A new update! YAY!
At last, ladies and gentlemen, an update. For the record, it is almost four in the morning here and I can't sleep. Yay....
I've engaged in an interesting debate with some people on allpoetry.com regarding Vampires. One woman, insisting she was one and referred to herself as a Vampyre (For all you out there, in my book that sort of goes under a goth wannabe but nevermind). Anyway, me and the BrideofDemios discussed Vampires. What are they a metaphor of? Well, I decided to straighten my thoughts out here.
Bride meant that vampires were a metaphor for rape. Now, she herself said that she had only read Anne Rice and didn't know much about it, but based her beliefs from Anne Rice's writing and such, as well as Rice's saying that vampires are a metaphor.
In support to that theory, Anne Rice's lead Vampire Lestat was turned against his will. Begging for death and pleading for God to save him, he was violently turned. Since Anne Rice vampires can't have sex, the biting becomes a sexual act as much as feeding. Vampires also take life regardless of their victim's wishes.
Now, in my own theory, I believe that vampire represent the dark desires of the human heart. A vampire is often presented as an intelligent being stripped of his conscience. A conscience is believed to be nothing but morals we have learnt over the years. A psychopath, for instance, would not have picked up on those and therefore would not have a conscience, only self-awareness. A vampire isn't a psychopath, but the representation on our dark and primal desires. Biting in itself is a sexual act, and feeding is one of our base needs. Therefore, it is only natural to assume that most books referring to vampires, as well as poetry, refers to the "vampire" inside of us, the needs. Let me show with this poem:
Min dear friend.
Welcome to my nightmare.
Welcome to my life.
Midnight's darkness settes;
Grabs a hold of my soul.
Blood runs down.
Dripping on the floor of my home.
Steals my life away.
I feel his arms around me;
He takes me to his home.
My lips ache.
Ache to feel his.
Ache to taste blood.
I am with him now;
My soul is his and my body is dead.
I am the Angel of Darkness now.
One of those who few see.
One of those who walk the night.
But I am never alone;
His arms will always be around me.
Now, to me it is more of a surrender than a person being turned into a vampire. The person surrenders to her lover, abandoning the morals she was enforced in her childhood in order for sexual pleasure. The nightmare bit is simply showing how hard it is to let go of all the things, while the blood is symbolic to her surrender. The turning/sireing is the sexual act in itself. However, not all poems show vampires in this way. I have two other examples:
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Crimson kisses beneath the silver moon,
Whispered promises of eternity together.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Pale skin caressing yours with tenderness,
Shadowing over yours like the darkness.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Candlelit bedroom and whispered pleas,
Your soft lips parting under his.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Sunlight burning his skin as he fights,
Moving to take his love back to his arms.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Battling his natural urges to stay,
Kissing your throat with his cold lips.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Mourning your dead body with cold tears,
Waiting for you to rise again next night.
This poem shows a classic turning. It is the human/vampire love affair pictured in works like Bram Stoker's Dracula and anime such as Vampire Hunter D. The vampire and the human and one of them surrenders either to the other person or his own nature. In this case, the vampire tries to keep her alive (i.e a person holding back their true desires because he or she suspects that the other might not approve) until he surrenders to his true nature and turns her. In other words, until the lover finally confesses his/her needs and manages to convince the other to try it.
The next poems shows, for me, the desperate battle we sometimes have against our desires:
The dark has taken my heart and ripped it apart.
The light has broken my soul and left me in
The Dark Shadows.
I walk in the shadows;
fearing both the light and the dark.
I try to change myself;
But who can change their ill fates?
In the night I cry and shiver,
Fighting the nature I've been given.
I rise in the dark and scream out;
"This is my fate;
I am the Shadow!"
I hope to be saved;
From this horrible life.
I pray each night;
But God won't save me.
I am the darkness.
I am the damnation.
I am the plague.
I am the Shadow.
There is no salvation for those in the shadows.
There is no damnation for Hell won't take me from
The Dark Shadows.
You are the force;
The Power and the Prophet
Of eternity.
Yet you have forsaken me!
Dear God, free me.
It's not so much the whole 'vampire battling conscience' as it is the dark desires battling the morals we have been taught. Primal needs against the sophisticated mind and all, until people are driven into hiding themselves behind something. In most cases, God actually. Or at least this is my belief.
I think this is a good place to end my theory. I know it is hardly an essay and should it have been a proper essay I would ahve needed more things to back it up with, more examples, known authors, keeping a personal yet open view and showing all the theories possible. But I believe that vampires are a metaphor for our desires that others might find unnatural.
