vampires – R&D Gothic Discoveries

Where Does Dracula Come From?

27 February 201925 April 2019 delphinecote

There are two main sources from which vampires were inspired. The first one is Greek mythology, and the second one is Vlad the Empaler. My guess would be that the story of Vlad the Empaler is considerably more known by people than the one from Greek mythology! But still, both are interesting.

Greek Mythology:

This legend from the Greek people has been found in the “Scriptures of Delphi,” which are said to have been written by the Oracle of Delphi. Delphi is an ancient Greek city that has been inhabited since 1600 BC. It was considered by the Greeks to be the center of the world, due to Greek mythology and Zeus’ eagles, which he released in the wild, and which met at Delphi after encircling the world. The scriptures tell the story of Ambrogio, an Italian adventurer that was going in Greece to have his fortune told by the Oracle of Delphi. The words of the Oracle were the following: “The curse. The moon. The blood will run.” Preoccupied by the words of the Oracle, Ambrogio spent the night outside the temple thinking about their meaning. When daylight came, he saw a beautiful young woman: Selene. She was the Oracle’s sister and came to the temple everyday to take care of her sister (the Oracle). He fell deeply in love with the woman and asked her to marry him. Here is where the problems begin: Apollo, god of the Sun, was also coveting Selene, and to show his anger, he cursed Ambrogio by making his skin burn whenever he was exposed to sunlight, which forced him to hide in a dark cave, unable to warn Selene of what happened. Thus, to try to escape and communicate with Selene, he made a pact with Hades, the god of the underworld: Hades would give him a bow and arrows so he could offer his kill to Artemis, goddess of the hunt and sister of Apollo, to win her favor and eventually steal her silver bow. If he failed to do so, he would have to give his soul to Hades forever, and indeed, he did fail. From there, many things happened but at the end, Artemis proposed he become immortal, which he accepted. However, for Selene and himself to live the afterlife together, she had to be immortal too, and the way to achieve immortality was for him to drink her blood, which would kill her mortal body, but assure them they would be together in the afterlife. Therefore, he drank her blood, and she became goddess of moonlight, and every night, she would come down from the heavens and touch her beloved Ambrogio.

Vlad the Empaler:

Vlad the Empaler’s real name is actually Vlad Dracula. He was born in Transylvania, Romania, and ruled, on and off, the region of Wallachia in Romania between 1456-1462. He fought against the Ottaman Empire, an empire in which the leader, Sultan, had absolute political and religious power over his people. His nickname comes from the fact that his favorite way to kill his enemies was to impale them on a wooden stake. The legend says that Vlad enjoyed dipping his bread in his victims’ blood. However, no one knows whether this is real or not; one thing is certain, Romanian people do not consider him as a monster, but a hero.

Other sources of inspiration:

Of course, many other things may have influenced Bram Stoker to create Dracula’s character. Indeed, an Irish legend about a tyrant called Abhartach relates that this monster was killed and buried three times before asking for the help of the Christian saint to stop him forever. Moreover, it was said that the tyrant asked for sacrifices of blood from the wrists of his subjects.

It is also said that on February 1896, the New York Newspaper featured an article about vampires, and in this article, a section was written about vampire bats. Bram Stoker, who read this article, was thus inspired by science in the creation of the vampire Dracula.

Furthermore, Bram Stoker was well aware of Eastern European folklore as well as other stories talking about vampires that were written before he wrote his own.

Finally, Bram Stoker created a monster from various sources of information he found from different time periods. Even though Dracula has been invented, where do all these legends come from? Why were people so afraid of vampires for about three hundred years? Would it be possible that, even if some characteristics of the “classic” vampire are missing, a creature close to the definition of a vampire would exist somewhere?

DelphineC

Movies

The Transversion of the Gothic: From Dracula to Edward Cullen

7 February 20194 May 2019 delphinecote

There exists no accepted definition of what the “gothic” is. However, as we use this term as an adjective to describe architecture, literature and even cinema, we all have at least an idea of what it means. In the first place, when we think about gothic, we have in mind:

Death
Darkness
Monsters
Excess
Etc.

