This article fascinated me monumentally, due to my morbid interest in forensic science and archeology.
It returns to the concept of vampire as disgusting monster, with its references to bloated decaying corpses. The bloating, due to gas buildup from decaying soft tissue, was taken for the blood-swollen state of a replete vampire, and the livor mortis presumably reinforced that belief, along with the foul liquid emissions from facial and lower orifices. I had never before heard of the custom of rendering the suspected vampire unable to eat by shoving a stone in its mouth, so that was enlightening. I suppose it makes sense, though technically, a vampire, being also supposedly immortal, could not die from starvation. Though since the blood gave them energy, perhaps it was logical to assume that a vampire which was unable to eat was doomed.
The idea of disgusting vampires is a much more intriguing one than romanticized vampires. It would be much more distressing, I think, to wake up and find a bloated, dripping, filmy-eyed corpse hunched over your body with gaping jaws than it would be to find a pretty, effeminate man doing the same.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Vampire Secrets
The video rather interested me, though I could only ever catch about 60% of it.
As a result, I am unsure of the validity of my researching the Vampire of Hanover, but I feel that he bears mentioning.
The Vampire of Hanover was really Fritz Haarmann, resident of Hanover, Germany, employed as a butcher, born in 1879, died in 1925. He was an active serial killer from 1919 to 1924, and during those years killed at least 24-27 young boys, mostly vagrants. He became known as a "vampire killer" because of his disturbing habit of ripping out the throats of these victims with his teeth while sodomizing them. The sodomy presumably had less to do with it than did the throat-ripping.
Haarmann had a boyfriend, Hans Grans, who often purportedly chose the next victim, often purely because he liked the clothes the boy was wearing or thought him particularly handsome. He sold the clothes to secondhand shops, while Haarmann butchered the bodies of the victims like meat animals. He became well-known for always having nice, cheap cuts of meat for housewives.
Haarmann disposed of the skeletal and otherwise unusable remains in the river Leine, his ultimate undoing, for it eventually drew suspicion onto him, as did his constant supply of cheap, good meat. While investigating, police found clothing which matched the description of those worn by the most recent young male disappearance, along with other grisly evidence.
Ironically, Haarmann was a well-known police informant who often gave up criminals to investigators. He was convicted of 24 homicides, and beheaded by guillotine. Grans was convicted of inticement to murder in only 1 of the 24 cases, and originally sentenced to death, but was later retried with new evidence and sentenced to only 12 years in prison. He continued living in Hanover until his death in 1980.
Fritz Haarman's head was preserved for brain study purposes, and is now kept at a well-known German medical school.
Related cases are that of cannibal Karl Grossman, and child killer Peter Kürten, both of whom displayed an inordinate fondness for the taste of human flesh. And were German.
Haarmann, Grossman, and Kürten were all mentioned or referenced in the incredible Fritz Lang film "M".
As a result, I am unsure of the validity of my researching the Vampire of Hanover, but I feel that he bears mentioning.
The Vampire of Hanover was really Fritz Haarmann, resident of Hanover, Germany, employed as a butcher, born in 1879, died in 1925. He was an active serial killer from 1919 to 1924, and during those years killed at least 24-27 young boys, mostly vagrants. He became known as a "vampire killer" because of his disturbing habit of ripping out the throats of these victims with his teeth while sodomizing them. The sodomy presumably had less to do with it than did the throat-ripping.
Haarmann had a boyfriend, Hans Grans, who often purportedly chose the next victim, often purely because he liked the clothes the boy was wearing or thought him particularly handsome. He sold the clothes to secondhand shops, while Haarmann butchered the bodies of the victims like meat animals. He became well-known for always having nice, cheap cuts of meat for housewives.
Haarmann disposed of the skeletal and otherwise unusable remains in the river Leine, his ultimate undoing, for it eventually drew suspicion onto him, as did his constant supply of cheap, good meat. While investigating, police found clothing which matched the description of those worn by the most recent young male disappearance, along with other grisly evidence.
