I am Legend Post 1

I don’t believe that Neville is a hero, he has none of the standard hero qualities and he is not likeable. He thinks about raping vampire women, he drinks too much and has a really bad attitude. (I know he believes that he is the only living person, but he is kind of an ass) The definition of a hero as defined by Wikipedia is “A hero (heroine for females) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion.^[1] Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self-sacrifice—that is, heroism—for some greater good of all humanity. This definition originally referred to martial [warrior] courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.” Neville is in a position of danger(ish because he is immune to the disease, it is arguable whether or not they pose a threat to him) but his only concern is for himself. He definitely does not show any self-sacrifice, he drinks in excess and he is not moral as we can see when he thinks about raping the vampires.

I really enjoyed the fact that the vampire was related to science in this novel. It brought on a more realistic characteristic to the vampire. Germs are easy to understand, and when you look at a disease like syphilis which changes people’s personalities when it reaches the brain it makes vampirism seem more likely. More likely than say, the vampire being someone cursed by the gods/ God. In the novel  science can’t prevent the epidemic or find a cure. I think that shows that modern technology isn’t perfect and should not be relied on exclusively especially when we see that preventative measures from folklore were helpful in warding off and killing the vampire.

Tainted Blood

Tainted Blood: Female Sexuality and Dracula
Alix Wright
         The short film “Tainted Blood” by Marcos Xavier Herrera is a video intended to be a music video to the song “Asilos Magdalena” by the band Mars Volta, which was started in 2001. The name of the song literally means Magdalene Asylum. The Magdalene Asylums were institutions for women who were seen as sexual deviants. “The first asylum in Ireland opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1767, founded by Lady Arabella Denny.” (Wikipedia) The point of the asylums was to rehabilitate these “fallen women” and then send them back into society but they eventually turned prisons where the women had no hope for parole. The women were often forced to do hard labor; in Ireland they became known as “Magdalene Laundries” because they had turned into commercial Laundromats. The crimes women could commit that would put them in these places were many and were often minor they included: “[having] a child out of wedlock, a petty crime, a revealing outfit, [and] a come-hither look” (David Edelstein) The last one closed in Ireland as late as 1996.

The translated lyrics to the song are (roughly I am not fluent in Spanish):

Sick I come
And to put on myself the walk of the vagrant
Do not give me your obedience
I teach you with my body of earth
Where the skin is weak
With a hunger that I can not sing of
In my life The dark one supports me
when I saw you
in the rain you promise me your blood
I do not remain
in my life the dark one supports me
when I saw you
in the rain you promise me your blood
I do not remain
And since you fell out of this world I load
a razor my god for you
All the times you bit me
and all the times I went away
And I am already not in love
with your lies
the hell I fall asleep for that the hell is the only truth
In my life the dark one supports me
when I saw you in the rain you promised me your blood
I do not remain
in my life the dark one me sustains
when I saw you in the rain
you promised me your blood
I do not remain
Star of the morning Samael I chase you and
if I remain without wings also I die for you
song by  Mars Volta

(sorry about the poor translation)

        The song portrays a vampiric love. We are not shown whether the narrarator is a male or female but with the title, we are able to infer that the narrator is female. She has a hunger for this person she sees on the street and they exchange a look where this lover promises her their blood. The video is a black and white story depicting a man walking through central park. He meets up with a woman and she seduces him and brings him home with her. She brings him to bed and then bites him. She leaves and he wakes disoriented and groggy. He is visibly sick and so runs to the bathroom and vomits up what looks like blood. He looks in the mirror and is horrified to see that he has fangs.
        In the context of the song, (lyrics and title) we can see that this video is a social commentary on how women's sexuality is perceived.  The vampire character is a female and she seduces the innocent man. She then drinks his blood which is portrayed as a sexual act. Then, because of the act he becomes a vampire. Here vamparism can be seen as a STD in so much as it is a disease that is transferred in a sexual act.

This clip can be related to the novel "Dracula" because in the Victorian era female sexuality was a touchey topic. Women were not sopposed to be sexal beings. They were sopposed to be innocent and pure. A sexual woman was seen as a threat to the moral standing of society so places such as Magdalene Asylum were allowed to be created because of the highly phobic society.

Carmilla from Carmilla's point of view

There she was, laying with the pillows and bed covers sprawled around her. She looked so sweet and innocent. Her hair fell around her shoulders and about her pillow slightly covering her pale and glorious neck. My eyes were instantly drawn towards her trembling pulse. Desire poured over me. My mouth became dry and my lips trembled. She is such a tiny girl, I should be feeling disgusted with myself but all I can think about is my lips on her throat and chest. I floated gracefully over to her on the bedside, leaned over her, my hair brushing over her face ever so slightly. When I got close to her I could smell her. The scent made my hunger even stronger. I climbed into bed with her and held her close. I could feel her stir against me but she sank into my arms soon enough. When I could stand it no more, I let my teeth penetrate her skin. She woke with a terrible scream and I jumped out of her bed. I could hear people in the house coming to comfort her so I disappeared before I could be discovered.

            This one is special, I loved her already. She was mine.