In other news...I got into King's College London :) Just waiting to get myself a place to live now. I hate professors...bad people...still, with a library with 900 000 books, internet access in the rooms, 90(!) places on the course I am taking...it's rather good :) Well, I'll try to sleep now and hope those http://allpoetry.com people leave me alone in my sleep LOL
Night ;)
SufferingFool
I've engaged in an interesting debate with some people on allpoetry.com regarding Vampires. One woman, insisting she was one and referred to herself as a Vampyre (For all you out there, in my book that sort of goes under a goth wannabe but nevermind). Anyway, me and the BrideofDemios discussed Vampires. What are they a metaphor of? Well, I decided to straighten my thoughts out here.
Bride meant that vampires were a metaphor for rape. Now, she herself said that she had only read Anne Rice and didn't know much about it, but based her beliefs from Anne Rice's writing and such, as well as Rice's saying that vampires are a metaphor.
In support to that theory, Anne Rice's lead Vampire Lestat was turned against his will. Begging for death and pleading for God to save him, he was violently turned. Since Anne Rice vampires can't have sex, the biting becomes a sexual act as much as feeding. Vampires also take life regardless of their victim's wishes.
Now, in my own theory, I believe that vampire represent the dark desires of the human heart. A vampire is often presented as an intelligent being stripped of his conscience. A conscience is believed to be nothing but morals we have learnt over the years. A psychopath, for instance, would not have picked up on those and therefore would not have a conscience, only self-awareness. A vampire isn't a psychopath, but the representation on our dark and primal desires. Biting in itself is a sexual act, and feeding is one of our base needs. Therefore, it is only natural to assume that most books referring to vampires, as well as poetry, refers to the "vampire" inside of us, the needs. Let me show with this poem:
Min dear friend.
Welcome to my nightmare.
Welcome to my life.
Midnight's darkness settes;
Grabs a hold of my soul.
Blood runs down.
Dripping on the floor of my home.
Steals my life away.
I feel his arms around me;
He takes me to his home.
My lips ache.
Ache to feel his.
Ache to taste blood.
I am with him now;
My soul is his and my body is dead.
I am the Angel of Darkness now.
One of those who few see.
One of those who walk the night.
But I am never alone;
His arms will always be around me.
Now, to me it is more of a surrender than a person being turned into a vampire. The person surrenders to her lover, abandoning the morals she was enforced in her childhood in order for sexual pleasure. The nightmare bit is simply showing how hard it is to let go of all the things, while the blood is symbolic to her surrender. The turning/sireing is the sexual act in itself. However, not all poems show vampires in this way. I have two other examples:
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Crimson kisses beneath the silver moon,
Whispered promises of eternity together.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Pale skin caressing yours with tenderness,
Shadowing over yours like the darkness.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Candlelit bedroom and whispered pleas,
Your soft lips parting under his.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Sunlight burning his skin as he fights,
Moving to take his love back to his arms.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Battling his natural urges to stay,
Kissing your throat with his cold lips.
No love is greater than the one of a vampire;
Mourning your dead body with cold tears,
Waiting for you to rise again next night.
This poem shows a classic turning. It is the human/vampire love affair pictured in works like Bram Stoker's Dracula and anime such as Vampire Hunter D. The vampire and the human and one of them surrenders either to the other person or his own nature. In this case, the vampire tries to keep her alive (i.e a person holding back their true desires because he or she suspects that the other might not approve) until he surrenders to his true nature and turns her. In other words, until the lover finally confesses his/her needs and manages to convince the other to try it.
The next poems shows, for me, the desperate battle we sometimes have against our desires:
The dark has taken my heart and ripped it apart.
The light has broken my soul and left me in
The Dark Shadows.
I walk in the shadows;
fearing both the light and the dark.
I try to change myself;
But who can change their ill fates?
In the night I cry and shiver,
Fighting the nature I've been given.
I rise in the dark and scream out;
"This is my fate;
I am the Shadow!"
I hope to be saved;
From this horrible life.
I pray each night;
But God won't save me.
I am the darkness.
I am the damnation.
I am the plague.
I am the Shadow.
There is no salvation for those in the shadows.
There is no damnation for Hell won't take me from
The Dark Shadows.
You are the force;
The Power and the Prophet
Of eternity.
Yet you have forsaken me!
Dear God, free me.
It's not so much the whole 'vampire battling conscience' as it is the dark desires battling the morals we have been taught. Primal needs against the sophisticated mind and all, until people are driven into hiding themselves behind something. In most cases, God actually. Or at least this is my belief.
I think this is a good place to end my theory. I know it is hardly an essay and should it have been a proper essay I would ahve needed more things to back it up with, more examples, known authors, keeping a personal yet open view and showing all the theories possible. But I believe that vampires are a metaphor for our desires that others might find unnatural.
In other news...I got into King's College London :) Just waiting to get myself a place to live now. I hate professors...bad people...still, with a library with 900 000 books, internet access in the rooms, 90(!) places on the course I am taking...it's rather good :) Well, I'll try to sleep now and hope those http://allpoetry.com people leave me alone in my sleep LOL
Night ;)
SufferingFool