Level
of difficulty: intermediate, end of the first term.
Original
text: Essie, http://essiespeaks.blogspot.com
We owe Essie thanks for allowing a follower of this blog
to transform her text into a listening activity.
Vampires have always been an important part
of various works of art. They can be seen mostly in books and films. They have
appeared in various forms and in various cultures throughout the world; stories
of blood-sucking demons can be found in very early folk myths in Asia and the
Middle East. Today, I would like to have a chronological look at the vampire
phenomenon in the history of cinema.
Vampires “reached” Europe in the early 18th
century. Stories of vampires came to Europe from the Balkans. Stories spread mostly from the Balkans because
Balkans had a tradition of vampire legends. The stories even lead to a
wide-spread public hysteria. Luckily, in the beginning of the 19th century,
vampire legends came to a stop and the public started not to be affected from
these vampire legends. The first reason why vampires lost their fear factor is
that 19th century is the age
of reason. In addition to the fact that
it was the age of reason, modern science also proved that vampires did not
exist. So, it was the modern science which disproved the existence of vampires.
Vampires did, nevertheless, continue to be seen in many works of art. In
written literature, the most famous one is no doubt Braham Stoker’s 1867 novel,
Dracula. With the 20th century and the advent of cinema, vampires made an
appearance in the cinema, too. And one
of the earliest works of cinema is Murnau’s Nosferatu, dated 1907.
The world is full of legends and heroes.
However, vampires have a special place among these legends and heroes. The most basic characteristic of a vampire
is the fact that it is a monster. This monster is frightening. The fact
that vampires are frightening monsters is well known by almost everybody. That
is why film-makers who are new to this business use these frightening monsters
as their best actors. The pioneer filmmakers had to use certain “types”, types
that everyone knew, that didn’t need much introduction. The vampires need no
introduction because of many reasons.
The second reason why film-makers used
vampires as their best actor is that they could easily reach the dramatic mood they wanted to
achieve. For film makers the hardest
part is to reach the dramatic mood
and they can do this by using this frightening monster.
Thirdly, the audience didn’t really expect to
see vampires in the early 20th century. One must remember that the
cinema was principally a spectacle for many years; especially in its early
years, the cinema was viewed as entertainment and it was not thought of as a
work of art. And besides, the audience was very unused to this new form of
entertainment; the cinema did not become a common form of entertainment until
the middle of the 20th century, so no one had seen that many films. To make
people see more films, filmmakers had to use
strong characters. Vampires, as you can imagine, are very strong characters and thus the
filmmakers used vampires as strong characters. Nowadays, you can imagine that
Bruce Willis or Dwayne Johnson does not need an introduction to the audience.
They are both heroes that almost everybody accepts.
You
can all imagine that cliché characters needed no real introduction, everyone
knew them well anyway; in an adventure film the hero is always handsome and
brave. In a comedy, he is dumb and
clumsy. Then there is a beautiful maiden, naturally, young and stunning. The
hero must do something to make the maiden love him. Then of course the villain,
the bad person in the movie, who must be overcome by the hero. In a horror
movie, all we really need to know about a monster – be it a vampire or
something else – is that it is out to
get you and must be stopped. The hero’s job is to stop the monster which is out
to get you. The rest is largely left to the viewer’s imagination.
When we look at the history of vampires in
the cinema, the first character we observe is Braham Stoker’s Dracula. As
mentioned earlier, we need a monster and a hero. Our monster is the vampire,
Count Orlok. Count Orlok lives in a scary castle in Romania. Our hero is a
lawyer from a small village in Germany. The Count wants to buy a castle in a
small village in Germany, so he recruits the lawyer, our hero. In the earlier
versions of Dracula, the count is depicted as ugly and scary; however, in later versions, the vampire gained one
quality – they were, for the most part,
good looking, or at least charismatic. Of course, the story never changed:
our hero needs to kill the monster, however good looking and charismatic he may look, in contrast to the ugly and scary monsters of the past.
The 1990’s brought with it a new decade and
a society with even more needs. Vampires have successfully made their way into
mainstream comedy. Two icons – still popular to this very day – were born in this
era. One is a more romantic image of vampires, targeting a slightly older
audience – Interview with A Vampire, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. The
second is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and her partner Angel. Buffy and Angel aimed at a slightly younger audience with
overtones of a supernatural adventure story. As we all know, young people would
love to watch supernatural adventure and that is why Buffy and Angel were
mostly watched by the younger audience.
As we said, Angel is a more complex vampire
than his predecessors. Unlike them, he has a conscience, and a soul. Now this,
we may recall, came about because Angel is cursed. He angered a gypsy who
cursed him by giving him back his soul. Of course now he is no longer a
soulless monster; Angel is tormented beyond belief by the memory of all the
horrible things he has done in his vampire life. But that is not all, if he ever finds true happiness; he
will lose his soul again, becoming a destructive monster. So therein lies the
dilemma, Angel has regained “human” status in a sense by having his soul, but
he must struggle through his endless life,
not indulging in any true happiness. Remember, if he finds happiness, he will lose his soul and become a monster
again.
