Supernatural Essay Example

things you cannot make uninteresting with a logic explanation. “Science becomes the modern man’s superstition.

It allows him to experience fear and awe again, and to believe in the things he cannot see. ” (Del Toro and Hogan 374) This longing for the supernatural world is a reflection of how our society is developing, and has been throughout history. Currently our collective need is created by the scientific revolution and when it comes to our individual needs there are nowadays a supernatural monster or hero for every taste. Humans have throughout times believed in higher powers and spirituality, it is a part of us and we need to feel awe.

Now that the supernatural has become a part of our mainstream popular culture, it allows us to believe in our fantasies and serves as a gate to spirituality. This way we can feel awe again, something that can be difficult amidst all technology. Another appeal of the supernatural world is the possibility of immortality, endless life and youth. This could be one of the biggest reasons to why vampires are so popular. Many people are afraid of growing old and dying, our mortality scares us, and therefore it is appealing to think that these creatures with the key to immortality exist.

“If youth is desire married with unending possibility, then vampire lust creates within us a delicious void, one we long to fulfill. In other words, whereas other monsters emphasize what is mortal in us, the vampire emphasizes the eternal in us. ” (Del Toro and Hogan 373). Nowadays we put a lot of value to our physical appearance; vanity is a

product of today’s media. More and more injections, creams, surgeries and etc. become available to rejuvenate us, make us look young and fabulous. With this development in mind, how appealing is it not to just have to be bitten once by a vampire to gain eternal youth and beauty?

People go through far worse to reach that goal. Vampires allow us to dream of these possibilities. In the TV- series Ghost Whisperer, a young newlywed woman, Melinda Gordon, runs an antique shop and has a gift which allows her to see and talk to ghosts. In the series she helps the ghosts and their living families connect and solve things that were not solved before their death. In the end of every episode the ghost finds peace and can move on to “the other side” and the family gets to communicate with their loved one who they thought was gone forever.

This TV- show and many other similar ones have a huge amount of viewers, because they explore the possibility of communicating with the people we miss. Everyone has lost or will lose someone they cared for at one point in life, so this is very easy to relate to. We are intrigued by the thought that there might be ghosts and spirits around us that we cannot see. Also we long for our loved ones to be with us, in a sense that makes them immortal, not their bodies but their souls live with us. Supernatural things and creatures are just that, beyond the normal.

The things they do fascinate us because they are out of the ordinary, sometimes forbidden and

often exciting. Vampires in the media are a reflection of our times sexual revolution and has probably been since Polidori. He is the author of “The Vampyre” written in 1819, and he based his character Lord Ruthven on his supposed lover Lord Byron. During this time homosexuality was not allowed, but well, if you are a supernatural creature those rules don’t apply to you.

Times have changed since 1819 but we still reflect our sexual and romantic needs in media and this through supernatural creatures, preferably vampires. Given a loophole; we get to express our collective hidden desires through monsters. Like Del Toro and Hogan nicely put it; ”Monsters, like angels, are invoked by our individual and collective needs. Today, much as during that gloomy summer in 1816, we feel the need to seek their cold embrace. ” (Del Toro and Hogan 373). Even though times have changed, we are still fighting for gay rights and we are still using vampires to shade light on it.

The TV- series True Blood is about vampires living among humans as a minority group, they are recognized but discriminated. Throughout the series there are references and comparisons between the vampires in the series and our gay community. They talk about “coming out of the coffin” and “god hates fangs”. Ultimately it is one of our basic needs to feel accepted and respected by each other, and we use art to express this need. In the Twilight- series, written by Stephenie Meyer, the character Edward is madly in love with the human girl, Bella.

He is rich, strong, and beautiful, he wants to protect her, marry her

and save sex until after marriage and of course he is a vampire. The huge popularity that the Twilight Saga gained is because it reflects something that every woman wants; it speaks to our primitive needs. In the old days Edwards’s behavior would have been the norm, but it has become a rarity today. Vampires help us process and accept things that are abnormal. Ghosts, vampires, spirits and other creatures; they are not a matter of the scientific world.

Maybe that is why we are so intrigued by them. If you are not a fan of vampires and supernatural creatures in the media, I am sorry to tell you they are here to stay, for as long as we need them. They are part of the supernatural world, and they bring mystery and spirituality back in to our lives. Also they let us express our romantic and sexual desires and then help us process and accept them as a society. It is up to every individual to decide what sorts of monsters they believe exist, but fictional or not we need them in our society.