Steadisms

Art for art. This is the world in tilt. Play the extra ball. - Thom Stead

I have a manager/friend who speaks in allegorical riddles pretty much constantly. I think he's awesome, but I wish I knew what he was saying.

The other day, he gave me an example of his allegorical sayings with something that went like "The first Tuesday of every month is the happiest time of the month, but it only happens 12 times a year. On that day, in a small town somewhere, a large truck pulls up and unloads the most glorious thing of all. Chocolate soft serve ice cream."

I wish I could document all of his bizarre phrases and put them in a book. I feel like they'd change the world, like Sun Tzu.

Narrative and the Vampire

My third vampire essay. I'm particularly proud of this one, since I wrote it in one evening and it turned out to be quite satisfactory.

Meredith Hershey

Professor Herndon

Literature 3312.S001

16 November 2010

Narrative and the Vampire

            The vampire has long been present in narrative. They started out as a one-dimensional archetype meant to shock or scare, but have since become a common factor in all sorts of stories. Recently, the vampire evolved into a more developed character, becoming more prominent in all types of media. Over time, they’ve stopped being the representation of the lurking evil around us and have become the representation of ourselves and the demons we all struggle with, an idea presented through narrative.

            There hasn’t been and will probably never be a consistent characterization of vampires, due to their important role in the reflection of culture. Eric Nuzum of National Public Radio points out that “Dracula can't see his own reflection in the mirror because he is a reflection of the culture around him. Ever since Bram Stoker penned Dracula in 1897, the vampire's image has been a work in progress” (Nuzim). The modern vampire is a relatable character, though this was not always the case. Characters of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century, such as Nosferatu and Dracula, were painted to be bloodthirsty, evil monsters with no remorse for the murders they committed. More often than not, vampires were creepy, pale and inhuman in appearance, and storytellers put emphasis on their gross differences to make them more menacing. Vampires were portrayed this way as a reflection of the fears of the society that created them. They represented disease, murder, and rape. There was no deeper characterization beyond the bloodlust. Vampires were the embodiment of everything that could go wrong in one’s life.

Nowadays, vampires have been embraced by the people who used to fear them. As times have changed, human beings have chosen different ways to cope with unfortunate situations, and vampires have come to be something else entirely. Since Anne Rice’s iconic Vampire Chronicles series, vampires have been characterized as more human than their older counterparts. They’ve been shown to have thoughts and feelings that go beyond their thirst for human blood, and they long for companionship. It is easy for people to identify with the modern vampire, because like so many humans, they desire happiness and acceptance, even when they are vastly different from the rest of society. Writer Sam Asael states, “No longer were vampires thought of as being the terrifying, bloodthirsty undead creatures of the night; they became sorrowful creatures struggling to cope with the adversities of life as they watched the world evolve, while they remained immortal and unchanging, forever out of sync with nature and the world. (Asael)” There is a certain tragedy to the character of the vampire, a feeling many can relate to with their own lives. Vampires, who are forced to be solitary or confined to the companionship of their own kind, may be a reflection of people who have been treated in a similar manner. The modern vampire is likeable because he is an outcast, a far cry from the vampires of previous centuries, where being different was not something to be proud of.

It is possible that vampires have always reflected the outcasts of society and the way they are treated by the majority. In earlier times, when vampires were characterized as monsters, those who did not fit the bill of the average citizen were also treated thusly. Vampires were simply the fictional embodiment of lepers, pariahs, peasants, the mentally ill and any other person that was considered a freak of nature. In modern times, there’s scarcely a soul who can say they haven’t felt alienated or outcast at some point, making vampires altogether more sympathetic. The characterization of vampires is a constantly changing thing that molds itself to the desires and insecurities of society. 

The stories that feature vampires vary wildly. Once upon a time, vampires were confined to the horror genre. They were especially prominent in the gothic horror of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, having been featured in works by Bram Stoker and John William Polidori, amongst others. In recent times, they’ve been key characters in everything from science fiction to comedy. The story of the vampire differs from genre to genre, but there are elements that are a near constant. The vampire is nearly always a key character, if not the main character. Humans tend to project themselves onto the most relatable character is fiction, which is typically the main character. Over the years, vampires have evolved from their original villainous role. Now, they are most often anti-heroes, meaning their roles in the story are not strictly heroic, but neither does it mean they are villains. Vampires tend to do less-than heroic things, such as drink blood, but they usually fight on the side of good, in their own way.

            Romance has long been a vampire-friendly genre, though the role of the vampire has changed. When vampires first came to prominence in the gothic horror genre, they were the villains of the story. Gothic horror often contains romantic elements, usually between the male protagonist and the hapless female victim, who may or may not make it through the story alive. Vampires were portrayed as the romantic rival to the hero, though it was almost always a ploy to gain the woman’s trust so he could drink her blood. Modern vampires have since become the hero. Instead of harvesting helpless ladies for sustenance, they develop actual feelings for others, creating a story filled with angst, forbidden romance and some serious compromise between the vampire and his mostly always human love interest. The villain role is usually filled by a rival vampire or other supernatural creature. Curiously, vampire hunters, once a prominent enemy of the vampire, are either a minor inconvenience or not included in the story at all, perhaps as a result of the lack of fear for vampires.

