems to contradict his function the same way that Haraway sees the form of most feminists being in contradiction with their intended function. Subsequently, Dracula as a symbol of hope embodies the cyborg in that he is both a source and drain for hope.
However, I don’t think that the vampire is objectively a symbol of hope. I think that the question of whether or not a give vampire represents hope is based on the concrete circumstances of that vampire’s characterization. For example, in 30 Days of Night the vampires don’t provide any sense of hope, nobody wants to be like them. Whereas other more sanitized depictions of vampires give the audience more relatable/desirable characters to idolize.
The common theme through this blog thread is that the vampire is a symbol of hope because we hope to attain similar attributes such as immortality and safety and infallible health. Abi states, and several others reiterate, that “perhaps our fear for the vampire stems from our hope to one day become this creature. I mean, who would not want to be immune from death, have super strength and speed, and still be loved by thousands of fan girls?” McLuhan adds strength to this theory through his concept of media being the message. This shows us that the vampire is used as the vessel for this message of hope due to his media which possesses all of these attributes. While this is a very good point, I do not feel that this is where our hope stems from. The classic portrayal of the vampire is of a monster. Even in more modern portrayals where they are domesticized they still are left with the possibility to be horrific inhuman beings. There is a reason that there are still frightening evil vampires in Twilight, there is a reason that Stefan can “flip a switch” and turn off his humanity, and there is a reason that vampires are associated with demons. These examples must exist to contrast the “reformed vampires” and exemplify their capability of evil. We as a society are petrified by the concept of truly pure evil. Yet, we hear stories of rapists and serial killers and quake at the thought that we as humans are capable of true evil. Therefore, we create a fictional character which is defined by its evil nature, we even say he is demonic, and then we make such evil manageable. Halberstam recognizes this when she talks about Gothic literature as a way for us to “survey individual members for signs of deviance or monstrosity, excess of violence.” We ease our fears of what we know in the depths of our souls we could be capable of, by making characters whose very nature is to commit such acts, yet are able to resist it. If the vampire can have a conscience, if the vampire can resists hurting people, can love, then even the terrible evil in people around us, even our darkest desires, can also be resisted. This is the hope that the vampire gives us.
ReplyDeleteBecause the modern vampire is a meaning machine, it embodies the values and beliefs that any given individual translates to it. This is integral to the vampire being a symbol of hope because as the vampire has evolved with the changing mediums, the meaning and the content that which it conveys as a medium itself has become more human and less primal and sexual. The vampire still is an expression of unrepressed sexuality, but no longer is the vampire a monster fighting humanity, but a person-- a living breathing(sometimes) person fighting his monstrosity. For this reason we no longer perceive the vampire as evil, but instead as a person who faces a monstrously challenging problem. This shift has allowed for the modern vampire as a monster to embody human hope.
ReplyDeleteIn essence the lust for blood in now portrayed as an addiction. No longer is it the defining characteristic of the vampire, but the defining humanizing element. The modern vampire such as Edward Cullen fights the lust for blood as if it was an addiction stronger than any drug. This fight, the noble war against the limitations of the mind to fight a dependence is something that all humans fear defines the new vampire. How different is a lust for blood in comparison to an addiction to alcohol or cigarettes. Because this lust is contrasted with a human conscience and a incredible urge to break the habit it has become a symbol of hope. It is just one more expressions that can be applied to the vampire as a meaning machine.
The modern vampire is something to envy, love, and fear. It is still a monstrosity, but a monstrosity defined by its conscience. As stated above this allows us to no longer associate the lust for blood as an abomination but as an addiction no different to a dependence on alcohol. The humanization of monstrosity has allowed for this shift in the meaning of the vampire and its evolution into a symbol of hope.
When I first began to read Haley's post I disagreed with her belief that the vampire can be a symbol of hope because it can be defeated. As I read on though, I found meaning in the simplicity of that statement. Because the modern vampire fights the lust for blood that defines it, beating this unusual addiction could in essence be defeating the vampire.
I believe that the vampire is a symbol of hope because it represents something that can be vanquished. As Haley said in her blog post, the vampire gives us hope because it can be defeated. Even something that is seen as completely and totally powerful, both in terms of its strength and its mind, can be conquered. The very nature of vampires says that they are invincible. Despite this great power they possess they are creatures that can be defeated. We view the vampire as an all-powerful being, but even this being can die. When we view something like the vampire as an evil that can be defeated, we get hope that we can defeat any of the challenges we face in our own lives.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Macluhan, the medium is the message. If we view the vampire as the medium, we can get a message that the vampire something evil and something that seems like it cannot be conquered. Despite this daunting figure that we see as the message of the vampire, it can still be destroyed. If people use this medium/message as an example for their own lives, they can use it as a way to get hope that they can get past the things that may suck the life out of them (literally or figuratively). Lestat, in Interview with a Vampire, can be viewed as an extremely terrible person and as one of the great evils in literature. However, as Lestat likely tells Louis, there is a way to kill him. Looking at this in even more of a metaphorical lens, the easiest way to kill a Lestat is through pure sunlight, or in other words, the exact opposite of darkness and evil.
HOPE! H-Have, O-only, P-Positive, E-Expectations! I categorize the vampire’s mindset and transformation of change as a sign of hope. I disagree with Ali in that I do not view the intertwinement of vampire and hope as “The vampire is a symbol of hope because we hope to attain similar attributes such as immortality and safety and infallible health.” I view the vampire’s evolution and revolutionary oscillation as hopeful. I do not believe that the vampire’s immortality or everlasting security is what the entwinement of the vampire and hope embodies. I find the inspiring and awe-striking fluctuation of the vampire from a menacing monster to a being of benevolence, as the hope the stands as the pillar beneath the vampire. The capability of Edward Cullen to make the conscious choice of putting his perpetual love for Bella over his primitive thirst for blood, not only showcases hope at its finest, it is the sole epitome of what encompasses hope.
ReplyDeleteAs Halberstam states, the vampire “is the triumph of capital and the threat of revolution.” This statement alone comprises hope in that the vampire has all the potential in the world to be a reckless disaster, yet makes the conscious choice to overcome temptation and avoids taking advantage of weaker entities.
McLuhan is characterized by his concept of media being the message. The vampire in the media realm of decision-making, integrity, and progression is the media that illustrates the message of hope. Hope provides the interminable grounds that there is something better out there, there is good in all people, and provides vindication to the wrong-doings of society.
Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye
And roped me in
So mesmerizing, so hypnotizing
I am captivated
-Dashboard Confessional
Hope is entrancing in that it alludes to the capacity to overshadow past faults and craft augmentations. The vampire is the quintessence of seeing pass mistakes and embracing potential.