Context: While in discussion a student and I were talking about monsters and creatures that the whole town believed in. We ended up talking about the infamous Dracula, to which she explained that that was no tale in her country (Romania). People defended and protected themselves from a king that practiced many of Dracula’s methods.

Text:

“Dracula is real. I think you can google this, but there was basically a king a long time ago named Dracula. He thought that if he drank the blood of his citizens he would live forever. He would kill people in the town and like bathe in their blood or drink the blood, or eat the heart or liver. That’s where the story of the vampire came from. But for us it’s not a story, it’s like real. Even in our food, there’s so much garlic or onions. I don’t think it’s the breath, like I think it does affect your insides so that they wouldn’t want your blood or something.

My parents, when they eat, they will bite out of onions, which is part of the culture.”

Analysis:

It was very interesting to talk to someone whose country followed the practices to protect itself from a monster. When I think of Dracula or vampires in general, I’ve never imagined them as actual people, which led me to wonder whether monsters are monsters at all. It would be interesting to see whether there is greater recognition of the source of monsters, and whether people from the places they originated from see them differently. We’ve modernized so many creatures in our own image in films and TV that I think it blurs the root of where the supernatural actually spawns from.