There's a Drumming Noise Inside my Head

Do you know of Florence + the Machine? I find their music to be quite powerful. The way they mix it makes it sound like Florence is a one woman choir. She produces an unbreakable wall of sound, and the effect it has on their meaningful lyrics is magical. Florence's voice has an operatic quality and is very strong, almost bursting, something you wouldn't expect from a girl with such a tiny speaking voice. I particularly relate to the raw power of Drumming Song, a song detailing the emotion that overcomes a person when they see someone they love or lust after. It's a feeling I know all too well, and the desparate sounding music coupled with the lyrics are gripping.

I feel like her songs put me in a trance like state. They overpower my senses completely, and turning them up to drown out all other sound is a religious experience. I would very much like to see them in concert. Surely, a sound such as theirs would draw me in completely, until I forgot where I was and just focused on the thoughts and feelings their music triggers.

Here's the link for Drumming Song. The music video is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpLXQorSQe8

Vampirism and True Love

My second Vampire Paper. I also created an eHarmony profile as a Culture Jamming project, which is further detailed in the paper. I'm pretty sure the account is now defunct, though I did get quite a few hits despite the disturbing nature of the profile. What idiots.

Meredith Hershey

Professor Herndon

Literature 3312.S001

31 August 2010

Vampirism and True Love

The modern Vampire as society knows it is a dark, brooding and mysterious being with a fickle nature and excessive emotional baggage. Though they tend to be extremely passionate and romantic, they are often portrayed with an overwhelming desire to micromanage their lover’s lives out of some notion-conscious or not-of superiority. These are hardly positive traits, and yet vampires are romanticized to such an extent that hardly anyone notices the abusive qualities of the relationships presented in stories like Twilight and the Vampire Diaries. They have become the perfect examples of a perfect relationship to a whole generation of people. In order to satirize and bring to light the preposterousness of such ideals, I have put together an eHarmony dating site profile highlighting all of the supposed desirable qualities one might look for in their vampire mate.

The reason for the unorthodox choice of creating a fake dating profile was to bring to light the presumably obvious problems with the vampire worship that society has chosen to ignore. Hoards of pre-teen girls and middle aged women have fallen head over heels in love with the vampire romantic interests presented to them in titles like the Twilight Series, the Vampire Diaries and True Blood. These vampires are nearly always men, and they are always described as pallid, emotional, and perfect. Their human girlfriends are always pretty but insecure, especially when the story is in a high school setting or in some way involves young adult characters. They are presented as meek and lonely, and when they meet their undead boyfriends, they cling to them desperately, often letting the vampire suck their blood, control their lives, or generally walk all over them.

The issue with these types of stories and vampires in general is that superficially, they may seem like perfect romantic relationships, but they are really quite unhealthy. Since their inception, vampires have been metaphors of tragedy, disease and misfortune. They were the creatures hiding around corners and in dark alleys. Their reliance on others for sustenance made them, in essence, parasites. Now that vampires have ascended to romantic hero status, their stalking and abusive behaviors have become acceptable within the context of the story. Edward from the Twilight Series for example, admits to his girlfriend that he has sat in her bedroom and watched her sleep since they met, an action that would never fly in reality. Yet, neither Bella nor Edward finds anything wrong with it. This behavior is a criminal offense, but because Edward is a superhuman being, he gets away with it, a common theme in vampire lore. In addition to draining the life of their loved ones, often without any thought of the repercussions, they manipulate them, intentionally or not, with both their physical appearance and actions. The undead heroes share disturbing similarities to real life perpetrators of domestic violence, something that fans of vampire romance novels don’t seem to recognize.

The eHarmony profile, chosen for its supposedly sanctimonious and thorough matching process, was a satirical attempt to make these similarities glaringly apparent. The persona was a beautiful blonde woman named Claudia Harker and she was looking for an undead lover. Her required qualities were a possessive nature, emotional baggage, and a lust for blood. She had no interest in friends or family, and she was fully happy to spend the rest of her hopefully eternal life mooning over a pale, unrealistically handsome man. This fake identity was modeled after the typical vampire novel heroine. Her shallow and almost disturbing qualities, such as her lack of interest in anything but her potential boyfriend and extreme submissive personality, are meant to clarify what exactly is wrong with the types of women who fall in love with vampires. These heroines are crippled in their characterization. They are made to be helpless little girls who cannot live without their blood-sucking boyfriends. Naturally, they often have horrific encounters with rival vampires which end in them being gruesomely injured, but never seem to learn from these incidents, ending up in the same situation again and again. Vampire novel heroines are victims of their centuries-old lover’s outdated notions on how women should be treated, and many of them mistake attempts to dictate their lives as love. The vampire himself tends to explain away his possessive behavior as trying to protect his “true love” from the outside world. Vampires are described in nearly every incarnation as superior to humans in looks, strength and intelligence, resulting in vampire heroes coming off as patronizing to their human girlfriends rather than caring.

