Infectious Vampires

The thought of vampires have always made me quiver. Even though I know vampires don’t exist, it is just creepy that you might think someone is a normal human being, but then out of the blue they bite your neck. You all know what a vampire is, but I am going to define it anyways it is a corpse that rises at night to drink blood of the living. Usually in movies the vampires are thought of to be the evil villain. If the living person is bitten by the vampire they either die or become infected with the “venom” and become a vampire. The reason I abbreviated venom is because I don’t actually know if that is what makes people turn into vampires or not. The only source if received information about how normal human beings turn into vampires is from the Twilight series.

The other day when we were watching Dracula in class and Dracula the vampire reminded me of a parasite. He would infect a normal human by biting their necks creating another “parasite,” a vampire, which then they would bite another human and create another parasite and so on. Just like in the book “The Parasite” written by Michel Serres, he talks about the continuation of the creation of parasites, they are everywhere. Serres says “Parasitism is the name most often given to these numerous and diverse activities.” In the movie the doctor is continually trying to prevent this reproduction from happening. He would be the interruption in this movie because he continues to interrupt Dracula from his work. There are many interruptions that can happen throughout your life, in movies, when writing, etc.

On the other hand, there are some good vampires out in the fantasy world for example Edward from the Twilight series. I’m sure everyone has heard about Twilight even if you don’t like them, it is everywhere and the main characters Edward (Robert Pattinson), Bella (Kristen Stewart), and Jacob (Taylor Lautner). I will give you a little idea of what the books are all about if you haven’t heard of them yet; Edward is a vampire, Bella is a normal human being, and Jacob is a werewolf. Edward and Bella are deeply in love they believe they are each other’s soul mates, but Jacob is in love with Bella which makes things difficult when Bella figures out she loves Jacob too. Bella wants to become infected with Edwards’s venom and become a vampire just like him. But Jacob becomes the interruption with Bella when she is trying to convert. When Edward finally bites into Bella she officially turns into a vampire and is able to infect more normal human beings if wanted to. As Serres puts it “the parasited one parasites the parasites, (13)” Edward “the parasite” infects or parasites Bella.

I think Bella could relate to the one-way relationship Serres explains. She doesn’t really think of others when wanting to be converted to a vampire because that is the only way she can see her life is as a vampire and no other way. She doesn’t really think of others and how they are going to feel for example her dad, mom, or Jacob. With her experience when becoming a vampire she didn’t really have to deal with others not having to deal with the intersubjective relationship.
Even in real life the reader becomes infected with these books, I personally am. It seems that once you start the book you can’t put it down and then you want to read the next book, then the next and then the final book. I didn’t start reading the book until after the first movie came out “Twilight,” my two best friends were obsessed or you can say “infected” the infatuation of true love. I didn’t understand what the whole fuss was about with all of the teenage girls in the world, so I began to read them to find out why so many people were crazy about these books. Now I understand why everyone is crazy and I too am now infected with the romance and two people who are in love, but shouldn’t be together.
YouTube - Twilight - Official Trailer [HD]

I would also relate this movie as a whole to a parasite because it has infected so many people’s lives and show writers can sense that. This is why you see so many new shows and some movies about vampires these days because Twilight became so popular. But I must give credit to Dracula for starting out this vampire craze in people throughout the world.