Sunday, December 13, 2009

What's so cool about being dead?

Why do you think that undead creatures have had such a long and illustrious career in cultural history, literature, fashion and our psyche?

3 comments:

Nic said...

Death as the Great Unknown, maybe? I read once that we tell ourselves scary stories to make life seem safer. It gives you a small, contained glimpse of something you can play with and them discard, safe in the knowledge of your comfy, fang-free life.

Hettie Betty said...

I don't think current vampire stories are about making 'real' life seem safer. I think it's about making death more exciting. It's like saying death isn't really there and despite being dead, vampires especially are still here doing a lot of the things they normally do in life.
People seem to have always considered that death isn't the end, but if you're a vampire, you don't even have to go anywhere new, like Heaven or anything. You stay right where you always were.
The thing I find attractive about the vampire lifestyle is that they stay alive for so long and get to watch history as it happens. That is so cool!

detecktive said...

I actually agree with Nic and Hettie Betty's.

I think in one sense it does make death less scary, or at the very least provides a way of thinking about death that doesn't make you consider you're own mortality.

Alternatively I also think that at the same time, as Hettie Betty said, it makes death more exciting through the concept of immortality without the heaven/hell concept to consider.

Its the afterlife you get when you're not getting an afterlife.