Rotten Blood
Jasmine Mitchell
Dr. A. Peever
HUM 396-05: The Horror Story
September 27th 2012
Rotten horror as if Rotten Blood
Critic Shannon Winnubst says, “The collective nightmare AIDS performs some of our worst cultural anxieties about desire, fear, and aggression; about gender, sexuality, and race; about history, bodies, and violence.” As unpleasant as it is to deal with AIDS Patients (vampires), when a crime results in bloodshed, the blood left behind functions as evidence for investigators (people). A bloodstain pattern analyst (people stereotypes) can't simply glance at drips and smears of blood and immediately tell you, who, what and when of a crime (AIDS) scene. Blood spatter analysis caused by monsters takes time and is only one piece of the puzzle when investigators (people) are putting together the elements of a crime (AIDS). However, bloodstain pattern analysis (monsters) can corroborate other evidence and lead investigators (people) to seek additional clues that lead to vampires. In this essay I will examine examples of vampire narratives, properties, cultural constructions and anxieties that connect with AIDS. “The social and political response to the blood-borne epidemic of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome had much in common with Prospero’s self-defeating strategy of denial.” (David Skal, 334) On the surface, Prospero looks like shallow guy. All he seems to care about is pleasure, which is what it means to be a "hedonist." In Poe’s story, He doesn't want to spend his time doing anything but drinking, dancing, and laughing, and generally having fun. That makes him an awful ruler. It makes him seem selfish too: he just doesn't care about the suffering of his people. He doesn't even want to think about it, because that would be too much of a downer. His basic philosophy it is summed-up by Poe’s narrator here:
“The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The Prince had provided all the
Dr. A. Peever
HUM 396-05: The Horror Story
September 27th 2012
Rotten horror as if Rotten Blood
Critic Shannon Winnubst says, “The collective nightmare AIDS performs some of our worst cultural anxieties about desire, fear, and aggression; about gender, sexuality, and race; about history, bodies, and violence.” As unpleasant as it is to deal with AIDS Patients (vampires), when a crime results in bloodshed, the blood left behind functions as evidence for investigators (people). A bloodstain pattern analyst (people stereotypes) can't simply glance at drips and smears of blood and immediately tell you, who, what and when of a crime (AIDS) scene. Blood spatter analysis caused by monsters takes time and is only one piece of the puzzle when investigators (people) are putting together the elements of a crime (AIDS). However, bloodstain pattern analysis (monsters) can corroborate other evidence and lead investigators (people) to seek additional clues that lead to vampires. In this essay I will examine examples of vampire narratives, properties, cultural constructions and anxieties that connect with AIDS. “The social and political response to the blood-borne epidemic of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome had much in common with Prospero’s self-defeating strategy of denial.” (David Skal, 334) On the surface, Prospero looks like shallow guy. All he seems to care about is pleasure, which is what it means to be a "hedonist." In Poe’s story, He doesn't want to spend his time doing anything but drinking, dancing, and laughing, and generally having fun. That makes him an awful ruler. It makes him seem selfish too: he just doesn't care about the suffering of his people. He doesn't even want to think about it, because that would be too much of a downer. His basic philosophy it is summed-up by Poe’s narrator here:
“The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The Prince had provided all the