"The Vampire Encyclopedia" A Book You Can Sink Your Teeth Into ...
Written: Nov 10 '05 (Updated Feb 20 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A few interesting entries, black and white photographs.
Cons: Most of the information is recycled and can be found elsewhere in greater detail.
The Bottom Line: A nice book for vampire fanatics but not exactly something that you are going to openly admit to owning.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Matthew Bunson - Vampire Encyclopedia |
vampire
The word conjures up images of a man with slicked back hair, pale skin and a thick accent. Dracula is usually the first to come to mind but over the course of history there have been many blood sucking creatures of the night. To some vampires are seductive creatures that walk amongst the shadows, never daring enter the world of the living. To some they are figments of an overactive imagination ... to some they are a formidable enemy. No matter what you call them or think about them, there is no denying that over the past thirty years vampires have become an almost accepted part of society. No, that doesn’t mean that they file taxes or have night job ... just that the idea, the sheer notion that they could exist has become more mainstream. That is one of the many reasons why I ordered the book, “The Vampire Encyclopedia” curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see what author Matthew Bunson had to say about the subject.
Now, allow me to get slightly verbose here. Having known more than a few ‘vampires’ in my time it always makes me laugh when someone sits down and writes a ‘tell all’ book about the life and times of something that they are not. It makes about as much sense as a male doctor telling a woman that is in labor that her pains aren’t “all that bad”. Until you sit there and push something that size out of your body, you would do well to stay out of arms reach when a woman is in such a position. This same thought carries over to books like this. Has this author ever tasted human blood? Has he ever been caught up in the heat of passion and had someone sink his or her teeth into his neck? Has he ever dared to walk in the darkness with these creatures of the night? Chances are he hasn’t. Chances are he sat behind a laptop computer and merely took bits of legends and lore, recycled them and spewed them out into what he so arrogantly calls a “vampire encyclopedia”.
The Vampire Encyclopedia
From the previous two paragraphs you may think that I am going to out and out trash this book. Someone once said, “One mans trash is another mans treasure” and in this case, there are some good points to the book. It covers a tremendous amount of information about vampires, books that have been written about them, things associated with them and even movies that have glorified, glamorized or admonished them. There are some black and white photographs presented in the book but most of these are commonplace images that can be found in other books, at websites or at vampire fan festivals. There is no index at the back of the book so if you have a subject that you want to look up you will have to page through the alphabetical listing to see if there is an entry. To me this was a big mistake. It is a lot easier to flip through five or six pages of indexed terms than to make your way through the three hundred pages of the book.
Some of the entries include various animals that are associated with vampires [cat, bat, raven, rats, frog, crow], items and possessions such as churches, roses, coffins, dirt, knots and silver. There is a nice collection of vampire names as they appear in other cultures or lands; kozlak, vukodlak, kudlak, gayal, danag. Movie entries include ‘The Lost Boys’, ‘Salem’s Lot’, ‘Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein’, ‘Dance of The Vampires’, ‘The Hunger’, ‘Blackula’ and more. Some of the stars of these films also have mentions in other sections of the book but without an index to work with, it is a tedious task to try and find them all. The book also presents some of the medical explanations and afflictions related to vampires, vampirism and other undead fascinations; lycanthrope / werewolves, incubus and succubus, necrostuprum, necrophagy and other necro related terms.
There are even sections in the book called “Destroying The Vampire”, “Detecting The Vampire” and one of the most ludicrous things I have ever seen in print, “The Vampire Hunter’s Kit”. Indulge me if you will ... “The following items should be procured by any prospective vampire slayer. Custom dictates that these be carried in a black bag or similar receptacle. Stakes, mallot, mirror, cross, garlic, holy water, knives, rope, saw, crowbar, pistol, flashlight, neck brace or iron collar”. Can you just imagine some paranoid person walking around a cemetery with a neck brace on, dragging an incredibly heavy black bag with them to fight off vampires? Other tabled section include “Historical Vampires”, “Protection From Vampires”, “Powers of The Vampire” and “Literature”. This was as section that I really wanted to look over carefully. I had to see exactly what the author considered ‘good vampire literature’. While most of them are commonplace for vampire fans, I was impressed that he mentioned “Bloodright” [Peter Tremayne] and “Darkangel” [Meredith Ann Pierce].
While it may seem like I am discrediting this book or poking fun at it, there are some very interesting entries; ones that other books rarely cover because their are either too obscure or they are too controversial. One that stands out is Lilith. She is believed to be the first wife of Adam but was thrown from the Garden of Eden for uttering the true name of god. In this book the author states that she was, “created to be the wife of Adam, but with such an evil spirit that she departed Adam’s side to dwell with the forces of darkness”. If you read enough about occult and religious history you will see that Lilith is rarely ever mentioned in a good light; is it any wonder why her nickname is “Queen of The Night”? the bramaparush is another interesting term; this one from Northern India and takes great pleasure from consuming the flesh of victims, drinking blood from their skull then wrapping themselves in the victims intestines. One thing that books like this often overlook is the concept of a vampire god; thankfully this is mentioned in detail however it’s not exactly a glowing interpretation. Using terms like “dreadful deities or merciless bloodthirstiness” you can gather that the author doesn’t see vampires as anything but monsters that exist only to spread death.
My Take
While well written, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot of new information in this book. it is easier to sit down with this than to sit and read things from different websites however, as I said, there’s really nothing all that ‘new’ here. You get famous names, dates and events, actors and actresses that have played vampires in film and on stage and places where some of the most horrific slaughters and massacres have taken place. This isn’t something that you just sit down with and start flipping through it, because it lacks an index you will have to read this from cover to cover and make your own footnotes and references. If you are looking for a reference book to learn more about vampires from a historical perspective this one might do in a pinch but you will need to know key events, names and places in order to get started. My own take on this is to remain neutral as much as possible; to me this seems like a very cut and dry book. It’s almost to the point of being sterile - everything is presented in a very dry manner and to some it could very easily be perceived as morbid, depressing and dismal.
The Bottom Line
I would suggest this to anyone that wants to get a good sampling of vampires through history or those that have been made famous in books, plays or movies. It does cover a lot of ground but at the same time, you get the weird feeling that you’ve read this stuff elsewhere. Call it deja vampire voodoo if you will, 80% of the names, events and things mentioned in this book are common things that people already know about. Want to kill a vampire, use a wooden stake. Need to ward one off, use garlic or a cross. There are some parts of the book that delve into some of the lesser known vampire cousins and twins, this is one of the main reasons why I will suggest this title to others.
In closing I’d like to say that vampires come in many forms and the term itself has become rather generic these days. Your boss could be a time sucking vampire, friends who deplete you of your self worth could be considered moral vampires and then there are the psychic ones that derive pleasure from making your life a living hell. Regardless of how you slice or dice the term, vampires are around us everyday. They may not be the Bela Lugosi, cape clad, slicked back hair visions we see in films ... but they are undeniably a part of our society. Be it in a fictional and romanticized form or something more tangible, we as a people have loved, feared, hated and hunted them for centuries ... and the trend shows no sign of stopping soon.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Other vampire related reads ...
Vampire State Building
Eyewitness Junior “Amazing Bats”
The Vampire Companion: The Official Guide to Anne Rice's “The Vampire Chronicles”
”The Vampire’s Assistant” • The Vampire Prince
Vampire High • The Vampire Rabbit
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: A Stake To The Heart
Castle Dracula: Romania's Vampire Home
Vampire Kisses
Recommended:
Yes
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