Vampires
Everywhere! Vampires
Everywhere!
For as long as I remember I have had a thing for vampires. My earliest memory of this is of watching the Little Vampire on German TV, I was hooked on that programme and loved Rudiger's spirit and wanted to join his family of vampires. At the age of 12 I was caught by the police on the roof of a shopping centre making chalk pentagrams and trying to call vampires to me. A few years later I saw The Lost Boys film and I knew at that point this was something deep in me, some need I had and something I had to find out about. As I found out; there is an unfortunate contradiction relating to vampires and my family. While at college I started reading Dracula for the first time and discovered that the hero character Jonathan Harker had the same surname as me. After some time researching the book and I believe that Bram Stoker based the character on a real Harker that he knew. This was something of a heart stopper for me.
Was the book
based in any truth? I have failed so far to find out all that i want to know, but if there is a blood line here what does it mean for me? Well the good Jonathan was ultimately responsible for Dracula's demise, so all vampires everywhere would probably hiss at me and hide somewhere if they met me, I ceratainly won't be eligable to join any vampire groups ;0) The underlying theme of good versus evil and of light versus dark is blurred in the book in several places, not least when Draculas' minions set about keeping Jonathan a prisoner and drink his blood, and he appears to enjoy it, although he would not admit it. Now depending on which rules you follow, a bite from a vampire that does not kill can turn you into a vampire yourself. So the Good Jonathan tasted the dark side. Going way ot on a limb now; if the Harkers are prone to the tasting the dark side, and Jonathon was based on the character traits of a real Harker; then down the blood line we may all have this need, not litterally to be a vampire, but to be attracted to the darker side of existence. I certainly struggle with the good and evil sides of my personality on a daily basis, and while it is the good side that is dominating, I still listen to the evil side and it provides motivation, insite, and a passion for all things dark which I would not give up lightly. One interesting and related fact is that both my father and his before him had their hair turn white at an early age, at the age of 28 mine is turning as well, could this be a family trait that Bram included in his novel? I will keep trying to find out as much as I can about the origins of Jonathan Harker, when i do I'll post it here. |
23/03/04
It only took 12 years, but I found him! Joseph Harker is the man that Bram Stoker turned into Jonathan, you can read about him here. He seems on the surface to have been a set designer in the London theatres and nothing of his personal life is revealed. I can't help but wonder what he got up too in his spare time?
Looking back at what I wrote above I find that it is almost prophetic, I have had my dealing with darkness now and I survived the test. It wasn't vampires that came for me, but it was evil all the same. As I write I am in a very good place indeed, living in God's grace it may be said. I hope it continues for a long while. 28/09/16 |
