The Vampire - American Savannah

The Vampire and Nosferatu.

'Vampiric' entities (undead folk creatures that tend to feed on the living and cause various problems) have existed in all cultures for millennia.

The cultures of Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and the Hebrew cultures had histories of demonic entities and blood-drinking spirits, which are considered today precursors of modern popular culture vampires (which as a concept, mostly originate from the culture of the southeast of Europe in the early 18th century).

Although these creatures already existed as a popular folkloric concept, it is massively expanded and transformed thanks to the expansion of media-entertainment.

In particular in literature such as Bram Stoker's best known work, Dracula.

And at the beginning of the 20th century, vampires get to the cinema (practically becoming a sub-genre in their own right, and giving a boost to the Monster-genre movies).

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Theatrical release poster of Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror).​

Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror), better known simply as Nosferatu, is a horror film belonging to German expressionism, produced by Prana Film as an unofficial adaptation of the 1897 novel 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker.

Enrico Dieckmann and Albin Grau (artist and occultist) founded Prana Film in 1921, with the intention of producing films related to the supernatural and the occult.

Grau had a notable influence on Nosferatu's design and aesthetics, but the script was the work of Henrik Galeen, an expert in dark romanticism and a disciple of Hanns Heinz Ewers.

The film however was directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, a notable director (who later had his reputation somewhat tarnished in East Germany for his homosexuality and support for people of Jewish origin).

* Murnau moved to the Free Republic of Germany when the laws against homosexuality were abolished in 1929 and the Red-Black Front of Manfred von Richthofen and the Strasser brothers (Gregor and Otto Strasser) was coming to power (applying a harsh persecution against homosexuals).

Plot: The Nosferatu plot occurs in 1838, around the fictional city of Wisborg in northern Germany and several of its inhabitants, notably the Hutters and their allies.

Thomas Hutter is sent to Eastern Europe by his employer - real estate agent Herr Knock - to visit a new client, Count Orlov (today mistakenly called 'Nosferatu'), who plans to buy a house across the street of Hutter's house.

Hutter travels in a carriage to the Count's castle and when they are both having dinner, Hutter accidentally cuts his thumb, and Orlok tries to suck the blood, but is rejected by his guest.

After this event Hutter wakes up the next morning to find new punctures on his neck, which he attributes to mosquitoes.

That same night, Orlov signs the documents to buy the house. Shortly afterwards he sees a photo of Hutter's wife, Ellen, which becomes of Orlov's interest.

After reading a book on vampires that he took from the local inn, Hutter begins to suspect that the Count is a vampire. Which causes various problems at night for Hutter (unable to lock the door).

Meanwhile, Ellen in the middle of the night goes into a trance and walks over to her balcony (drawing the attention of her friend Harding hers). When the doctor arrives, Ellen calls out the name of her husband, since she, in her unconscious, is apparently capable of seeing the Count threatening her husband.

The day after these events, Hutter explores the castle, only to retreat to his room after finding the castle's crypts and in them, the coffin in which Orlov resides dormant for a brief moment.

Hours later, Orlov gets into a carriage next to his coffins, to go to his new residence, and so Hutter rushes to Germany after learning of this.

The coffins are carried aboard a ship, where all the sailors and the ship's captain are killed by the Count, who takes control.

When Orlov's ship arrives in Wisborg, unseen, he begins to move into his new house.

After the Count's arrival in Germany, a plague occurs that causes numerous deaths (associated in part with the rats that were with Orlov on the ship).

Ellen reads the book Hutter found, which states that a vampire can be defeated if a pure-hearted woman distracts the vampire with her beauty. Ellen tries to do this, opening the window to invite Orlok in, but she passes out soon after.

Hutter is sent to seek help from Professor Bulwer (a doctor). After Hutter leaves, the Earl comes in and drinks Ellen's blood, but it starts when the sun rises, causing the Earl to be caught in the sun's rays and disappear in a cloud of smoke (indicating that he dies). .

Ellen lives long enough to be held by her heartbroken husband.

In the final scenes, Count Orlov's ruined castle is shown, somewhere in Eastern Europe.

Underlying themes: A clear theme of Nosferatu was the fear of the Other. The Other and / or the Constitutive Other, is a term used to identify other human and so, his/ her differences from the Self.

