Vampires represent an interesting topic in the genre of horror. Vampires, from a more contemporary standpoint, are over-sexualized, thought of as perfect, and basically are ideal human beings. This is obvious in something like Twilight, Vampire Diaries, or perhaps what influenced it all: Interview with a Vampire.
While reading, I couldn't help but ask a question that popped into my head during Frankenstein. The monster in the book was intelligent, eloquent, and much less of a 'monster' than what I knew from film and pop-culture. At what point did that image of a self-taught monster change into a tall green man with screws in his neck? In terms of vampires, why did Nosferatu eventually change into a forever teenage boy that sparkles in the sun?
If given the chance, I'm sure many people would choose to live forever. The immortal vampire is the ideal human experience. One can live forever and be much more powerful than normal. Such is the apparent sexiness of vampires. This is probably why something like Nosferatu fell out of the image of a typical vampire. A creepy big-nosed recluse doesn't appeal to an audience nearly as well as attractive forever-young-adults would. Vampires turn from something to be afraid of to something we possibly crave. It's interesting to be able to look back on something like this and see how different it was just one hundred years ago.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
Today's Gothic
The term 'gothic' may conjure up several different images in an individual's head. Be it some architectural design, a teenager with dyed black hair, or a video game played with the lights off, today's culture has undeniably been shaped by what is Gothic.
To be a bit more specific, gothic romanticism has been tumbled around in our culture to make it a bit more interesting to modern audiences. Although not the first, themes and stories from H.P. Lovecraft works inspire games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In terms of cinema, Ridley Scott's Prometheus was partly inspired by Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (link). The fear of the unknown has always been relevant to human interests.
The term cosmic horror can be used to describe something like the pursuit of knowledge, but is driven mad when they learn the truth of what they were looking for. My first introduction (beyond my childhood notions of Frankenstein) to what I understood as gothic were the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Stories like The Rats in the Walls and The Shunned House introduced me to what is Gothic. As previously stated, the theme of chasing the unknown seems very influential to contemporary culture.
Going beyond movies like Prometheus or games like Amensia, this theme is present in our society on a technological. The whole point of trying to explore space is to discover what is out there. We develop technologies to grasp into the unknown and hope to learn every secret of the universe. Is it possible there's something we wouldn't want to know? Or if we were to learn, would it be too much to handle? The unknown used to exist in the dark of the night as vampires, werewolves or witches. Today it exists in the fact that there is much beyond our home.
To be a bit more specific, gothic romanticism has been tumbled around in our culture to make it a bit more interesting to modern audiences. Although not the first, themes and stories from H.P. Lovecraft works inspire games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In terms of cinema, Ridley Scott's Prometheus was partly inspired by Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (link). The fear of the unknown has always been relevant to human interests.
The term cosmic horror can be used to describe something like the pursuit of knowledge, but is driven mad when they learn the truth of what they were looking for. My first introduction (beyond my childhood notions of Frankenstein) to what I understood as gothic were the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Stories like The Rats in the Walls and The Shunned House introduced me to what is Gothic. As previously stated, the theme of chasing the unknown seems very influential to contemporary culture.
Going beyond movies like Prometheus or games like Amensia, this theme is present in our society on a technological. The whole point of trying to explore space is to discover what is out there. We develop technologies to grasp into the unknown and hope to learn every secret of the universe. Is it possible there's something we wouldn't want to know? Or if we were to learn, would it be too much to handle? The unknown used to exist in the dark of the night as vampires, werewolves or witches. Today it exists in the fact that there is much beyond our home.
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