The Darker Side > The Blood Track
Hunting groups
Tao G.:
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 on June 27, 2012, 01:57:01 AM ---In your blog you knock the new "sexy" and "kind-at-heart" literary Vampire, but also claim that relatively new beliefs about Vampires, such as the effectiveness of sunlight and Christian holy items are true. In turn you also attempt a vague scientific explanation of Vampires.
Please explain and reconcile these seeming contradictions.
--- End quote ---
Vampires are more active at night. That much is a simple fact. I have never seen a vampire out in the day, but that doesn't necessarily mean they get hurt by the sun. There could be vampires walking around in the daylight every day and I suppose you'd probably never know. Generally, though, the rule is to never let your guard down until the sun comes up.
As for the effectiveness of crucifixes, that dates back to the middle ages and I wouldn't bring it up if I hadn't seen the effectiveness of it myself. There's really two explanations here:
First is the metaphysical and religious one, which is best phrased by S.T. Joshi in his book Encyclopedia of the Vampire, that the Christian Church purported that "Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself."
The second, more scientific explanation, is that the vampires' reaction is psychological: vampires' reaction to holy items is simply the product of conditioning through vampire fiction; in other words, vampires expect religious items and holy water to have an effect on them, so they flee.
I'm not going to try and figure out which one of these is the correct one. Crucifixes work and I'm happy to just accept that.
--- Quote from: Angelus on June 27, 2012, 06:03:38 AM ---I agree with Circle. As moderator it is my job to dispose of this seemingly fantastical fable of a topic but I am going to let it continue out of intrigue.
--- End quote ---
I appreciate that.
Also worth noting is that I dropped one of Jake's questions on my blog today with a linkback to Monstrous.
6The1Circle6:
--- Quote from: Tao G. on June 27, 2012, 07:37:12 AM ---
As for the effectiveness of crucifixes, that dates back to the middle ages and I wouldn't bring it up if I hadn't seen the effectiveness of it myself. There's really two explanations here:
First is the metaphysical and religious one, which is best phrased by S.T. Joshi in his book Encyclopedia of the Vampire, that the Christian Church purported that "Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself."
The second, more scientific explanation, is that the vampires' reaction is psychological: vampires' reaction to holy items is simply the product of conditioning through vampire fiction; in other words, vampires expect religious items and holy water to have an effect on them, so they flee.
I'm not going to try and figure out which one of these is the correct one. Crucifixes work and I'm happy to just accept that.
--- End quote ---
Let's not forget that reports and stories of Vampires (or similar creatures) have existed long before the middle ages. They never had a problem with religion before Christianity came rolling through Europe, assimilating and reinterpreting old folk beliefs as it went.
The psychological explanation would have to be dismissed on the grounds that if it were true then it would mean that every Vampire shared the same belief to an obsessive level. It would only take a single, remotely skeptical Vampire to blow it away.
Therefore I have to imagine that the Vampire you believe in must be some sort of supernatural entity. This launches a huge fray questions, mostly as to the extent of the Vampire - how "Vampire" are they? Your introduction implies that you, as a 16 year old boy, held off a Vampire attack. Sounds to me like these are your 'run-of-the-mill' Buffy style Vamps that can get taken out by just about anyone. We're obviously not dealing with Dracular style supressors of entire populouses at any rate. So these are supernatural Vampires that must need to reproduce (read: kill people) fairly often to keep on going.
So why do we never hear of attack survivors, victims bodies, ect... and why isn't there more weird stuff around, like zombies, which you are so certain don't exist? This model of the Vampire is ecologically unsustainable, either Vampires or Humans should have been wiped out by now, which is no good to anyone in Heaven, Hell or Earth.
How "Vampire" are these Vampires? How do they sustain their population without decimating mankind? If they are supernatural, where's all the other supernatural stuff and why can't it exist? Why do we never hear (credible) accounts of Vampires and Vampire attacks?