Ironically, Haarmann was a well-known police informant who often gave up criminals to investigators. He was convicted of 24 homicides, and beheaded by guillotine. Grans was convicted of inticement to murder in only 1 of the 24 cases, and originally sentenced to death, but was later retried with new evidence and sentenced to only 12 years in prison. He continued living in Hanover until his death in 1980.
Fritz Haarman's head was preserved for brain study purposes, and is now kept at a well-known German medical school.
Related cases are that of cannibal Karl Grossman, and child killer Peter Kürten, both of whom displayed an inordinate fondness for the taste of human flesh. And were German.
Haarmann, Grossman, and Kürten were all mentioned or referenced in the incredible Fritz Lang film "M".
The Vampyre
Reading The Vampyre was, to me, a singular experience. It felt rather a stereotypical story, with the romantic vampire and the insanity, though it was also faintly redolent of Lovecraft. But it can't be stereotypical can, it? It was the first of these stories, and dare I say, one of the only decent ones, though I really did not particularly enjoy it. The idea of the romanitic or human-shaped vampire is an interesting one, since it is all the easier to lure prey if you look like it yourself, but has become rather sickening of late, wrapped in layers of romanticized Rice and apologetic, glittering Meyer.
All in all, I found this story a sparkling example of its type, since it did at least manage a dark and disturbing air. And presumably an essential for any class dealing in macabre literature.
All in all, I found this story a sparkling example of its type, since it did at least manage a dark and disturbing air. And presumably an essential for any class dealing in macabre literature.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Assignment VI
To begin with, I was rather pleasantly surprised to discover mention of the Varcolac in the beginning, and further on, even mention of the Penangglan, a bizarre creature which lives as a woman during the day and at night detaches her head and flys about, trailing her entrails and savaging people. Of course, if you've read the book, you'll already know this. I was disappointed by the lack of mention of the vampire cat of Kyoto.
It seems that all vampire myths have in common one element-- the ingestion of blood or flesh, generally by mouth, frequently by a reanimate dead human or some manner of monster involving the pieces of a dead human, or a noctournal animal. Occasionally, this blood is replaced by some other form of lifesource, generally energy, though there is a legend (not mentioned) of a vampire killer sucking away spinal fluid rather than energy, life, or blood.
Any culture which has a vampire mythos has a method of preventing vampirism in their dead, ranging from a nail through the skull, aerial burials, and stakes through the center of the sternum or the heart, to burning, the burial of suicides at a crossroads, and the prevention of animals stepping on the grave of the deceased. One even involved the rather archaic practice, usually said to pertain only to witches and demons, of crossing running water.
Thus far, I find the book utterly satisfactory. It covers very nicely the more obscure ends of the vampire spectrum, though with a notable lack of mention given to asian vampire myths (vampire cats, floating cannibal heads, etc), and with a considerable amount given to european vampires, though one supposes this is only fitting. Overall, a good choice for a class basis, likely to fill in blanks for anyone used to pansy modern vampires, and likely to satisfy lovers of the more obscure side.
It seems that all vampire myths have in common one element-- the ingestion of blood or flesh, generally by mouth, frequently by a reanimate dead human or some manner of monster involving the pieces of a dead human, or a noctournal animal. Occasionally, this blood is replaced by some other form of lifesource, generally energy, though there is a legend (not mentioned) of a vampire killer sucking away spinal fluid rather than energy, life, or blood.
Any culture which has a vampire mythos has a method of preventing vampirism in their dead, ranging from a nail through the skull, aerial burials, and stakes through the center of the sternum or the heart, to burning, the burial of suicides at a crossroads, and the prevention of animals stepping on the grave of the deceased. One even involved the rather archaic practice, usually said to pertain only to witches and demons, of crossing running water.
Thus far, I find the book utterly satisfactory. It covers very nicely the more obscure ends of the vampire spectrum, though with a notable lack of mention given to asian vampire myths (vampire cats, floating cannibal heads, etc), and with a considerable amount given to european vampires, though one supposes this is only fitting. Overall, a good choice for a class basis, likely to fill in blanks for anyone used to pansy modern vampires, and likely to satisfy lovers of the more obscure side.
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