Let us die young or let us live forever.
I've recently finished watching the first season of True Blood and I must say... it's a rollicking good bloodsucking time. It's not ALL sex, drugs, and biting... though, it might not to everyone's taste. But, as vampire aficionado (and lovely pillow maker) PftP states: "It's super racy and it has tons of good vampire (sociopath) psychology. Plus it smartly explores the way the vampires and humans envy, desire, fear, enjoy, and despise each other in the context of a shared coexistence in Louisiana."
The South and vampires go very well together. Well, I suppose Vampires can make the most of any place really. How 'bout right here in San Francisco? Sure. Just on a whim I checked the vertical files in the History Center for anything on vampires and found one article: Vampire Scholar Found One Here. No source, no date. But after a bit of checking, I figured out that it was from the SF Chronicle sometime in 1972. (Naturally... mid-drug, etc. experimentation/pre-AIDS days.)
The scholar is SF State Professor Leonard Wolf (father of third-wave feminist, Naomi Wolf) who just happened to have a new book out at the time called A Dream of Dracula. The vampire is 22-year old 'Alex' who Wolf found through a mutual friend after several fruitless ads placed in the SF Chron. Wolf told the reporter that Alex had been turned on to blood drinking by acquaintances on a drug trip. Shortly afterward, Alex got married and, during his honeymoon, the blood drinking began in earnest. His bride left him for good the very next day. No worries though, as Wolf explained to the reporter, "San Francisco seems to be on a bood trip." Apparently masochists around The City were lining up to be bit. Good times.
My question is: Why would you go through all the trouble of drinking blood if you're not going to live forever because of it? I mean, really, isn't that the whole point?
Folks, it's a dirty world out there... keep your fangs to yourself and your id in check. If you want vampires, check out True Blood. If you haven't watched it already, you should... it's just that (unless you're clever like me) you'll have to wait for the DVD to be released on May 12th.
Oh, and you could always check out Leonard Wolf's extensive work on vampires and such, including A Dream of Dracula.
