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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2003)
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Tk : fundedk rom gener- authorized US :apsule ikhstan stan (AP) ipsule car- a Russian fed safely vide-open zakhstan. itrol said, iescent to a seconc onaut has ;sian craf sign soil ion of the jmbia if manneo icld, the tiles have :he space i Contro 1 d others n for the 1 that the st Soyas ; h endec i Russian miles ofr ;0 mputer uesday's ip were Russian o flew to early ^ 3 safe d Pedro • the sta- , a differ- iN dicor liter ducer ring tas session Postage ittalio n ' =tsity i n s ate io E-maiC OyltlO classi- j office to pier 1 iptions crJie 611. Aggielife The Battalion Page 3 • Tuesday, October 28. 2003 FEM FftClg ^VAIPIEES ^ By Jimmy Hissong THE BATTALION It's pretty much the general consensus among college students that tests are hard, professors are tough and textbooks are boring. At least students aren’t damned to walk the earth with an eternal hunger for human blood, assuming the previously enrolled vam pires have already graduated. The vampire legend invented more than a century ago has grown to common trick-or-treater knowledge today. Speculation on the size of vampire hype would place it slightly below were wolves, but significantly ahead of the creature from the black lagoon. Frankenstein and vampires tie. Dracula would likely win a fight, though. Hungarian myths dating back to the 12th century form the backbone for many of the character traits of the modern vampire. The fear of ghouls such as the Incubus and Succubus, who rose from the grave and sucked the blood of the living, predate Dracula. Imaginative authors have developed and evolved the vampire creature into an immortal being with the ability to climb walls and transfonn into a bat. “For the most part, everything we think of as a legend or myth is created by a literary writer,” said Dr. Dennis Berthold, a pro fessor of gothic literature. Berthold said nearly all of the stories surrounding fang-bear ing, garlic-hating vampires can be traced to a single source: Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” published in 1897. The imagination and inno vation of Stoker’s work have encouraged a number of artists to explore the undying topic for more than a century. Silent filmmakers of the 1920s furthered the vampire legend by bringing the impossible abilities of vampires to a screen before an audience’s very eyes. Writers such as Anne Rice have modern ized various vampire tales, renewing their popularity for modern readers. “Roughly speaking, the vampire is pretty much a creation of modern literature,” Berthold said. Berthold said perhaps the reason the myth and legend sur rounding a race of undying bloodsuckers has grown to the extent they have over the years is that most vampire works incorporate a sense of realism. Stoker and other authors use pseudo history. There really was a count living in Transylvania centuries ago, and while he wasn’t the nicest guy, he likely hasn’t roamed the earth for the past five centuries. The count’s queer habit of impaling his enemies on roadside pikes earned him the nicknaxpe of Vlad the Impaler, but history and storytelling have renamed the count Dracula. rt A vampire changingIffib a bat strictly comes but of Stoker’s novel, and of course it makes sense because there really are such things as vampire bats. But about the worst thing they’ve ever done is bite some cattle,” Berthold said. Rice also frequently incorporates a sense of reality into her works of fiction. Her novel “Interview with a Vampire,” later turned into a film, centers around a seemingly non- fictional interview with a man who claims to be a vampire. “If we get scared by things that are really weird, we aren’t really scared because we know it can’t happen,” Berthold said. “It’s not as scary as a more real istic kind of literature. You could be scared for a moment, then get over it and dismiss it as a fairy tale.” While vampire tales might make it difficult for a chosen few to walk unescorted at night, there is a general limit to their acceptance by the masses as a source of real terror. “They are probably one of the scariest monsters, but then again they kind of remind me of mosquitoes,” said Keri Bell, a sophomore English major Regardless of some believability issues, vampire tales have sur vived, while stories, such as space alien clowns tend to enter tain minimal success. Vampire leg ends tend to deal with two basic human infatuations: Death and sex. “It speaks to some kind of human need to be able to deal with mortality and the possibility that the body will decay or change in some sort of way, and it becomes a way of confronting your own death. You aren’t just the same as your body,” Berthold said. Tones of sensuality are just as evident. “The stories are always about a female in distress,” Berthold said. “It’s late at night. Somebody’s chasing her and wants to get her alone. They may not rehlly want to suck her blood; it’s just a metaphor. Sex is definitely right on the surface in many stories.” Although vampire stories and vampire superstitions tend to be commonly known, the acceptance of the existence of vampires is still confronted by skep ticism. “If vampires were real and they were really immortal, we’d have them running around everywhere,” Berthold said. Based on that idea, Texas A&M has a lot of work to do to meet its diversity vision for the year 2020 (which by the way is exactly 558 years since the sup posed emergence of the vampire, Dracula.) The vampire presence in and around A&M is still extremely minimal. Ryan McCabe, a senior Finance major, believes stu dents who sleep a lot during the day and are on the prowl at night are likely candidates for modern-day vampires. “I don’t know about vampires, know I am not a vampire, but I am more active at night. I guess that’s because cell phone minutes are free after nine. Plus I sleep all day,” McCabe said. Vampires or not, the American Red Cross Brazos Valley Blood Bank said it is more than ready to serve the area’s needs. Non vampires are likely to eceive preferential treatment, however. Seth Freeman • THE BATTALION 2 MILLION INVESTORS. 80 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE. 1 WEIRD NAME TIAA-CREF has a long history of managing portfolios for the world’s sharpest minds. Contact us for ideas, strategies, and, at the very least, proper pronunciation. TIAA-CREF.org or call 800.842.2776 A : : Ilfp v; i,V' : -ft ;: V; " A-.A ° v ' .. v ,>. <33% ’ F ' W -T ' -.: m■ v'y-v?;) Managing money for people with other things to think about. 5 RETIREMENT I INSURANCE I MUTUAL FUNDS I COLLEGE SAVINGS I TRUSTS I INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT TIAA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, Inc. and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. distribute securities products. For information and prospectuses, call (877) 518-9161. Read them carefully before investing. © 2003 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 • ; v y - ®":T'..yS 1j&iif : ‘X ■ 505 University Dr. E