A few years later:

         I had just finished a girl and was ready for a new one when I remembered the girl had told me she was going to go visit her father’s friend and a young girl lived there. I convinced my companion that that was where we should go next. We were riding in our carriage when we staged the accident. I lay by the side of the road listening to the commotion around me. I caught a glimpse of the child from big bed.

          I let her people bring me up to a room but I was longing to see that girl again. Luckily for me she was a curious soul. She asked to see me right away. When she entered the room I saw that she was visibly shaken at the sight of me. She remembered me. That thought brought complications but it also brought me joy that his exquisite creature would remember me. I made up some story about having a nightmare about her as well. It seemed to put her at ease a little.

         The little Imps name is Laura. We were becoming friends rapidly. She was just as attached to me as I was to her. She saw a painting of me in my first life and she wanted to keep it for herself. I have been drinking of her as infrequently as possible but my hunger is getting stronger. I love her, I don’t want her to die like all of the others have. She is becoming pale and tired. She is looking closer and closer to death. I think her father is suspecting something because he is looking at me strangely, and I have been caught twice in compromising circumstances.  I fear I will have to move on soon.

Carmilla

       

        I greatly enjoyed "Carmilla." It was easier to read than "The Vampyre" and "Wuthering Heights" and it contained more suspense than either. I had to read the whole thing in one sitting because I wanted to know what happened. Obviously I knew that the narrator suvived because she was telling this story by looking back so we were not directly in the action but, I did find myself thinking that maybe she would die (or become a vampire herself.) Like with good horror movies, I was yelling at Laura and her father "don't go in there!", "No, she is not innocent and lovely, she is going to kill you!." Le Fanu did a good job of creating characters who were sympathetic, unlike the characters in "Wuthering Heights", who I could not stand.

        I thought the fact that the vampire in this story was a woman was interesting. Usually you see women as the victims and not the predators. I thought that was very advanced. I also liked this story because the vampire seemed more familiar than any other vampire we have read about. That she was characterized as being “absolutely beautiful”, “the prettiest creature [Madam] ever saw”(p.256.) Laura was “drawn towards her but there was also some repulsion” in her feelings towards Carmilla. These characteristics can be seen in more modern vampire tales like all of those teen vampire novels popular now and in vampire movies. The only characteristic that seems to be still missing in the stories we have read so far is the inability for the vampire to go into sunlight. I wonder when exactly that characteristic surfaced in vampire literature. I know it came about because of “The Vampyre” when Lord Ruthven had to be placed in the moonlight after he was “killed.”

Analysis of A Piece of Literary Criticism

Analysis of A Piece of Literary Criticism

Alix Wright

9/22/10

The Essay “’Why am I so changed?’: Vampiric Selves and Gothic Doubleness in Wuthering Heights” by Lakshmi Krishnan discusses the theme of doubleness and opposition in Gothic literature. She states that “the co-existence of opposites characterizes the Gothic” (Krishnan p.2) and that the Gothic brings both sides, good and evil. She also argues that the Gothic brings to light the extremes in human nature, it “heightens affection to passion, introspection to monomaniacal obsession, and discontent to criminal action.”(p.2)            She argues that the Gothic uses monsters to experience, or showcase the “marginalized life.(p.3)” It deals with the cultural anxieties of the time, “sexuality, gender, and the menace of alien races or the criminal class (p. 3)”

            She uses Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights as an example of the anxiety of an alien race. He is constantly portrayed as an outsider and because of that he is portrayed as demonic. There are constant references in the novel to him being dark and therefore “a fiendish creature [who is] demonic because of his obscure origins and devilish in his inclinations.(p.3)” From there she goes into the vampiric aspect to Gothic literature.

            She sees the vampire as the quintessential Gothic monster because it represents opposition which is an integral aspect of Gothic literature. Vampires “were once human; they are neither inextricably connected to nor fully separate from us (p. 3),” because of this quality they are the creatures that are most like the Gothic novel itself. “They are filled with ambiguities and are contradictory, double figure[s].”(p.3) Krishnan explains that the draw for Bronte when creating a vampiric character was the aspect that with a vampire there is “the potential merging of selves… [which] is both necessary and liberating.” (p.5)

                                                       

            There were some terms that came up in the essay “’Why am I so changed?’: Vampiric Selves and Gothic Doubleness in Wuthering Heights” that may be unfamiliar.  In the first paragraph where she discusses the Monk in Matthew “Monk” Lewis’s The Monk  the word “inviolable” comes up. She uses it to discuss the corruption of the monk in the story which caused in its readers a feeling of discontent because monks and monasteries were supposed to be free of that type of corruption. “Inviolable” means that something is secure of desecration. 

            Another term would be “’oppositional’ fiction.” Krishnan used the term to describe gothic literature. It means that gothic stories deal with opposing forces like the “ghostly and corporeal and the self and other.” (p. 2) “Monomaniacal” is another word that she uses in this paragraph.  She is saying that every emotion and literary theme is taken to the extreme. Her example was that “introspection [turns in] to monomaniacal obsession” (p. 2.) Here she is saying that instead of exploring their inner thoughts the characters in gothic fiction often have a psychological disorder where they cannot move away from one thought. An idea connected to the monomaniacal obsession of the characters in gothic literature is the idea of self-fragmentation which is also a mental illness.

