Vampire reflections
Vlad Dracul III must be squirming in his grave, or should I say his coffin, at the thought of twilight. I am not, however, referring to that brief period just before nightfall. And I’m not suggesting that the man many refer to as the historical model of Count Dracula might be twisting restlessly in his sleep because it would soon be time to wake up and feed once more; rather, it would likely be due to the horrifying possibility of being chased by thousands of screaming teenage girls (and some housewives, too) offering their necks for a free hickey. In the 18th century, stories about vampires, such as Bram Stoker’s quintessential blood-sucking novel Dracula, actually caused mass hysteria. Some people even dug up graves and staked the corpses of those they suspected of being vampires. As a boy in the Seventies, I can still remember being scared to death by newspaper reports of alleged vampires living in Marikina. But such is the impact of all these new teen vampire books and movies like Twilight that it’s now a totally different kind of frenzy. Instead of being feared, vampires are now the newest pop sensations.
The thought of vampires as teen idols might seem preposterous to some especially in light of the background of Vlad III who was born in 1431 in Transylvania (now part of modern-day Romania). His father was known as Vlad Dracul or Vlad the Dragon as he was a member of a secret group of knights called the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Muslim Ottoman Empire. In Romanian, “drac” is a word for dragon, while “ul” is a definitive article. Being a son, Vlad III was sometimes called Dracula (also spelled Draculea, a combination of “drac” with “ulea” which means “the son of”) or “the son of the dragon.” The word “drac,” however, has a double-edged connotation; it can also mean devil. And to those who had the misfortune of displeasing him, Dracula was Lucifer himself. While some historians view him more positively as a Romanian national hero, what is not disputed is that he gave out punishment with extreme cruelty. His favorite form of torture and execution was impalement, which led to his other nickname, Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler. One of the famous woodcuts or wood art of the period shows Dracula dining as hundreds of impaled victims around him are being hacked into pieces by his men right next to his table. On occasion, he was also reported to have eaten bread dipped in blood. It was this sort of blood-steeped stories that probably led to his legend as the original vampire.
It is therefore not surprising that vampires have traditionally been portrayed as the embodiment of pure evil. There was no mistaking how to recognize them: they with the funeral home makeup, greasy hairdo, fanged teeth, and the signature long black trench coats that transformed into the wings of a bat. Thankfully, the methods and tools to fight them were straightforward as well: cross, holy water, garlic, and daylight, among others. Yet perhaps as a reflection of our times, things are no longer so simple. In our modern world of anti-heroes, the trend is to show a kinder and gentler vampire. They are now portrayed as extraordinary but tragic figures who struggle with their inner blood lust and who fall in love with humans. Today, they ask before they bite and we see vampires who even try to practice abstinence: no pre-marital sex and certainly no sucking of the blood of human partners till after the wedding. Some have gone “vegetarian” and feed only on animal blood. Others can walk in the sun so long as they’re “fortified” (with vitamin B?). In one TV series, they have literally “come out of the coffin” and live among humans after the Japanese invent synthetic blood. The gothic look is also out. Vampires nowadays are so sexy and attractive, it’s the humans who want to sink their teeth into them. And before I forget, crosses and holy water are not as effective anymore — even when they can be, you still need faith to make them work. In such a strange new world, what’s a good old-fashioned vampire slayer to do?
Don’t get me wrong though. I may not be a “twi-hard,” as rabid Twilight fans are called, but I do enjoy these new interpretations of the prince of darkness. In the end, I guess I’m not writing this article about vampires (after all, vampires have no reflections, right?), but on how I sometimes miss the time when the world was more black or white. Before most of our role models fell from their pedestals — when heroes were heroes, monsters were monsters, and yes, when Count Dracula and his minions were more diabolically depicted in films by the likes of Béla Lugosi and Christopher Lee. It’s not easy being a parent in today’s “grey” world. How the heck are we going to teach our kids to avoid dangerous characters when everyone wants to be a vampire? Well, at least my daughter is still into Little House in the Prairie books and is probably two to three years away before she starts reading about the vampires. They may no longer be “in” by that time. Then again, that may not necessarily be a good thing either. They could be replaced by something worse. And with the way liposuctions, breast augmentations, facelifts, and other similar procedures are gaining day-to-day acceptance, the next teen horror idol could be … Frankenstein! “Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive ... It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, IT’S ALIVE!” Aaahhhhhhh!
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