In particular we talk about Nosferatu having a latent xenophobia / racism theme. Especially from a Self of German-Germanic origin, he made an Other of 'eastern'-Slavic origin (Eastern Europe, which for a long time was identified as' outside' civilized Europe).

We refer then particularly to the fear that the Prussian Republic of Germany lived towards Eastern Europe.

Keep in mind that at a certain point, the German people and consequently the German Empire, was on top of the world and aimed to be one of the greatest powers in Europe.

But then the decline began in the Fashoda War, and eventually the Second World War and the German Revolution. In these events, the East (Russia and Eastern European allies) went to war with Germany.

As a result, the German army was severely defeated by the Brusilov Offensive, which led to the loss of several territories, such as Königsberg (now Korol'grad) itself (but also Silesia and Bohemia). Wounds to the German pride and identity.

Post WW2, East Germany had lost its monarchy and had been reduced to a follower of the British Empire, another matter that left an important mark.

It did not help that soon the Russian Empire began to favor the movement of other ethnic groups of the Empire to German territories, it began to change names and there were other repressions against the German population of the conquered territories.

Due to these political and historical reasons, Russophobia in East Germany was at an all-time high, and there was a present fear that Eastern Europe was still not satisfied and would attempt to march on Germany once more.

The fact that Count Orlov (named after Catherine II's lovers) took over a home in Germany and started causing plagues and searching for a German woman is no coincidence.

Count Orlov is inspired not only by Dracula (the novel receives mentions in the opening credits of the film), but also by Slavic folklore, especially Serbian and Ukrainian-Russian.

This is partly due to the experiences of Albin Grau during the Second Great War and the Great Depression (during the winter of 1916, a Serbian farmer told him that his father was a vampire and one of the undead) and the aforementioned Russophobia in East Germany during that time.

After its premiere and success, Nosferatu-like vampires made their appearance in anti-Eastern European and anti-Semitic propaganda of the little Cold War/first Cold War, especially around the late 20s-mid 30s.

When East Germany and the British Empire were feeding the hate of their population against their geopolitical rivals (Russia) and internal 'problems' (Jews, although there were also persecutions of other minority groups).

*There was a latent fear of 'reverse colonization', that a people considered barbaric, like those of Eastern Europe, would begin to replace and dominate 'civilized' peoples like the Germans-Germanic.

Reception and Legacy: Nosferatu became almost immediately acclaimed by critics and audiences, with the film being distributed worldwide soon after.

The civil war in the Home Islands meant that Stoker's heirs could not sue Prana Film in time, and Prana was saved from bankruptcy and lawsuits thanks to this.

Being able to produce horror films until 1937.

This film also triggered the sub-genre of monster and vampire movies in the film industry in other parts of the world.

A typical effect, when something works and makes money, other versions, similar ideas, reinterpretations, parodies and plagiarism appear.

Today Nosferatu is a classic, although of course it is no longer considered 'scary', the ideas and aesthetics of the film Nosferatu are quite important and praised in modern times.

* Nosferatu was the first film to show a vampire dying from exposure to sunlight (in previous materials they were uncomfortable with sunlight, but they were not life threatening to him).

Which has become a trend in modern popular culture vampires.

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Russian Horror. ​

Russia.

In the case of Russia (Slavic cultures), vampiric beings are an interesting subject of study, both in cultural history and in modern popular culture.

If we talk about the folklore about vampires by region, there are certain differences between Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia proper.

*There are also Vampiric/Ghoul creatures in other parts of Russia, like in the Komi culture.

In the Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian regions, vampires tend to be more 'conventional' and similar to the Balkan-Western concept:

* In the Polish case there are the Upir (Upiór, Martwiec, Wiesczy, Wupi, Wuki and łupirz in modern Polish), a demonic being prototype of the modern vampire.

Also with certain characteristics associated with the demon Strzyga.

*Vampires are a pest to living people, mostly because they drink or suck the blood (from veins or heart) of people, eat their flesh and/or suffocates its victims.

*Vampires would attack most likely their own family and relatives.

*Vampires could be interested in household animals.

There are exceptions of course:

* In Ukraine there are vampires who are not described as undead, and beings that were involved in some form of vampirism long before death.

* Ukrainian folklore also describes some vampires with 'red' faces and tiny tails.

* In Ukraine, an area that had traditionally been affected by famines, vampires or Upyr could be associated with famines, pests and droughts that damaged local crops.

