Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?

Subject: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: GUEST,Hairy Fangy Scabby Bloke
Date: 20 Aug 11 - 11:29 PM

A simple question, please take it seriously;

Would you rather be a Vampire, Werewolf, or a Zombie ?

My wife votes Vampire.

I'm more inclined to Werewolf.

Would anyone sane person given the choice opt for Zombie ?

Are they a misunderstood underclass ?


A pub debate is now broadened out for wider discourse.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 02:58 AM

Well, FWIW, my father was born in Focsani, a town on the Moldavian-Wallachian border in Romania where Vlad Dracul ruled mid-C15, and somewhere in the neighbourhood of that part of the Carpathians known as the Transylvanian Alps ~~ Vampire Country, as everybody knows; at least since Bram Stoker situated Castle Dracula there in 1896. My father was brought to England in infancy and never even spoke Romanian, thought I remember hearing his mother do so. So my vote must go to my Ancestral Vampires, mustn't it?!

~Michael GrosvenorVlad DracuMyer~

Watch out ~~ I think I feel my canine teeth growing...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 05:55 AM

The lore of all three goes back a lo-o-o-ong way, and each has been warped (in folklorish manner?) over a few centuries. No choice should be admitted without at least some explanation of the "view of the creature" that results in the choosing.

The zombie is probably easiest to interpret, as an unsophisticated (to us) struggle to understand the "life after death" mystery of most(?) religions. I can't really relate to a religion with so much reliance on "fear," but it's fairly common in shamanistic societies.

The werewolf is a "naturist" struggle with the dangers of wild animals and the possibility of them being "humanlike" or of humans being "beastlike." It demands a fear of animals that I've never been quite able to get with, having been raised with and around so many of them (and especially so many that "understood me" better than they did their owners). Once when I asked a noted poodle breeder why poodles, unlike most dogs, have hair inside their ears, her reply was "have you ever looked in an old frenchman's ear," which made perfect sense to me (some may have to think on it) so I suppose the werewolf seems like the more natural (than zombies) phantasy to me.

The "modern" Dracula story, and the several movies, have produced a "being" that quite probably has little resemblance to older related legends, but it's the most likely one to be assumed by most of us. The gist of it is that the vampire must love but the love can never be "actualized," with nearly equal dominance given to the notion that an "unrequited love" is always destructive to its object. Some have tried to relate the response by the love object to a masochistic element "in all of us," but I think that's a rather weak argument.

All told, I would have to choose the vampire role, as I can relate to loving, and in particular to "unrequieted love," as my successes have fallen exceedingly far below my phantasies (mostly when I was a lot younger). The taking/exchanging of body fluids with an object of my affections is an acceptable means of "bonding" but I think I'd prefer to forgo the blood and stick to wet kisses.

Note that the Frankenstein monster was omitted from the choices, and possibly should be an option. I'd have difficulty choosing to be like him, but some of us have enough artificial body parts now to be called "children of the monster" and we seem to benefit quite nicely. My reaction to the tale(s) is possibly a little different than that of others, as there seems to be a tendency to center on the "horrible mad scientist" while I've always seen the story more from the viewpoint of the creation he produced. (But I never claimed to be conventional.)

John

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 06:01 AM

And shouldn't we also consider: If you had Dr Jekyll's formula would you want to use it?

John

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Max Johnson
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 08:03 AM

The writer Colin Wilson (The Occult, Hodder & Stoughton, 1971), among others, presents a theory that vampires drain(ed) not blood, but energy.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 09:11 AM

I think I'd rather be a zombie. They're unpretentious. They suffer no existential angst. They want to eat brains. That is all.

Being a human is complicated enough, but being a werewolf or a vampire is doubly complicated. Werewolves are humans who undergo periodic transformations into nonhumans. Vampires were humans who were permanently transformed but never seem to come fully to grips with the loss of their humanity. They both seem to waste a lot of time trying to either reconcile their human and nonhuman natures or beat their human natures into submission so as to allow the nonhuman to take full control.

Zombies don't have that problem. When they die, their human natures simply disappear. Period. If I had to be something inhuman, I'd like to keep it simple. I'd rather wander around with a blank stupid stare on my face and eat brains than suffer all that psychological bullshit.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: GUEST,SteveG
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 12:46 PM

Gotta be werewolf. Watch your backs next full moon!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Big Ballad Singer
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 01:04 PM

MtheGM, interestingly, my adoptive father's father was from Romania... and their (hence, my) last name means "biter" in German.

I once asked my father (only half in jest), "OK, Dad... Grandpop was from Romania and our family's last name means "one that bites". Are you trying to tell me you're a bunch of vampires?!?"

Seriously, though... traditional vampire lore is MUCH scarier than the TV or movie portrayals of vampires make it out to be.

I've lived in some areas that had high crime rates, though, and I can tell you from personal experience that the full moon really did cause an upswing in weird/dangerous/illegal activities. Werewolves could be to blame...

Zombies, on the other hand, might not have any angst, but I'm afraid that with the one-track mind and such a particular profile, there might not be any room for personal expression. It's pretty much "aarrgh, eat brains", every day, all the time.

So, I guess, given all that, it's vampire for me.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Max Johnson
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 01:32 PM

Being a vampire sounds like less hassle all round, so ok, I'm convinced, put me down for vampire.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 02:34 PM

Interesting indeed, Herr Beißer ...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 03:50 PM

Bee-dubya-ell - I think I'd rather be a zombie. ... I'd rather wander around with a blank stupid stare on my face and eat brains than suffer all that psychological bullshit.

We've had our suspicions ... but still ... (?)(?)(?)

Is there a "transition phase" in becoming one, when you're only about half undead?

John

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: GUEST,Nick E
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 06:41 PM

One has to go Werewolf here.

Lets face it Zombies have no fun, they always moan about every thing, the menu is limited to human and they are slow, mentaly and physically. Vampires sleep all day ( Oh, I do too) and the work they do sucks. Lycanthropy is realy just a part time job one does on a few moonlit nights each month to release pent up energy much like folk musicians, you can totaly keep the day job.

For Mudcat I dont think there can be any other answer than Howlin Wolf!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Effsee
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 09:38 PM

Nah! Has to be the Vampyre...think of the free air miles!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: GUEST,Shy Guy
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 12:18 AM

I'd quite like to be an incubus

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 01:35 AM

Nah! Has to be the Vampyre...think of the free air miles! ·····

····· You must be bats!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 07:01 AM

Vampire,
with a preference for supping at the site of the female femoral artery.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 08:13 AM

Being a woman I would prefer to be a vampire rather than a werewolf or a zombie. The transformation is a lot more easier on the eye plus you can wow friends (or victims) with that essential party piece of not casting a reflection in a mirror. The reaction on people's faces would be priceless.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Becca72
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 09:00 AM

My vote goes 100% to Vampire. I have always been fascinated with the legend.

If you ask my father, he thought I WAS a vampire from the ages of 15 to 20! :-)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 09:24 AM

he thought I WAS a vampire from the ages of 15 to 20!
If you live to be '20!' you must be a vampire.

(20! = 20*19*18 ......*2*1 )


Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 09:31 AM

I'd rather wander around with a blank stupid stare on my face and eat brains

So - what's to change? The story of my life...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: Zen
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 09:41 AM

There certainly seem to be suitable candidates for all positions.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Vampire, Werewolf,Zombie-You choose ?
From: michaelr
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 08:02 PM

Vampires get my vote - they have class and style, and live in castles. No excess hair to worry about, and none of that empty-eyed shambling around. It's no contest!