" "In order to remain undead, I must steal the life force of someone whose fate matters less to me than my own." I've always supposed that Wall Street traders utter essentially the same sentence. My guess is that as long as people act toward their fellows in exploitative and selfish ways, the vampire will be with us." - Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor - Chapter 3
Oh, how I enjoy reading about those lovely creatures in literature.
I am very familiar with vampires in fictional literature, but as for the "figurative vampire" like Foster mentions here, I never really considered that. How true is it really that vampires, so to speak, are all around us? CEOs of companies that want money, they're vampires. Government heads that run the rule of the state for their own purposes, they're vampires. Hot shot sports stars that take extreme amounts of drugs to make themselves "large" and then think that they can go out, commit a felony and get away with it…yep, you guessed it - vampires.
I particularly love this quote because of the hilarious picture that I get with it. Just think, for a second, about a Wall Street exec walking around with a black cape flowing in the wind and bearing fake plastic fangs in his or her smile. TALK ABOUT HILARIOUS!!
When first glancing at the title of this chapter I found it odd that Foster would bring up vampires because it seemed so out of place. Thennn I grasped what he was saying. Vampirism isn't just about literal vampires but more the ideas such as selfishness and exploitation. Foster stated pretty clearly his idea which says, "ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires."
This was also odd to me but as you said Foster in all of the chapters so far has made me look at things so differently. Vampires could even be vengeful husbands or wives.
Not only vengeful but husbands and wives that are selfish. Taking all the love from their partners and giving none in return. Feeding off their emotions and leaving them lifeless and in a sense with nothing to offer others. Makes one wonder, how many vampires do I know?
I'm surprised no one said anything about how the vampiric idea directly correlated with Hawthorne calling Chillingworth a Leech. Talk about vampiric! The man's whole goal in his life was to cause ruin to his wife's lover. And he does this rather slyly by acting the friendly physician but trying to torture him slowly to death.
Quite honestly, I never would have really considered the possibility of Chillingworth being a vampire, seeing as how, at the time, I was concentrating on looking at the two works separately. However, you have brought up a very valid point, Michael, and I appreciate your pointing out of a obvious statement that I overlooked. Stefanie, you have a great point as well in terms of the "revelation" aspect of the piece. I, too, felt like I experienced an "Oh my God!" moment upon reading this. Foster truly did shed some light on a topic that none of us would normally realize. Peaches, you as well have included some very helpful comments. When we take a look at our daily lives, we can never really notice the people that take the most advantage of us until we focus in on the smaller details. Now you've got ME wondering!