            I agree with Lakshmi’s reading of Wuthering Heights. I think that Wuthering Heights emphasizes the opposing characteristics in human nature.  Heathcliff is portrayed as a demonic and villainous creature because of his otherness. Right away when Nelly is beginning her story about Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange she describes Heathcliff and his status there as the story of a “cuckoo's” [she knows everything about his story] except  where he was born, and who were his parents, and how he got his money at first.” A Cuckoo is a bird that lays its eggs in the nest of another bird has it raise its young. Once the baby cuckoo hatches it kicks the other eggs out of the nest killing the other birds so that it will get all of the food and care.  Nelly’s comparison shows society’ s disdain for and fear of those who are alien to their country. He is routinely referred to as a villain by Ellen the narrator like when he is arguing with Catherine and she says that she will have Linton lock him out. Nelly described his response as “’God forbid that he should try!’ answered the black villain”(Ch.11).

            Lakshmi’ s point, that Gothic novels were preoccupied with duality and opposition, is proven by Catherine’ s monologue to Nelly. Catherine, while explaining why she is going to marry Linton says to Nelly that “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”(Ch 9) Catherine and Heathcliff are two sides of the same being. Heathcliff represents the animal side of humans with his anger and need for revenge; Catherine represents the proper side of humans with her preoccupation with how society would perceive her and her actions.

            Some questions for further examination: What does Lakshmi mean when she says that “Wuthering Heights is only incendentailly Gothic [in comparison to] Bram Stoker’s Dracula?

Catherine’s fake illness is an example of a theme in Gothic literature, what does it add to the story in terms of its Gothic quality and would Catherine as a character be perceived as a completely different being without it? Could she and Heathcliff still be seen as two sides of the same coin?

What about Wuthering Heights do you think was so unsettling to readers at the time it was published?   

Polidori and Auerbach

On "The Vampyre"

The introduction to this story was so hard for me to get through. The sentences were so long with tons of asides and it really did not draw me into the story at all, even though that is what introductions/ first paragraphs are for. It really did not grab my interest until the second page when Lord Ruthven's actions were described. I really liked how Polidori made Lord Ruthven peculiar but not evil seeming.

"Aubrey was surprised at the apparent eagerness with which his companion sought for the centres of all fashionable vice; there he entered into all the spirit of the faro table: he betted and always gambled with success, except where the known sharper was his antagonist, and then he lost even more than he gained; but it was always with the same unchanging face, with which he generally watched the society around: it was not, however, so when he encountered the rash youthful novice, or the luckless father of a numerous family; then his very wish seemed fortune's law  this apparent abstractedness of mind was laid aside, and his eyes sparkled with more fire than that of the cat whilst dallying with the half dead mouse. In every town, he left the formerly affluent youth, torn from the circle he adorned, cursing, in the solitude of a dungeon, the fate that had drawn him within the reach of this fiend; whilst many a father sat frantic, amidst the speaking looks of mute hungry children, without a single farthing of his late immense wealth, wherewith to buy even sufficient to satisfy their present craving."

This particular section I found very interesting. I like that he is described as bored with life and that he does things opposite to the way that normal people do them. His boredom with life hints that he could possibly be immortal but I like that it is never stated out right by the narrator that he is a vampire but that Aubry suspects him of being one and up until his "death" there is no real evidence that he is one. 

I liked all of the descriptive details in this story, they made the characters and the settings seem real and vivid in my mind so that by the time I got done with the story I hardly noticed anymore the passive voice (which irritates me even though I know I use it a lot) and the incredibly long and arduous sentences. When Polidori described Ianthe I could picture a sunlit hill facing the ruins of classical Greek society with a girl dancing around chasing butterflies and I could almost feel the light and life go out of the story once she was killed.

I also liked that Aubrey was Lord Ruthven’s actual intended victim. That fact makes it stand out from other vampire stories that I have read. Usually, the real target is killed but the torture that Aubrey faces is purely psychological with his torment over Ianthe’s death and the knowledge that Lord Ruthven is a monster but that he can’t do anything about it because he swore an oath to Lord Ruthven that he would not tell anyone about his death.

Ok, so a Byronic hero's traits are: he/she is a rebel, is usually isolated from society and has many dark qualities, and is moody by nature. I was not sure which character would be the Byronic character, Aubrey or Lord Ruthven. They were both moody and fairly rebellious (although Lord Ruthven was more so than Aubrey) and they were both isolated from society for Aubrey it was at the end. So maybe in the beginning Lord Ruthven was the Byronic hero but at the end Aubrey became one too.  Not sure though, could someone please clarify for me?

Overall I guess I enjoyed both readings for this week. I have to admit that when I read Auerbach's description of the modern vampire being recognized as having "fruity accents". I also thought her essay was very interesting. I never knew that Byron was the model for the original human like vampire but it makes sense because his writing definitely give off a feeling of a superiority complex.

My favorite Vampire movie/ Character

This is a clip from my favorite Vampire movie Dracula 2000. 

 Here is a link to the IMDB site for the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219653/