Now, let us begin by analyzing some aspects
of the popular television series True Blood. We must confess that there are
inherent difficulties in analyzing a series because there are many layers and
different messages that are given in various episodes but there are some basic
messages that “stick out” in certain seasons. And the main “problem” True Blood has with the world seems to be
political. In the first series, the underlying message is all about the
fact that vampires “hunt humans”. One cannot help but ask oneself, what would
happen if, one day when we woke up, we found out that there were such things as
vampires? Even if these were people we had known for a while like the doorman
in our apartment or the dentist we go to, we would be horrified by the fact
that they could potentially kill and eat us. How would we feel about such a
thing happening? There may be many interpretations of True Blood out there but
the one interpretation is striking. In this interpretation, the world with the
vampires is America after the 9 /11 incident. Remember the American citizen Muslims
working as pilots causing the deaths of many while hitting the twin towers? In
a world like this, then, the vampires represent the Muslims. Naturally, people
knew that Muslims actually existed, but the “war on terror” changed the way
they were viewed forever as far as some people were concerned. As True Blood is
a complex series, there are good vampires and bad vampires, just as there are
good and bad members in any section of society. So, a popular television series
like the True Blood can view the world
as political and makes social criticism on that.
Similar criticism can be found underlying
many of the most innocent looking vampire films. Another good example is the
Twilight saga that has taken the planet by storm. Twilight is, very basically,
a teenage romance. It speaks of Edward Cullen the vampire and Bella Swan the
human who fall in love, and all the obstacles they must overcome until they are
able to get married – when Edward will turn Bella into a vampire too and their
love will become eternal. The first noticeable strength about Twilight is the lengths
to which its creators have gone to make
absolutely sure we find the vampires approachable. The Cullen family, in
the tradition of all truly “good” vampires, does not feed on human blood. They
call themselves “vegetarian” and only animal blood will do. Secondly, they do
not have any problem with going out in the day time, the reason they avoid the
sun is that it makes their skin glow in a rather conspicuous manner – thus
making them that little bit more
approachable / like us.
“Adapt
or die”, if we cannot go as far as calling this a mantra for the entire planet,
it is definitely a very sound principal to base one on. And vampires seem to
have done just that; adapted and thrived. Gone are the mere monsters of
yesteryear, gone are the vampires without souls hell-bent on destruction alone,
they have shown us a different side to their character. The reason for this is
no doubt, the changes in modern
audiences. Apparently, modern
audiences call for these changes to get away from the boredom of daily
life.
This is the end of this interesting
lecture. Thank you for listening.
THE
EVOLUTION OF VAMPIRES
SELECTIVE
LISTENING
1. Why
did stories of vampires spread from the Balkans?
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why
did people stop being afraid of vampires in the 19th century? (write
one).
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. What
is the basic feature of a vampire?
____________________________________________________________________________
4. What
did the filmmakers who preferred to use vampires as their best actors try to
achieve?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
5. To
enable more people to see their films, filmmakers needed to use
_______________________________ such as vampires.
6. What
is the hero expected to do in horror films?
_______________________________________________________________________________
7. In
today’s films and TV series, vampires are ____________ and _____________;
however, in the past, they were all shown as ____________ and
____________.
8. What
aspect of the Buffy and Angel series made young people love watching them?
___________________________________________________________________________
9. What
must Angel avoid throughout his long life?
_____________________________________________________________________________
10. The
TV series `True Blood` sees the world as _______________________.
11. The
strength of the `Twilight Saga` is that the characters are _____________________
and they are like us.
12. What
is the reason for the change vampire characters have undergone throughout the
years?
____________________________________________________________________________
THE
EVOLUTION OF VAMPIRES
SELECTIVE
LISTENING - KEY
1. Why
did stories of vampires spread from the Balkans?
The Balkans had a tradition of vampire
legends.
2. Why
did people stop being afraid of vampires in the 19th century? (write
one).
It was the age of reason / modern science
proved that vampires did not exist.
3. What
is the basic feature of a vampire?
It is a monster.
4. What
did the filmmakers who preferred to use vampires as their best actors try to
achieve?
The dramatic mood
5. To
enable more people to see their films, filmmakers needed to use strong characters such as
vampires.
6. What
is the hero expected to do in horror films?
Stop the monster (which is out to get
you)
7. In
today’s films and TV series, vampires are good
looking and charismatic;
however, in the past, they were all
shown as ugly and scary.
8. What
aspect of the Buffy and Angel series made young people love watching them?
It is a supernatural adventure story.
9. What
must Angel avoid throughout his long life?
Finding true happiness
10. The
TV series `True Blood` sees the world as political.
11. The
strength of the ‘Twilight Saga` is that the characters are approachable and they
are like us.
12. What
is the reason for the change vampire characters have under gone throughout the
years?
The changes in modern
audiences
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