Please no 'it's a conspiracy!!' answers because... Just no. That makes even less sense.
Tao G.:
Alrighty, let's take this one little bit at a time and I'll do my best here. Whether skepticism or intrigue I appreciate the questions.
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 ---Let's not forget that reports and stories of Vampires (or similar creatures) have existed long before the middle ages. They never had a problem with religion before Christianity came rolling through Europe, assimilating and reinterpreting old folk beliefs as it went.
The psychological explanation would have to be dismissed on the grounds that if it were true then it would mean that every Vampire shared the same belief to an obsessive level. It would only take a single, remotely skeptical Vampire to blow it away.
--- End quote ---
No idea. Maybe it only works on some and not others? In my experience it works, and I'm not too keen to experiment and find out.
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 ---Therefore I have to imagine that the Vampire you believe in must be some sort of supernatural entity. This launches a huge fray questions, mostly as to the extent of the Vampire - how "Vampire" are they? Your introduction implies that you, as a 16 year old boy, held off a Vampire attack.
--- End quote ---
Well, now there you make it sound like I'm just bragging. First off, the one that attacked me then was probably a fledgling, and what I did was exceptionally stupid--though I suppose the alternative is being drained of blood, so I consider myself just about as lucky as a person can possibly be.
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 ---Sounds to me like these are your 'run-of-the-mill' Buffy style Vamps that can get taken out by just about anyone. We're obviously not dealing with Dracular style supressors of entire populouses at any rate. So these are supernatural Vampires that must need to reproduce (read: kill people) fairly often to keep on going.
--- End quote ---
No, no, these are certainly not oppressors of villages and legendary dominions over mankind. In fact, they have a tendency, at least, to be hard to distinguish from normal people. Though if your talk about Sunlight above is true and vampires can walk in the day, then who's to say that the corporate world isn't full of them? But that's just conjecture.
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 ---So why do we never hear of attack survivors, victims bodies, ect...
--- End quote ---
That one I don't know the answer to, sorry. If I had to guess I would think that any "attack survivors" likely rationalize their attack to something more believable than vampires. I mean, if you got attacked by something that was likely supernatural, would you tell anyone you got attacked by a vampire? Or that you got attacked by a random dude? And if you chose the former, would anyone believe you? I mean, it happened to me, and I didn't know what to think at the time.
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 ---and why isn't there more weird stuff around, like zombies, which you are so certain don't exist?
--- End quote ---
Sure, I'll grant you that zombies *might* exist. I'm more inclined to believe in ghosts and faeries than zombies.
--- Quote from: 6The1Circle6 ---This model of the Vampire is ecologically unsustainable, either Vampires or Humans should have been wiped out by now, which is no good to anyone in Heaven, Hell or Earth.
--- End quote ---
You're telling me. But then again, humans are vampires' food. Vampires aren't dumb: they're not going to eat themselves out of house.
FlamE:
So .. like .. you're a vampire hunter then?
I sure hope you didn't kill any 'vampires'.
I pity the goth/metalheads passing by in your neighborhood. I imagine they'd get stalked by a Blade-like looking dude with paper-made crossbow shooting arrows carved from the neighbor's fence. And after he got you, he'd be like: " Oh, hell! You're not a real vampire! Here's a deal: you don't call the cops and I'll make sure no real vampire ever touches you."
But by no means I'm trying to imply that the guy in the description was anything close to you. After all, you are a real vampire hunter.
Tao G.:
--- Quote ---I sure hope you didn't kill any 'vampires'.
--- End quote ---
Vampires don't drink clamato juice, if that's what you're saying.
--- Quote ---...paper-made crossbow shooting arrows carved from the neighbor's fence.
--- End quote ---
You're joking, right?
--- Quote ---And after he got you, he'd be like: " Oh, hell! You're not a real vampire! Here's a deal: you don't call the cops and I'll make sure no real vampire ever touches you."
--- End quote ---
These people exist. I avoid them.
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