Lust for Lust (Article by Volk Kinetshniy)
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| by Volk Kinetshniy |
When it
comes to Lust, there is one creature of all that comes to mind instantly. One
that is almost the synonym of Lust and practically its personification. And it
is no other than our well known Vampire, the undead bloodsucking beast, who
roams the nights for centuries and scatters terror upon the living.
So who is
this Vampire? And why is the Vampire the ultimate creature of Lust?
There is a
strong resemblance between the vampire and someone else. Let's take a closer
look. The vampire's appearance has shifted through time and differs from region
to region. He begins as a bloated, red and bloody monster from the East and
Southeast of Europe and slowly changes to become the pale charming vampire of
the West. Meanwhile, vampires have also been described as red faced creatures
with tiny tails in Islamic folklore or as shadows.
One of his greatest
qualities, is the ability to shape shift into animals. There are legends about
black cats, just like in the famous novel Carmilla (1872) by Joseph Sheridan Le
Fanu, where the vampire Carmilla appears as a huge black cat. He also appears
as a wolf, as described in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and his deleted chapter
Dracula's Guest (1914), where a giant wolf appears and lies on him to keep his
blood warm. Apart from that, he is also clearly known to be taking the form of
a bat or of nocturnal birds, such as the Ancient Greek Strige who fed on babies
and young men or the Mesopotamian anthropomorphic bird-footed Lilitu who is the
same as the Hebrew Lilith, Adam's first wife and Queen of the damned -who also
feeds on baby blood. The vampire is also linked to rodents, which carry
diseases such as the plague -or so it was believed, to lizards, and even
insects, like the Albanian Shtriaga who turns into an insect to prey on
children.
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| by LittleSuicideCandy |
All this
sounds already a whole lot like the Devil. Whose depictions began as a monster
with many faces and animal parts and slowly turned more human. By the 18th
century he almost looked like the god Apollo.
Just like the Vampire, the devil takes the form of animals on many
occasions. As the fanged snake in the Garden of Eden, as an insect -usually a
fly, as a black cat, or as a black wild dog just like in the movie The Omen
(1976) directed by Richard Donner.
The Vampire
and The Devil so strongly associated, have even more things in common. They
often take on the form of a charming man or woman to entice their victims, but
there is always one little flaw in their perfection. A mark on their body, a
third nipple, a crooked foot, something
small, something they are hiding, something which reveals their true
nature.
There is
also one more striking similarity between them, the blurring of gender. The
devil was an angel, hence "he" is sexless and genderless. As for the
vampire (male or female), he is bending his/her gender.
The male
vampire is according to most legends incapable of penile-vaginal intercourse,
instead he is fixed on oral satisfaction, sucking blood and penetration is
caused by his fangs. In some occasions he has made his victims suck his own
blood, just like Bram Stoker's Dracula made Miss Murray drink his blood, which
replaced by other body fluids, could have been semen or milk, which makes him
able of lactation.
As for the
female vampires, who of course are sterile/infertile as well, they turn into
male predators through their ability to penetrate with their fangs and most of
all through their murderous nature towards children. Instead of mothering
babies, like other women, female vampires kill them.
The vampire
enjoys sins, he lusts for blood and sex, he has no problem killing people, he
is arrogant and tries to lead "good" people astray. Pretty similar to
the Devil.
Now, how
did the Vampire become a vampire? Why? And why did the Devil become who he is?
Again the
same reason: Sin.
Lucifer was
still an angel when his arrogance made him disobey God and he fell from heaven,
died in a way and came back as the Devil, a monster whose purpose is to
corrupt. The ultimate rebel in all history was punished by turning into a beast
and became the archfiend of God.
And how do
people become vampires? Who becomes a vampire?
According
to legends, you might turn into one if you die alone and unseen, if you kill
yourself, if you rebel against the church, if you have been cursed by someone,
if you are a sinner, if a cat jumps over your coffin, if you eat sheep killed
by wolves or if you get bitten by a vampire and get infected. All in all and in
most cases, if you sin or get in contact with a sinner, you turn into a beast.
And now we
know and it is crystal clear, that neither the vampire, nor the Devil are
actual beasts, but instead they are a God, a God who dates back to the ancient
times: Pan, the ancient Greek God of the wild, who loved physical pleasure and
who was famous for his sexual powers and is often depicted with a phallus, he
used to masturbate in public and hang out with the nymphs and satyrs (who
looked similar and also had a permanent erection). He had horns like the devil,
a flute which he played hypnotizing tunes with and sometimes goats' feet and of course he was often worshiped, just
like all pagan Gods, with blood sacrifice.
He wasn't
evil, nor good, just a Greek God like all the rest, but when the new religions
came along, it all changed. Pan is the one of the few, maybe the only Greek God
who actually died (as Plutarche mentions in De defecta oraculorum " The Obsolascence
of Oracles.")
According
to G.K Chesterton "Pan died, because Christ was born."
