Thursday, August 18, 2011

Texas Vampire Arrested - Not Edward!

Study of Dracula - Frank Frazetta
Texas "vampire" arrest sparks discussion on pop culture.  Given that it's Texas, I'm surprised they didn't stake him.
The arrest of a Texas man who broke into a woman's house, threw her against a wall and tried to suck her blood over the weekend has sparked discussion over the impact of vampire books and movies on U.S. youth culture.

Whether pop culture played a role in the attack remains to be seen, as 19-year-old Lyle Monroe Bensley awaits a psychiatric evaluation in jail on burglary charges in Galveston, Texas, southeast of Houston.

Found growling and hissing in a parking lot and wearing only boxer shorts, the pierced and tattooed Bensley claimed he was a 500-year-old vampire who needed to "feed," Galveston Police Capt. Jeff Heyse said.

Vampires have been a focal point of literature since Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula". But fascination, particularly among young people, has peaked in recent years with the popularity of the "Twilight" books about teenage vampires and the HBO series, "True Blood."

"I think the vampire is a metaphor for the outsider and the predator in all of us," said author Anne Rice, whose Vampire Chronicles series has captured the imaginations of horror fans since the 1970s. 
Vampirella - Frank Frazetta
Yep, vampire stories have been good fun for years, as books, movies and comics.  My personal favorite in the genre are Fred Saberhagen's books, with P.N Elrod and Tanya Huff as second choices. But there's always some moron or sicko out there who will take it too seriously or start to believe it's real and do something stupid.  You can't blame the genre, you have to blame the morons.

1 comment:

  1. Well even tho its been years after the fact the authority's faild to mention that he was drugged and robbed that he was given ghb and pcp without him being aware of it and reason for being in his boxers was he was engaging in sexual activitys with two females which turned out to be a set up between them and there boyfriend and lyles friend end being killed just days later by the same people.

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