The fictional vampire is fundamentally a domestic abuser. Claudia Harker was essentially asking for a man to take advantage of her in every way, and while she may seem like a silly caricature of a brainless vampire fangirl, she is no different from popular characters like Bella, whom many young girls idolize.  As it is presented to them today, a typical relationship with a man involves being weak-willed and clumsy so that he will be drawn to their inability to take care of themselves and swoop in to protect them. Many vampire stories involve the vampire being afraid of injuring or even killing his girlfriend, and yet his love for her is too great to stay away, leaving the impression that causing physical pain, directly or indirectly, is not only forgivable, but just an unfortunate side effect of being in love.

Stepping back from the similarities to domestic violence, the relationship between vampires and humans in the popular media are just too superficial. Twilight, the biggest offender of these inappropriate messages presents you with a couple of teenagers who meet, and in a whirlwind of theatrics, form a bond they immediately classify as a love so strong, no other relationships can compare. There are no examples of Bella and Edward having any other connection other than a love for Muse and a physical attraction. Bella and Edward don’t do anything but proclaim their love for each other. They don’t go on dates, they don’t have friends outside of Edward’s family and the third party love interest, and they rush into marriage, parenthood and eternal life immediately after high school. There is no deeper connection. Claudia Harker’s eHarmony profile includes a desire for an over-the-top yet baseless romance in order to emphasize the shallow relationships illustrated in vampire romance.

The eHarmony dating profile was created as a way to showcase the disturbing concepts vampire novels encourage. Claudia Harker is a victim of domestic abuse, she has a misguided notion of what true love is, and were she a real person, she would undoubtedly end up in trouble, with real life “vampires”. Yet, fans of the modern vampire romance have yet to recognize this woman in their idols. They don’t recognize the parasitic nature of vampires, and if they truly believe that sucking someone’s blood passionately from their neck signifies love, they are doomed to make the same mistakes as the women in the novels they admire.

Drake's Deception

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-uncharted-3/708329

This may be the best Christmas present I've ever received. It's a trailer for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Can a woman die of happiness from the triumphant return of her most beloved fictional treasure hunter? I may come close when this title drops, and I certainly won't be the only one. It looks absolutely fantastic. The scenery is lush. The suspense is immediate. The gameplay looks exciting. Honestly, I've wondered if its even possible to top the absolute perfection of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, but if any game could, it's this one. I long to be reunited with cynical explorer/hottie extraordinaire Nathan Drake and his plucky sidekick/new girlfriend Elena Fisher. He, a streetwise and wise-cracking guy seeking his fortune while breaking every law possible. She, a crack reporter ready and willing to shoot anything that tries to hurt her friends, but unwilling to drop her camera under any circumstances. Together they make an ace team, and that leads to a seriously satisfying gameplay experience. The action is high octane, the dialogue is top knotch, and Nate and Elena are really hot. If you haven't checked out the first two, do it now. If you've played, get ready for a long year of waiting.

Flying Off into the Sunset on Broomsticks

O' Harry Potter. When the last movie comes out, no boy will be missed more than you. Your lightning scar shall be tattooed on the bodies of many a fangirl. Your name will be spoken by many a young adult, reminiscing of the time when they were children, and they opened their Christmas present to reveal the story of your admittance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the magical adventures you had there.

When the final curtain drops, I too shall be in mourning. Perhaps then, I shall write a rather long letter to you, Harry Potter, telling you what you've done for me. I assure you, you've done more than you can possibly imagine.

I suppose this would be a fitting time for a Mischief Managed

The Cultural Significance of the Vampire

Here's my first paper for Lit Class:

Meredith Hershey

Professor Herndon

Literature 3312.S001

31 August 2010

The Cultural Significance of the Vampire

Vampires are some of the most recognized and loved cultural symbols in the world. Described as bloodsucking creatures of the night, these fictional beings have experienced a huge surge in popularity, with everything from books to television focusing on them. Though they’ve been talked about for hundreds of years, it’s only now that they’ve become widely accepted as a significant part of today’s society.

