Vampires' Ontology?

As we continue to engage with Rai's blog and with our own understanding of media ecology theory, we are going to respond to one of the questions driving this class: what is the ontology of monstrosity that the vampire is caught up in? If we understand that  ontology is the study of being or essence of being/existing and that monstrosity is the condition of being "abnormal" then we can begin to question the existence of the vampire. So, for this blog post, I want you to respond to question above--what is the ontology of monstrosity that the vampire is caught up in--by specifically looking at Dracula. What is the ontology of monstrosity that Dracula is defined by? Ground your thinking in both the text, Dracula, and the other readings we have done thus far (could be Halberstam, Jenkins, Rai, McLuhan, etc).  


Shoot for 300-450 words. Engage with others. Don't be afraid to loosen your boundaries and think outside the box here, so long as  you support what you are saying with the texts we are reading. 


Due: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by class time. 

Monstrosity: Vampire Vs. Zombie

After beginning to investigate media ecology theory, I want you to try and put some of your understanding into practice. Halberstam says that "monsters are meaning machines" and that "we need monsters and we need to recognize and celebrate our own monstrosities." So, we might argue that the vampire is the medium, but what then would the "content" of vampire be (given that McLuhan argues it's another medium)? Attempt to answer this question by using The New York Times piece as evidence--what is the content of "the vampire" according to this piece? How then might you begin to question if the vampire is an assemblage of media, sensation, etc, etc? 


Respond to these questions and conclude by offering your own list of vampire vs. zombie teams that, in a sense, respond to your own musings above.  


Engage with one another. Shoot for 250-500 words. 


Due: Thursday, April 5, 2012.