The Dark Side of Studying Vampires

My daily Google search for the word ‘vampire’ brought up a rather disturbing article today. An academic, specialising in vampire studies, has been accused of tacitly encouraging blood drinking during his lectures. (The original story can be found in The Daily Post). As the investigation is ongoing, it would be innappropriate to speculate on this too much. However, during my studies, I have been repeatedly asked whether I a) believe that vampires and werewolves exist, and b) whether I think I am one. The answer is no on both accounts. My research remains in the realm of the fictional and, although I’ve definitely sucked the odd minor cut, I’m actually pretty creeped out by blood.

Whilst there are people who drink human blood for a variety of reasons, many of these people would not think of themselves as vampires other than in the loosest sense and do not behave as fictional vampires do. If you are interested in learning more about these communities, John Edgar Browning’s work is incredibly good and respectful towards the individuals whom he interviews.

However, my main purpose to this post it to assure you, that if you have been keeping up with Sam’s module, ‘Reading the Vampire’, blood drinking is not encouraged and the course is about representations of the vampire!

(If you are thinking of venturing down this path, may I also recommend by own “Vegan Blood” [patent pending], the recipe for which can be found here).

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