They killed
Pan and all his aspects, all his traits formed the new religion's Devil. His
death was the death of paganism and the death of the ancient world, where lust
and sexual activities were celebrated, instead of being condemned.
But Pan is
too strong to be left dead. First he comes back as the Devil, and then in the
18th century Pan revives amongst liberal scholars. The very same century
vampire hysteria breaks out and vampire myths start spreading.
In the 19th
century, with vampires taking over literature and the arts, Pan is one of the
main subjects as well. He even gets through to children, with the Peter Pan
stories, where a boy wants to stay young forever (and actually managed since
every generation of the book's characters seems to know him) and represents the
pagan world, since he lives in the wild, just like Pan. Peter Pan is a charming
and selfish creature, described as a "betwixt and between" part
animal, part human. His character is focusing on our confusion about whether
human instincts are natural or uncivilized and evil.
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| by LittleSuicideCandy |
People
dread vampires. All the ways they have thought of to ward them off or kill them?
Lets name
but a few: Vampires are killed by staking them through the heart, through the
mouth, through the stomach. Decapitation is another method and to throw the
head away, or place it between their feet or behind their buttocks. They have been pinned to earth, or their
hearts have been pierced by steel and iron needles. Iron needles also go into
their mouths, over their eyes, ears and between their fingers. Sometimes a
stake has been placed through the legs so they wouldn't be able to walk. They
can be shot or drowned according to some. Exorcisms have been performed on
bodies. Garlic has been placed in their mouth, or sometimes a brick, to prevent
them from chewing their way out. Numerous coffins have been found to be shot or
with corpses staked. People used to open the graves and perform such rituals in
case of suspicion of vampirism.
Great
importance has also been placed in ways of keeping them away: Garlic of course, a cross, especially a silver
cross are the best weapons against a vampire, and of course not leaving your
house at night.
In general
though, it's pretty hard keeping the beast away or killing it. Why is that?
Because it keeps coming back, just like all the sins humans have placed upon
it. They keep coming back.
Incest,
murder, oral sex, homosexuality, bdsm, arrogance, madness, cannibalism,
enjoying sexual pleasure without reproduction, but just for the pleasure of it,
lust for lust.
Humans
can't accept their true nature, their real needs, their animalistic selves, so
they have found a scapegoat: The Vampire.
They put
everything on him and created a monster they now try to keep away. And even
though they fear him and try to kill him, they still secretly desire him.
Because they want to be undead, they want to be Gods, and they are afraid of
this arrogance against God. This is why the vampire is punished. But the secret
joy of humans winning over death remains. Not only that, but through him, they
can enjoy their sins without getting the blame. The Vampire is dehumanized, he
is a monster, he can hypnotize them and force them to do things, but it's not
their fault anymore. Their sins are not their sins anymore, but instead they
belong to him, they are his sins, but they can enjoy it secretly while being
victims and not at fault at the same time.
The Vampire
is and will always be the outsider, the freak. He is driven by his lust for
blood and he can't control it, he is cursed to follow his animalistic needs no
matter what. And this is why he poses the eternal danger to society. He hides
in his coffin during the day and comes out at night. Rarely, he even mingles
with humans, always disguised and quite protected from the sun. And all the
"freaks" of society do the same: the sadist, the harlot, the
incestuous, the rebel, the madman, the homosexual, the non-believer, the
junkie, the murderer...
All those
that society keeps outside, those that are driven by their desires and set out
to satisfy them.
People say
that once you invite the Vampire into your house, he then will be able to come
whenever he pleases.
"Good"
people who are the gemstones of our society shouldn't come in contact with
them. The Vampire might either kill you or turn you into a vampire too. So will
the sinner, because once you get bitten and infected with lust, there is no way
out, you will turn into a monster too.
There also has
been another approach to vampires. This one views them as tragic victims of
fate such as "Barnabas Collins" ( 1966-71) by Marilyn Ross, who is portrayed
as a poetic, tragic hero.
In Anne
Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" (1976), Louis lets Lestat, who is a
vampire convert him and then he tries to ignore his nature and not feed on
humans. As time goes by however, he succumbs to his nature and kills. He is a
pretty depressing character who suffers of his condition and there are other
vampires who have been portrayed as victims as well.
In Richard
Matheson's " I am legend" (1954) there is a bacterium that causes
vampirism and they try to find the biology behind it. In many more stories it
is presented that way and they always try to find the cure.
The cure to
lust, the cure to sin.
People
slowly have approached the beast, but not to accept it; to "cure" it.
To take out its nature and purify it. This draws strong comparisons to the
lobotomies, the electroshocks and the special reform institutions for socially
unacceptable people throughout history.
A woman who refused to marry, homosexuals, lesbians, queers, anti- government,
not your "normal", "good" civilian in any way, they've so
often been shipped to camps, to mental institutions. Some to be killed, some to
be "cured".
But no
matter how much they try to extinguish them, somehow the Vampire always
survives and carries on, because when night falls and the moon calls the
vampire will rise again.
by Volk Kinetshniy ( article from DRECK Magazine print, Lust issue)
