Yes, vampires are erotic fabrications of the human mind from human bodies made by sexually and religiously inspired storytellers to entertain the notion that we may have alternatives to death. The human fascination with the afterlife and the consequences of a sinful or meaningless human existence has forever been a concern of the individual soul in avoiding eternal damnation. What constitutes a sin? In every religion, it is a condemnable immoral undertaking to take the life of another human being without the presence of an inclinational response instinctive in self defense. We kill to eat, Vampires kill to eat, but we also kill for land, capital, power, greed, and security, and most of all, religion. Historically we accept our societal religious norms and condemn the views of others, ironically causing more unnatural deaths and murders through war, terrorism, and sacrifice than any other reason or act all added together. Anne Rice has popularized an alternative to the fear of death. She made the vampire into a being that is more humanistic and erotic than originally intended, and for that she is genius. No dagger, no cross, no garlic. Instead of instilling fear, she advocates desire for relief, freedom of choice offerings, and a seductive method of nourishment almost “too easy” to quench, while keeping the closely held human traits such as the thirst for power, eroticism, sexuality, vulnerability, desirability, and compassion (at first).
Now we can relate to the interview. Instead of always wondering who, what, when, where, and how, there exists rather, a visible representation of eternal life after death portrayed by the vampire interviewee himself. The vampire is the middle ground, somewhere between life and death; somewhere between heaven and hell; somewhere between straight and gay. Instead of killing millions in pointless wars aimed at obtaining religious land and items, you can know your fate and just kill a few at a time for a sustainable and subsistent eternity. Everybody knows of the powers and consequences in obtaining the Holy Grail; pun intended.
The idea of the vampire is no more cruel or unnatural than the human being. The characteristics of the vampire is not surprising to me in any way. They seem to debatably represent more of what is natural to the normal behaviors of life-forms on Earth than do humans. The humanistic associations our society so obsessively and egocentrically applies to every aspect of our surrounding biome, whether fictitious or tangible, is apparent in modern social ideology. We fabricate a fictitious species, give it humanistic qualities and a slight divergent appetite, and then criticize its idiosyncratic behaviors… so humanlike to do so I think. Maybe we have a biased interpretation of what the order should be within the food chain.
Vampires reproduce through choice, most often using their own sexual charisma to seduce humans, seemingly their prey of choice, into an expendable beverage provider. What is so surprising about the use of sexuality in nature to facilitate the acquisition of prey for nourishment, companionship, or reproduction? Whether mutually beneficial, exploitive, or competitive, the seductive methods of one “species” to beguile another is an instinctive, integral, and unalienable characteristic of every organism that has existed since the dawn of life on Earth. For instance, the cannibalism of one life-form is the only reason we even exist today. Cells that engulf others by sucking the cytoplasmic proteins from one another were imperative in the fundamental stages preludial to primitive multicellular initiation. The first nucleus of a cell was said to be formed in this way. Multicellular organisms were not possible without the ability of nuclei to designate the exclusive functions and formations of cells into contemporary tissues and organs using DNA codes. Killing for survival and upward mobility seems to be everywhere in nature, but some might ask what this has to with desire and gender adaptations.
One of the most common uses of attraction between species is the mutual benefit flowers use in germination. Insects and birds are often used to disperse the seeds of brightly colored flowers to varying locations by feeding on otherwise useless nectar. Other organisms, such as many Fungi use flies to spread spores. Even more concrete examples might include the Venus fly trap, which entices flies with odors and colors only to trap and suck the nutrients from the secreting fluids of the decomposing fly. The female praying mantis will often kill its male mate after a seductive gesture in order to nourish its body for successful reproduction.
Of all the aspects of nature, there is only one “organism” that vampires can completely relate to: the virus. The virus is neither living nor dead. It is a parasite that feeds off of the DNA of other organisms, yet does not hold a cell structure and does not have its own DNA. Their bodies repair themselves often by feeding on the blood of humans and animals alike and reproduce by attaching themselves to the living and using part of their own bodies to form new wholes. They mutate and become more powerful with numbers and age by becoming resistant to certain medicines and treatments while if exposed to sunlight they die from the lack of a cell wall. To shelter from this, many viruses, like herpes simplex, will hide in the deep, dark coffins at the base of the spine only to come out to feed, reproduce, or travel to another home. Once their host environment is expired, and their resources exhausted, they move on to other environments and adapt. Actually, the only other organism on Earth that this last fact also pertains to is Humans (and possibly locusts).
These are just a few of the ways in which our vision of the erotically seductive killer portrayed within the vampire relates to immediate reality. If vampires existed, I don’t think I would make a big fuss about their use of attraction for consumption. Their lure to the dark side may even put Dr. Kevorkian out of business by providing an alternative to Euthanasia.
The “existential despair and the sheer boredom of lifeless immortality.”
How does Interview with the Vampire relate to Greeks? Foucalt and Halperin state that humans become bored and will move to the opposite sex for pleasure. Is eternity long enough for this to be true in all cases? How do vampires relate to sexuality? Do they even have sex? How do you have sex in a coffin? There is no need for sexual relationships with asexual reproduction. They use seduction to take lives, fulfill their desires and quench their thirst. Without a sexual desire, what is the difference between companionship between man and woman? Perhaps Love is an asexual entity at this level. This work of fiction takes sexuality to a whole new level, defying the norm that heterosexuality is most common in nature and vital to the existence and continuation of life on Earth. Any thoughts? I think I got carried away again.
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