In the north (Russia proper), vampires have other particular characteristics:

* There are undead who, although they possess many of the characteristics of vampires of other Slavic peoples, do not drink blood and do not bear a name derived from the common Slavic root for "vampire".

* In Russia there is also the Wurdulac (also Wurdalak or Verdilak), which comes from вурдалак. And usually in the West it is associated with a 'Russian vampire'.

Although nowadays Wurdulac and 'vampire' might be synonymous, the word was popularized by the 1836 poem Wurdulav (by Alexander Pushkin) and The Family of the Vourdalak (by Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, actually describing a Serbian family, not a Russian one. ).

Wurdulac is the corrupt form of the West Slavic word "volkodlak" (волкодлак, in Russian), which means "wolf-fur" or "wolf-hide" (denoting that someone is "wearing" wolf's skin).

Today in the Russian Empire the word 'Упы́рь' (romanized as Upýr) is generally used to speak of vampires.

Although in reality the term can also be translated as 'ghoul', leech, and Nav (Навь) or заложный покойник (zalozhnyy pokoynik, which in this context refers more to lost souls or lost dead).

In the 19th and 20th centuries however, the 'ghoul' of the Eastern Slavic culture began to be differentiated from the Vampire, often inspired by more Western cultures.

The vampiric beliefs of Eastern Europe are associated with the concept of the soul, there are those souls who have found peace in the 'other world' after death, and those who have not found peace (they continue their existence posthumously, at meet on the border of two worlds).

Those people who were:

* Werewolves (hence the "wolf-fur" part in the Wurdulac).

* Sorcerers.

* Excommunicated.

* Anathematized (heretics, apostates and some criminals or maniacs).

* Unbaptized children.

* People who died violently.

* People who died by committing suicide.

* Dead whose bodies were desecrated by animals.

Could turn into vampires or ghouls, according to the prevailing folk beliefs in Russia of course.

According to popular beliefs, these vampires rose from their graves at night and entered houses to suck the blood of sleeping people (often attacking their relatives). Returning after the crowing of the roosters.

According to these same legends, it was possible to kill a vampire by piercing his corpse with an aspen stake or by burning the corpse.

With such a rich and varied regional folklore, it is not surprising that after the success of Nosferatu, various versions of vampires or vampire beings began to appear in the popular culture of the Russian Empire, especially in its particularly developed (for the time) film industry. .

In particular at the national and international level, Russian films of Polish or Ukrainian origins about vampires, stood out much more than the Belarusian or Russian-proper films (which obtained a mainly local niche).

In cinema and popular culture, this was particularly important, highlighting the multi-culturality of the Empire and the popularity of works of various origins (as long as not too many taboo subjects were touched).

In particular the Orthodox legacy of Russia, placed ghouls, vampires and other beings of the horror genre, in a position generally of antagonists and enemies, characterized by sinful and dangerous tendencies (although occasionally they had more deep narratives).

It was not similar to the Satanic Panic that existed in parts of America, but was rather a constant reinvention of the classic legends. There is a hero who must defeat an evil being to save his community and his loved one.

* Over the generations these taboos are somewhat diminished and other trends or interpretations begin to appear (more or less accepted). An example is when sex stopped being so taboo in Russian cinema with actors like Vasily Semyonovich Lanovoy.

In particular decades after the first saturations of horror and monster cinema, monsters also began to appear in stories more related to action and other genres.

In Russia in particular, classic monsters such as vampires and undead made their appearance in action, fantasy and adventure films.

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American Horror. This is actually a vampire...​

While American vampires have obviously adopted trends from their European counterparts, national trends must also be taken into account.

American horror and fantasy, due to influences such as the writer H. P. Lovecraft, took trends from the well-known cosmic horror and psychological terror, and other local influences for their vampires.

There are two particular trends, one coming from the Northeast with the New England stories, and one coming from the South, associated with Louisiana and the Caribbean.

New England: During the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a particular belief about vampires in New England (the so-called New England vampire panic ...) that especially affected Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut.

Because of this there are actually documented cases of families digging up their relatives to remove their hearts (a practice associated with the belief that the 'vampire' was responsible for illness and death in the family).

The deadly disease tuberculosis, or "consumption", in the region as it was known at the late 18th and 19th century, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member (vampire) who had died of tuberculosis. themselves.