            Vampires are so often included in romance stories because they can represent what people find attractive. Vampires, once thought to be sinister and devilish, are now the epitome of perfection. They can be anything the storyteller desires, and people who share that ideal can project themselves onto the corresponding human character. Vampires possess the ability to live forever which makes for both a romantic and tragic plot point. They long to be joined with their eternal love for all of time and oftentimes their human love interest is made a vampire in order to achieve that. If that isn’t an option, much of the plot tends to revolve around remedying their star-crossed lover status is some other fashion. These romantic elements give the vampire humanity, emotion and a sense of self. Rather than being a mindless killer, they are given personalities and back stories in order to appeal to both their love interest and the audience.

            Vampires have become increasingly dramatic in their presentation. Many plot points focus on their existential angst about being a parasitic being and the trials and tribulations they must face. Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire and its sequels tend to focus less on the romance between the vampire characters and more on their struggles with living with and feeding off humans, their issues with self-loathing and the drain of immortality. These troubles are in some ways similar to the struggles humans face. Many people have fallen into despair over struggles with both fellow humans and themselves. Vampires and humans share the same desperate need to find the meaning of life, and it is these story elements that make vampires so relatable to humans. In a way, they can be more human than the humans who create them, which is why they are featured in so many stories.

Vampire stories have appeared in many times and places in history. According to Benjamin Radford of Live Science:

The first recorded accounts of vampires circulated in Europe in the middle Ages. The stories follow a consistent pattern: Some unexplained misfortune would befall a person, family, or town—perhaps a drought dried up crops, or an infectious disease struck. Before science could explain weather patterns and germ theory, any bad event for which there was not an obvious cause might be blamed on a vampire. Vampires were one easy answer to the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people (Radford).

As mentioned before, vampires were the embodiment of the misfortune in people’s lives. Considering that such incidents happened all across the globe, the idea that different cultures would come up with an explanation for such happenings is not surprising. Humans consider their blood to be the glue holding them together. It represents their life force, and without it they’d die. The cropping up of a similar bloodthirsty monster in nearly all cultures is a result of the fear of death. Therefore, vampire stories take place all over the globe and in every time period, as they are a universal symbol for the cultures that created them.

            The narrator of vampire stories can sometimes be the creatures themselves, but are usually the humans who associate with them. When vampires were viewed as villains, the narrator spoke ill of these creatures and led the audience through the tale of the vampire’s destruction. Today’s narrator is typically the friend or lover of the vampire and he or she gives the audience a deep description of the vampire’s personality as he or she perceives them.  This narrator is altogether more sympathetic towards and fond of the vampire, and the story typically does not focus on destroying it. As the vampire has evolved, so have the characters surrounding it. Rather than being treated as a threat, it is now loved and idolized by the narrator and the other characters around it.

            Vampires have been around for centuries, as they represented the fear in people’s hearts. The modern vampire has instead become a symbol for outcasts, an example of the perfect lover, and the embodiment of what modern culture considers important. The stories told about vampires reflect the nature of the people who create them and they will continue to be the figureheads of human identity throughout time.

Works Cited

Asael, Sammael. "The Evolution of Vampires - Exploring Vampire Lore in Modern Media." Ezine Articles. N.p., 5 Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Evolution-of-Vampires---Exploring-Vampire-Lore-in-Modern-Media&id=3510218>.

Nuzum, Eric. "Defining Dracula: A Century Of Vampire Evolution." National Public Radio. NPR, 30 Oct. 2008. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96282132>.

Radford, Benjamin. "The Real Science and History of Vampires." Live Science. N.p., 30 Nov. 2009. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/091130-vampire-science-history.html>.

After years of expensive education, a car full of books and anticipation, I’m an expert on Shakespeare and that’s a hell of a lot, but the world doesn’t need scholars as much as I thought…

Being an Arts and Humanities major, or really any art-related major, is a lot different from getting an engineering degree or whatever, simply because when you tell people your major, they look at you like you're a total dumbass.

"Why are you getting an art degree?" they say. "What a waste of money!"

For some reason people think that getting an art degree is completely pointless. If I had a dime for the amount of times I've been told I'm going to be penniless, I'd be rich.



It's probably true. As many times as I've been asked the question "What can you do with an art degree?", you'd think I'd know the answer. But I don't. In fact, to be honest, I don't even want to be a professional artist. I love doing art, but I'd rather create art the way I want it and have people appreciate it for what it is. Working for someone who's going to constantly force me to change up my visions doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. So if that means that I never sell a single piece, I guess thats cool with me.

What I'd love to do is write novels. So many of my artistic ideas are more easily and creatively expressed through words and I really want to show them to the world. Unfortunately, one can't just decide to be a novelist and then just write a novel. I have to find a day job. And I, frankly, have absolutely no idea what that's going to be.

So why am I getting this degree then? And the only answer I have is, why not?

