It is easier to indulge a fetish than to fight it, since a fetish most often designates the unconscious power accorded to a particular object, being, or body part. Why does the vampire continue to haunt the imaginative recreation of Romania? Certainly the bloodthirty history of Romania's rulers, including Ceausescu's recent grotesque regime, makes the vampire myths attractive to Westerners seeking to understand the turmoils of Romanian history. And the vampire analogy is irresistible when describing the parasitism of Romanian socialism or the market malaise. The surrealist tradition in literature certainly exploited the vampire as a literary device.
Of course, there is nothing I enjoy more than talking to common-sensical Protestants who express concern over the superstitions of Eastern Orthodoxy while planning pilgramages to Romania in search of Dracula. This post is for those who are divided amongst themselves-- fascinated by the vampirology but moored to rationalism by the banality of everyday life. Indulge yourselves....
- "The Vampire in Roumania" by Agnes Mourgoci describes the vampire in Romanian folk-lore.
- The Communist Dracula Pageant brought vampires, communism and beauty pageants to the stage in Boston.
- More folk-lore and legend about Romanian vampires.
- Thomas M. Sipos is the authorial king of the vampire-communist credenza. His latest fictional foray, Vampire Nation, was nominated for a Prometheus Award. The premise: communism leaves behind vampires, a form of parasite, that make the construction of civil society quite challenging.
- Ceausescu adored Vlad Tepes-- he had a soft spot in his un-heart for him.
- Dracula's Castle, an introduction by one steeped in myths.
- Vampress profiles vampires in fiction and literature.
- Vampire-hunting in Romania is a business venture like any other.
- Vampire-slaying kit from 19th century Romania.
- Andrei Codrescu's commentaries on NPR are always spiked with vampirisms.
- Vampires in a Romanian cemetery from National Geographic.
- Accusations of vampirism levied against Microsoft in Romania.
- "Vlad the Impaler or Dracula?" plus the connection to St. Andrew's Day.
- The Passive Vampire by Gherasim Luca attracted the attention of Romanian surrealists after its publication in 1945. Read and excerpt here.
- How the US military learned from Romanian vampires.