Caribbean-Louisiana: Due to the neo-colonial interest of the United States in the Caribbean and its takeover of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), there was a certain cultural influence, which added a great African influence and a voodoo tendency to American vampires. .

When we talk about the Caribbean and Louisiana trend, we are talking mainly about the 'Loogaroo' vampires (from the French loup-garou or 'werewolf'), which adds the aforementioned folklore of African descent and Caribbean voodoo, with a French folklore (a European trend)

* The Loogaroo is also known as soucouyant or soucriant in la Hispaniola, St. Lucian, Trinidadian, Louisiana, Grenada and other parts in the Caribbean. Ole-Higue in Guyana, Belize and Jamaica or Asema in Suriname. And Hag in The Bahamas and Barbados.

Both tendencies played a very important part in the idea of American vampires, but the Americans also rescued a particular theme from vampire stories.

The mental powers and/or Oneiric images (related to the distorted world of dreams), and ideas associated with gender, sexuality and lust.

The 'seduction' and the re-interpretation of traditional roles of the genres of the time were a quasi-artisan trend in the American media (which brought several problems, but generated a very wide market ...).

In American vampire stories, when a man succumbs to a vampire (male or female), he adopts the 'passive' role of a woman in the sexuality of the time, while the vampire takes the active or dominant role (traditionaly (traditionally associated with men).

Sometimes associated with homosexuality (male-male) or role reversal (woman dominating man).

These tendencies influenced later films like Candyman, which had all this aspect of 'seduction' and romance, of a monster or supernatural creature towards its victims (mainly women).

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Candyman.

Of course this is generally the classic American vampire, in the 'artistic' and classic beginnings of the sub-genre.

Later, with censorship and the passage of time, during the middle of the 20th century, characteristics of this type were lost. Especially when the cinema became more popular and the censorship much more extensive and effective.

And there was only a recovery or reinterpretation of these characteristics in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

(OOC: This did take more than I thought lol. Mostly this are some analysis parts of Nosferatu and Dracula, mixed with regional influences).

American Savanna.

Traditionally a savanna is defined as a mixed ecosystem of grasslands and open canopy forests. And the most famous is of course the African savannah, spaces between African deserts and tropical forests.

Although of course there are other savannas outside of Africa, such as the Mediterranean savannas, flooded savannas, montane savannas and temperate savannas (grasslands, savannas and temperate scrublands, which for example occupy a large part of the Great Plains of the USA).

However, a very particular case due to its development is the so-called "American Savanna", in which various species from other regions (invasive species or those brought to the United States) began, due to various factors, to occupy particular geo-biological niches and spaces in America. from North.

Spaces that had been vacated or taken over by other life forms, after the great megafauna extinctions in the Americas.

Although we are not talking only about the great plains, but about various regions of the United States, such as the arid south, the Mississippi Delta and parts of the West Coast such as California.

The most famous case in particular are the hippos, responsible for the Hippo Wars (one of the greatest defeats in American military history) and that since its brought to the United States (with the intention of creating hippo farms ...) they began to occupy and multiply in various areas of the American Southeast, the Mississippi Delta.

Similar to Greater Colombia decades later, hippos are difficult to stop and can expand considerably into habitable spaces for them.

After all, they are a very dominant species and difficult to extirpate from an ecosystem where they have settled. They are also very notable bioengineers wherever they go (to some extent their presence can greatly alter local ecosystems).

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The idea of the 'Hippo Ranch' in the United States.

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This was made by a Hippo trainer in a Circus, you should not do this with a wild one...

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Mother Hippo with ther baby in the Delta of the Mississippi (photo from 2016-2020).

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Not even Baby Hippos fear older animals (it is unknown why exactly they chew the tail of crocodiles or alligators, but they do it).

But we also have the populations of African and Asian elephants in the Great Plains (whose slow-growing population arose from elephants escaped from zoos and elephants donated by other countries such as Thailand and India), the camels of the South (animals that very easily adapted to this region) and the California Lemurs.

We also have other animal demographic booms like horses and cougars that aided in the formation of this remarkable "American Savanna."

Nature is a force that humans can try to tame, but will never fully dominate.

Although these animals have suffered obvious problems from their interaction with humans and the effect of humans on Earth, many have still survived and adapted to new conditions (some faster than others).

In particular we have seen the effects of large cities on small mammals, birds, insects and some reptiles, but these are still early studies and other future effects are unknown.