At first, writing some terrifying stories was kind of a strange idea. Nonetheless, people ended up liking this kind of story telling; people enjoyed being scared and they still do as nowadays, this kind of practice has become an entertainment on an even larger scale than it already was. That is, there now exists an endless library of horror, suspense and fantastic movies, each containing some of the principal gothic elements.

What’s interesting is what gothic has become today… The American film industry, which mostly bases its productions on what the target audience wants to see, created many entertaining movies, for various age ranges. But let’s focus on two specific movies that have been created from gothic inspiration: Hotel Transylvania and Twilight. Oh yes.

Hotel Transylvania displays classic monsters from gothic literature, such as Frankenstein and Dracula, but also some zombies, momies, and many more! However, the animation movie targets a younger audience. Indeed, Hollywood transformed some gothic elements into something appealing for a younger public through this family movie; and they did it well since we must admit (or at least, I must admit) that the three Hotel Transylvania movies are awesome! Thus, even though it is far from creating fear of the viewers (it actually creates happiness and laughs), Hotel Transylvania can still be considered a work from gothic inspirations.

Now on a cheesier note… Twilight. What a classic for teenagers, even more for teenage girls. And yet, it is clearly inspired from gothic art. Indeed, vampires and werewolves are two types of monsters and thus, are linked to the gothic. Of course, there are other gothic elements displayed in the movies from the saga, such as darkness and curse, but those are the more obvious ones. Why was it such a success with teenagers? It is quite simple actually: love story. A love story is always a winner to attract the young female audience; it works every time. Moreover, I must add, there are some pretty amazing looking monsters… who could resist? We went from Dracula to Edward Cullen, could we say it’s an improvement? Who knows, some will agree, some others won’t. The most important thing is that the sexy vampire did produce the expected result on the business level, even though it did not in terms of horror and terror…

I agree that those two movies are most probably not the real gothic fans’ favorites, but still, for some others, they are enjoyable, and as they present some pretty strong gothic elements, there is no shame in mentioning them here, right?

By the way, are you a more Edward or Jacob type of person? 😉

DelphineC

Books

The House of Night

3 February 201925 April 2019 delphinecote

Who does not like vampires? We must admit that they always are a good distraction; we pretty much never get tired of the stories or movies of which they are used as principal “creatures” to create some fear and suspense. However, there are two types of vampires; indeed, there is the terrifying one known as the one who sucks all the blood from human necks (in other words, the killer vampire), and there is the cheesy vampire known as the one who lives in harmony with humans. Which one do we prefer? Are we actually obligated to have a preference? I would say we do not, and that is the reason why I want to share this series of novels I discovered 3 years ago.

Written by Phyllis Christine Cast and Kristin Cast, the first volume of a series called the House of Night was published in March 2009 and was titled “Marked” (just so it is said, the last volume, “Lost” was published recently, in July 2018). The 18 volumes of this series (yes, indeed, 18 volumes!) contain all of what is necessary to entertain anyone who is interested in fantasy, love, magic, mystery, action and of course, vampires. I assure you, we can find them all in the same series! Isn’t it simply amazing?

You must wonder: Ok well, but what is this about? Overall, this is the story of Zoey Redbird, a 16-year old girl who is Marked to become a vampire and complete her Change, or die. The story mostly takes place in Tulsa, in the state of Oklahoma in the United States (yes, I know, another American fantasy, but I swear, it is a good one). The issue from which the story starts is that she does not have the same mark as other vampires do; indeed, she has been marked as special by the vampire Goddess Nyx and it is for you to discover why.

In brief, here are some reasons why you should take the time to read this series:

There are some vampires (this reason by itself is enough to convince you, right?).

Well, if you need some more…

2. There is a love triangle (oh yes, you’ve read well!).

3. There is suspense (sometimes, you just won’t be able to stop reading, I can testify).

4. There is death.

An extra one for you: you do not need to wait for the next episode to be released (you know what I’m referring to, don’t you?), once you finished one tome, you can start the next one right away!

Good luck and have fun in the vampire world!

DelphineC