I absolutely abhor mathematics, and I don't like science much better. I'm completely incapable when it comes to anything involving numbers, and I honestly can't think of anything I enjoy that isn't related to art in some way. I guess you could say I'm completely right brained. Getting a degree that specializes in art, writing, history and so on may seem like a bad idea, but why would I spend money on something I'm not going to enjoy? I know I'm not going to make much money at it unless something amazing happens, but atleast I'll be having fun, writing books and painting pretty pictures and doing whatever else it is I'll do.

Do I want to be fabulously wealthy? Of course. Do I want to shell out wads of cash in order to live in a tiny cramped apartment in New York City? You bet.

15 Items or Less.

Life at Kroger is a frustrating one. It's funny how you never notice the injustice that people endure until you work retail. Don't get me wrong. I don't suffer constantly at my work. The majority of my customers are nice and polite, even when they do things that irk me like ignore the fine print on coupons or take five minutes to write a check. I'm always nice and polite, since not only is it my job, its in my nature to be courteous as much as possible. Yet, there are times when I've faced a particularly uncouth person and thought afterwards that I'd never been treated thusly in all my life. I feel like some people honestly believe one or more of the following:
a) I'm their servant, here to cater to their every whim.
b) I'm an idiot (because I work at a grocery store, get it?) who they need to show how to do her job, which is insulting not only to me, but to all my coworkers, most of whom are strikingly intelligent.
c) I'm out to get them. They blame every mistake on me and don't seem to believe me when I apologize for mistakes I did make. They assume I'm trying to cheat them, overcharge them and ignore the fact that I'm only a cashier and have no control over prices.

I just wish people would show me the same respect I show them. Is it so hard to be nice to the girl behind the counter? To not treat her like she's dumb or shady just because she works at a grocery store?

And for God's sake, put down the friggin phone!

Talkin' About my Generation

Classic rock takes me back to a time where things were happening, rebellion was cool and the music was fresh. I have to admit, I love the sounds of Journey, Styx, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Kansas, the Who, Boston, Genesis, the Police, CCR, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the Kinks, The Doors and so on as much or more than any music today. What can you say about the tunes of yesterday? They were hot. They were flashy. And yet, they meant something. It was more than just hos and booze. It was more than partying and running from the mundane lifestyle. Those people were running because they things to be running from. They had war, corruption, oppression, and they chose to battle it with music and lyrics. In a bleak world, they shown through with songs about life, love, betrayal, tragedy and good times and all with actual talent. Do we have stuff like that now? Sure we do. Does it have the pizzazz that classic rock has? Surely not.

Carry on My Wayward Son

I desparately want to watch Supernatural all of a sudden. It's pretty much taken over the majority of my thoughts, meaning that once again, I've been afflicted with the wave of obsession that overcomes me sometimes when I want to watch or play something I know I really shouldn't.

My explanation is this. I don't like gore. Hate it even. I fear blood, guts and murder. I'm terrified of dismemberment and decapitation. As a child, I had an irrational fear of guillotines that spawned from god knows where and plagued me in my dreams quite often. And yet, I think its safe to say part of the reason I was so terrified of guillotines is because I was fascinated by them, in some sick fashion. I was so disgusted by them, and yet I thought about them more than anyone else ever would. It was bizarre. And its happened so many times since.

This was probably the beginning of my weird spells of fixation over something - usually a movie, tv show or game, which pikes my interest but is way too bloody or otherwise disturbing for my fragile mind to handle. What follows is an internal struggle of whether to do what I know is good for me, or be brave and regret it later.

I obsessed over American McGee's Alice for the better part of a year before finally sucking it up and playing a demo for my PC. Upon being dropped in some sort of demented village and killed by sentient card people several times without warning, I threw fear out the window and mauled them to death with my vorpal blade. I never felt the need to play again and my obsession simmered into a cool appreciation for its charms.

I agonized over whether to see Sweeney Todd when it came out in theaters, due to my intense aversion to gore and more importantly, my ever-present and crippling fear of cannibals. This bizarre phobia is my modern day guillotine, and the cause is just as random. I suppose years of hearing and seeings things has just built it up. Countering this was my unbelievable love of musicals and Alan Rickman. Eventually, they won out, and I ended up seeing not only the movie, but the broadway play and Pocket Sandwich Theatre penny dreadful production. Ironically, its one of my favorite musicals of all time, if I don't think about it.

Supernatural basically has everything I'm terrified of all rolled into one convenient package. Yet, I can't get it off my mind. I like the idea, because I'm not inherently afraid of supernatural creatures. In fact, I'm quite taken with them, and the idea of two weirdly co-dependent brothers driving down the interstate in their classic car listening to their classic rock and hunting monsters is appealing to me. It's the gore that bothers me, especially since the two main characters, Sam and Dean Winchester, face off against every kind of horrifying bloodthirsty beast imagineable, and half the time they're some sort of cannibalistic being. I know it'd be a struggle for me to get through the series, and yet I so desire to see it, its driving me insane.

I imagine I'll give in and just do my best to not be affected. I'll close my eyes and enjoy the moments sans-carnage and fawn over how incredibly attractive Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki are and everything will be just fine. I won't be able to let it go otherwise.

This was pretty much the driving force of my obsession: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsyMtYoSkC0

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