Ligeia

This one's also late.... This one was quite obvious about how it hinted about vampires. First off, there was the narrator's description of Ligeia: huge eyes, pearly white teeth, pale skin, raven black hair, knowledgeable above most others. She would enter a room and he wouldn't even realize it until she started speaking to him. Also, her family was an ancient, highly-respected line of people. This hints at vampirism do to the physical aspect, as well as the fact that since she knew all of the classical languages and everything, she's probably been around a really long time. The poem she recited on her death bed also hints at the fact that she knows what's coming, and it's not going to be eternal salvation. Once Ligeia dies, the narrator marries Lady Rowena, and he hates her. She doesn't love him, either. She gets sick mysteriously, and her doctors can't figure out what's wrong with her. She becomes over-sensitive to sounds and light (like vampires are). During her sickness, she drinks some wine which the narrator sees some 'ruby drops' fall into, but he can't fathom the source. One of the most obvious clues about vampires is the scene at her death bed, in which she keeps dying and then suddenly coming back to life. Eventually, she gets up and starts walking over to the narrator. At this point the narrator becomes suspicious and finds out that it is Ligeia, somehow manifested in the former body of Lady Rowena.
Out of the three works of Poe, this one most obviously points to vampires.

The Oval Portrait

Sorry this is late... this week's been pretty crazy. Anyway, after reading The Oval Portrait, I was still unsure as to how it hinted at vampires. I guess that the narrator was so drawn to the portrait, but I really have no idea.

The Fall of the House of Usher

In this story, Poe hints at vampires most obviously in the part of the story where there is a heavy storm and the narrator hears the noises. While he is reading, there are awful noises coming from somewhere in the depths of the mansion. Usher realizes that these noises are the sounds of Lady Madeline, his twin sister, escaping from the coffin/chamber/vault that the narrator and Usher had buried her in eight days prior to this. Usher describes how he had been hearing these noises for the past few nights, but hadn't mentioned that they mistakenly buried her alive. Suddenly she's in the room and falls over and kills Usher, and the narrator flees the house. There are other hints at vampirism, such as when Usher becomes withdrawn and tells the narrator to stay in his room at night. I'm almost positive that there are other signs in the story that I missed, but those are the two main examples that I could find.

Vampire Website

I found this website http://vampirewebsite.net/ The author seems to seriously believe in all of this stuff... The content is pretty good, but the grammar isn't great. It's really an interesting site. Personally, I don't believe most of it, but I generally don't believe in supernatural stuff.

Assignment #1

I've read a few books on vampires. One of the books not on the list is Pests or something like that. It's about vampires living in New York City and how there's a vampire infestation. It's almost impossible to contain the outbreak, since it's carried by rats, I think. It's been a while since I've read it. Another book I've read was called Cold Ones, I think. It was about this social group of elite teenagers that hang out at upscale nightclubs and one by one they find the dead corpses of their classmates. I think there was a good group of vampires that ran the city and an evil group that did all of the killing. Sorry that the details are pretty vague... In both of these books, the vampire is pretty much your typical blood-sucking monster.
Of the books on the class list I have read Twilight and Dracula. Dracula is a pretty good book, and it seems to be the general foundation for all modern vampire books, as in it seemed to have set the precedents for 'American' vampires. It's a bit challenging at first to get the hang of the old-timey writing style, but once that's done it's not so bad. The storyline is actually pretty great. I thought that Twilight was a pretty good quick escape from reality, but not something to take too seriously. It was definitely a fun little tryst. The vampires here are quite different than those in the traditional 'American' stories and legends, like how they have extendo-fangs and can function pretty well in society. The Cullens are almost more like the Tucks from Tuck Everlasting than they are like vampires.
As far as what I know about vampires, I know the general stuff about how they suck blood and only come out at night and sleep in coffins and hate garlic, but I haven't heard of too many other types of vampires. The theory about how the idea of vampires got started that I'm most inclined to believe is the one about the diabetics and how their gums would recede and they would eat a lot and pass out. Another think that I've heard is that cats have something to do with the process of becoming a vampire, but I'm not sure what.
My personal thought of what the term 'vampire' embodies is that of the tall, pale, swooping figure with red eyes and extended fangs. In other words, I think of the traditional Dracula-esque vampire. I tend to think of the vampire as a blood-thirsty creature of terror.
That's about all of the vampire stuff that I've heard, so comment away!