Why do so many people love to read about vampires? Is it the juxtaposition? Dead yet not dead, evil yet sexy, powerful yet fragile? Why is this fictional creature so captivating to so many and in a myriad incarnations? Today vampires have taken over CNN. With all the real world stuff unfolding and being explained each day why do people still gravitate to fantasy land? I am guilty of filching some fame by hitching my blog to the vampire bandwagon but when you are screaming at the top of your lungs next to the old tree falling in the forest what else are you left to do? The scientists - P.Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins - make their names by talking about God, yet do not believe in this idea. They are hitching a ride on the oldest conversation known to civilization to further their goal of expanding scientific literacy - and more power to them. Perhaps the vampire conversation is less prestigious but maybe it takes the edge off an otherwise awkward conversation between a scientist a fundamentalist opening a door to conversation.Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Vampirephilia
Why do so many people love to read about vampires? Is it the juxtaposition? Dead yet not dead, evil yet sexy, powerful yet fragile? Why is this fictional creature so captivating to so many and in a myriad incarnations? Today vampires have taken over CNN. With all the real world stuff unfolding and being explained each day why do people still gravitate to fantasy land? I am guilty of filching some fame by hitching my blog to the vampire bandwagon but when you are screaming at the top of your lungs next to the old tree falling in the forest what else are you left to do? The scientists - P.Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins - make their names by talking about God, yet do not believe in this idea. They are hitching a ride on the oldest conversation known to civilization to further their goal of expanding scientific literacy - and more power to them. Perhaps the vampire conversation is less prestigious but maybe it takes the edge off an otherwise awkward conversation between a scientist a fundamentalist opening a door to conversation.
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2 comments:
That's PZ MYERS of course, not PZ Meyers, whoever he might be...
Duly noted and attended to. And now I have been introduced to you and your blog! I like the idea of a collective editorial board! Thank you profusely for your help in my small time endeavor. Random acts of minor critique help enormously.
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