Lust for Lust (Article by Volk Kinetshniy)

Lust for Lust (Article by Volk Kinetshniy)

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.

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.

 

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)