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Today, we are very excited to speak again with Theresa Bane, an expert on vampires who has written two books on the subject (you can find our previous interview from last year with her here). She enlightens us on the many species of vampires, as well as the less-than-romantic aspects of these creatures:
IFP: How did you become interested in vampires?
TB: My mom encouraged all of her children to read; she didn’t care so much what we read as long as we did. The moment we showed a bit of interest in a subject, we were off the library and she’d get us all the books we could stand on that subject. I liked vampire books and stories as a child and continued to read about them into adulthood.
IFP: How did you come to write Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires? How long did it take you to write it?
TB: Years ago, I had started a fictional vampire novel, the first in a planned trilogy. I basically knew the story arc and had all the characters in mind and written up on character sheets, as it were, for me to be able to refer back to. I had a publisher who was interested in the project. All I had to do was write it. I knew that I did not want my vampires to be like everybody else’s, a rehash of Bram Stoker’s or Ann Rice’s vampires. I wanted my vampires to be like the “real thing”, whatever that means. So, I began doing a little research and that turned into a lot of research, and I soon realized that the book I was actually writing, a compendium of all the different types of vampires, was, to me, a far more interesting and exciting project. I talked it over with the publisher, and was able to drop the fictional trilogy for a non-fiction vampire compendium. It took five years to gather all of the research and six months to sit down and write, working twelve-hour days until it was complete.
IFP: How does the Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology differ from Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires?
TB: There are significant differences between the Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology and Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires. The Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology is an academic tome, written with the idea that researchers and scholars in various fields of study, such as anthropologists, historians, and sociologists, for instance, may use it as a reference book. Each source I used was carefully chosen from books and articles written by other professionals in the field that also cited their sources so that I could be sure the information was correct and accurate. Each entry cites its source and page number at the end of the entry. The entries are written out without any commentary or opinion given. McFarland, the publisher of the Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology has very high standards and there are quality requirements that needed to be met. Because of this, many of the entries that were in Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires did not make it into this book. McFarland books are oftentimes used as textbooks at colleges and universities throughout the world. There is a complete bibliography and an exhaustive index in the back of the book.
Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires was written for vampire enthusiasts of all kinds. It was presented and laid out in a field guide format with quick and easy-to-read heading and descriptions. Aside from including over 900 different species of vampires, it also had a handful of what I considered to be historically relevant fictional vampires as well as other entries that are vampire-related, such as the definition of a coffin as opposed to a casket, carrot seeds, ash (wood), and the like. In the back is a complete bibliography of all the books I referenced; however, there is no telling what information came from what books or what page. Also, because Actual Factual: Dracula, A Compendium of Vampires was written to be read and enjoyed by a much larger audience, the books I could use and reference were much broader and did not necessarily need to be peer-reviewed academia.
IFP: Six hundred species sound like a lot! Are there really that many variations on the vampire legend? And what is an “abchanchu“?
TB: Yes, six-hundred species of vampires are a lot of different types of vampires, but not so many when you take into consideration that these vampires came from every culture of people that has ever lived on the planet from every period of time that man has walked the earth. A good comparison of how small a number that is: there are about 107,000 mollusks, 35,000 species of worms, 2,500 species of cicada, 400 recognized breeds dogs, and about 350 different recognized breeds of horses, so vampires have a little catching up to do.
An abchanchu is a Bolivian vampire that hunts for its prey (humans) by appearing to them as a kindly old man who is lost and is in desperate need of assistance. After gaining the person’s trust and accepting their help, the vampire strikes. Not the way you may think, it does not suddenly turn with a mouthful of fangs, hissing, but rather, it infects the Good Samaritan with a deadly disease. If the person is lucky enough not to die from the illness, they will be found on the side of road, their body drained of blood.
The abchanchu is an older species of vampire, but hardly the oldest. Typically, older vampiric lore has the creature as some sort of mysterious plague carrier, as that is what ancient man seemed to fear. The fact that this vampire also may attack its victim and drain it of blood tells me that it has been adapted to more modern times, as modern man tends to associate vampiric assaults with blood draining. It will be interesting to see in future generations from now if the abchanchu will continue to be a plague-carrier, or if that special ability will be dropped from its folklore and forgotten – except in books.
IFP: What is the weirdest vampire myth you’ve heard about?
TB: Vampires come in all sorts of forms, be it an animated corpse, an animal, a vampiric fey, vampiric demon, even vampiric gods. What we may consider “weird” is only so because we are looking at it out of context. To the people who first imagined their vampires, they were very real and were created to fulfill their fear needs. After reading about all the different species of vampires, it really is hard to pin down what is weird.
There is a species of aswang, called the hayopan, that when it gets tired of doing the whole vampire thing, it retires to the swamps, trains a float of crocodiles, and has them do its hunting for it. Talk about lazy.