            The legend of a being that sucks the life force out of a person is as old as man itself, but the term vampire didn’t crop up until the 18^th century. At the time, Gothic literature was on the rise and during a particularly long winter, a man named John Polidori wrote the first vampire novel, aptly titled The Vampyre. It was the dawning of a long history of vampire literature, influencing famous titles such as Brom Stoker’s Dracula, the most famous vampire novel of all time.

The vampire seems to have at first been created from fear. They were described as evil heartless creatures that stalked helpless women and drained them of their blood. Often a shadowy figure, the vampire seemed to be a personification of disease, misfortune and death. Today’s vampire however seems to have become more developed. Beginning with Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, authors and filmmakers have begun to show a more human side to vampires. The modern vampire is a victim of tragic circumstances, a Byronic hero who longs for a way to be free of their nightmarish curse. Often they fall in love with a human and must face the challenges of age, mortality and the overwhelming desire to drink their beloved’s blood.

It’s this type of vampire that has become the subject of a recent phenomenon. Though they’d always been popular is some circles, the vampire craze has taken off since the release of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer in 2005. The troubled Edward Cullen spoke to many an adolescent girl, as well as a surprising number of middle aged women. In today’s mainstream, he seems to have been accepted as the “perfect man”, a sure sign of what society values in a potential mate today. The vampires is Twilight have been “de-fanged” or toned down in terms of violence in order to appeal to a wide variety of people.  Other media such as the Southern Vampire Novel series by Charlaine Harris and its corresponding TV program True Blood glorify the vampire, blood and all, often showcasing the main character Sookie having relationships with several of them, with varying results. Society today seems to have accepted the vampire as a hero or romantic interest rather than the villain of yesterday, having gone so far as to trivialize their murderous tendencies. This raises a number of questions. Why has a previously evil bloodsucking fiend evolved into a heroic character archetype? Why has such a trend started? How does the change reflect our desires? The idea of vampirism is not a pretty one, and yet they are so beloved that it seems every new piece of media involves them in some way. It’s a reflection of who we are now as a civilization, but what does it mean? These are questions one must look into when they consider the vampire.  

The vampire has evolved with the times, but the recent craze has been the first time they’ve reached such a level of popularity. Studies will have to be conducted to fully understand why they’ve become so loved and what it means.

Those Were the Days

What happened to my love of anime? When I was young, I used to go crazy over the latest series. I watched 26 episode series in a day, waited agonizing over the newest episodes of ones that weren't finished yet, and spent night after night on the angelfire websites of old, reading character bios and badly written fanfiction. Now, its less and less of that every season.

It's not that I dislike anime. I'm still an expert. I still go to anime conventions and have a great time. I still read manga, and watch a series here or there. Its just that I'm jaded to it. I used to think all anime was cool. I'd watch anything that caught my eye and see it through to the last episode. Now, I can hardly get through an a 12-episode series. A 26-episode or multi-season series is almost asking too much. I can't concentrate. Even with anime I love, I get distracted. Maybe I skip an episode one week and then I'm thrown off track.

My horizons have significantly expanded. Now, instead of spending all my time drowning in anime, I read american comics and books. I watch television and movies, and I greatly enjoy the arts. I have lots of friends with lots of different interests, and I dabble in a lot of their hobbies as well. My world has broadened to include improv, dungeons and dragons, concerts, art galleries and language. I guess anime, while always in my heart, will have to move over to squeeze a bunch of other stuff in.

Fyi, my favorite anime and manga will always be one called Aria and its prequel Aqua. A more peaceful, wonderful manga there is not.

Memories are Manila

I love paper. You know why? I'm an artist, and a writer, and in my opinion there's nothing more valuble than paper. Why you can use it to draw on! You can use it to write on! You can use it to print words and pictures on! You can give people papercuts! There's so many useful things you can do with paper, so why is it that we use less and less?
I guess its a good thing, to save trees. Its just a little sad. For someone who views paper as a precious resource, seeing it go away is depressing. I think about how many centuries of information has gone on to paper. How many people have told their stories or drawn their pictures or written their music on paper. To see it all go away with the advent of the internet and mobile phones and tablets breaks my heart a little. I'm sure its for the best. If there's a smaller demand for paper, there will be fewer trees cut down.

Still...fifty years from now, will we look back on paper and think of it as a silly invention from an uncivilized society? Will paper just be a memory?