IFP: We have an idea of what the standard vampire is like: fears sunlight, has fangs, drinks blood. But this standard image seems to be fairly recent, probably based on Dracula. What are some vampires in film or literature that stray from this mold?
TB: The only vampires that I have seen in film that are anything like the actual vampire they are based on are Philippine movies involving the aswang. Unfortunately, more and more often, vampire movies are made to appeal to foreign markets and what the broader idea of what a vampire is – a monster that subsists off of blood, fears the sunlight, and has fangs. Mythologically-speaking, the bulk of vampiric species are not susceptible to sunlight, many are said to be at their peak of power during the noon-time hour. Most species of vampires do not even have fangs, as they are revenants of humans. It really kinda irks me that this type of vampire leaves two perfectly-round and spaced-apart puncture marks when in fact, a human bite would look more like a singular oval.
There are two vampire books that I recommend to people. The first is P. N. Elrod’s I, Strad. It’s an older book but a real gem if you can get your hands on a copy. It is to me a perfect vampire story. True, the vampire is largely similar to Dracula in its powers and abilities, but that is more than made up for in the expert storytelling and setting. It is a classic vampire story. The other book I recommend to folks was written by Tony Ruggerio and it is called Immortal Servitude. This book answers the question: “What would the US Government do with a clutch of vampires trained as Black Ops soldiers?” It’s smart and well-written and chock-full of military goodness. Best of all, the region of the world where the vampires come from are actually written up mythologically-correct, a big plus in my book!
IFP: What is the scariest kind of vampire?
TB: I do not believe that vampires exist, nor do I believe that they ever did. To me, they are a fascinating bit of mythology and anthropological history to be explored. If they were real, however, I cannot imagine a more horrific and frightening creature than a vampire. They exist to maintain their own existence, and to do that, they must kill, be it people or animals. They spread the plague and all sorts of other diseases. They have no agenda; nothing gives them pleasure or a moment of contentment.
IFP: The vampire with an erotic element is not new (Carmilla, Lord Ruthven), but it seems, nowadays, the erotic often supersedes the horrific. Why is this?
TB: I have a theory on why the erotic is more often played up than the horrific in vampire books. Vampires are the only monster that man created that is most like us, probably because in nearly every instance, they are us. Vampires historically attack that which the culture that created them considers to be most important. In some places, vampires attack children because that is what those people in that time period felt was their most precious natural resource. Other vampires feed off of cattle; some consume body heat. The modern American vampire, however, does not really attack anyone to feed, per se, but rather, murders people and then, if it needs to, feeds. As a society, we must have a deep and profound sense of loneliness that we are willing to reach out to anyone or anything for some sort of connection; feeling anything is better than feeling nothing. To find solace in the arms of death, to love it and embrace, to seek it out and defend it at every turn, tells us something about the society that we live it. Exactly what that is, I can’t say, I am not a sociologist or psychologist, but as a vampirologist I can say this – I find it a little frightening.
IFP: So, who’s the sexiest vampire?
TB: Personally, I don’t get the whole paranormal romance thing. To me, the idea of having relations with a vampire is weirder than necrophilia. Vampires are like the shark from Jaws. Hooper, the marine biologist, said that the shark they were after did three things: “swim and eat and make baby sharks.” Vampires do one of those things – they eat (as most species of vampires are incapable of creating more of their own kind). So, when folks are all clamouring about the vampire romance du jour, I think, “Ew, sex with an undead great white shark.”
That being said, James Marster’s Spike was, and still is, my all-time favourite vampire. The immortal Bad Boy.
IFP: What vampire movies would you recommend?
TB: As a rule, I don’t watch vampire movies because the vampires that are most often portrayed in them are just slightly-re-imagined versions of Bram Stoker’s vampire, Dracula. I get twitchy when I see the mythology all wrong. I can’t imagine anyone who would make a movie about football and not bother to learn the rules of the game or anything about the bond that people feel when working in a team like that, so why do vampires not get the same respect?
If I had to pick a movie, I would say, watch 30 Days of Night. It was interesting because the vampires were very much like the “real” thing, nearly-mindless animals. However, if the vampires were replaced with polar bears, it would still be a pretty good movie, and make as much sense.
Bio: Vampirologist Theresa Bane has been featured on Discovery Channel’s Twisted History: Vampires, as well as E!’s 10 Sexiest Vampires, for her knowledge and expertise on the undead. Bane is the author of The Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology, Actual Factual: Dracula, Haunted Historic Greensboro, and Ghost Stories and Folklore of the Piedmont, North Carolina. She has also written a dark humor book entitled The Bloodthirsty Weasels: On the Loose and Buck Wild, as well as regularly writing content and satirical articles for on-line magazines.
When not writing, Bane travels, educating audiences about the differences between traditional mythology and horror fiction. A diehard gamer originally from the NY/NJ area, she currently resides in North Carolina with her husband, T. Glenn Bane. Please feel free to visit her website at www.theresabane.net
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