Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2007)
6 Clackamas Print Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007 Vampire Literature and victimization, and ideas of Elizabeth Hitz The Clackamas Print “[I] never really got mesmer ized until, embarrassingly enough, Buffy the Vampire Slayer — maybe because it features a female slayer and really wicked vampires.” These are probably not words that one would think a teacher would say, much less in regards to a literature class. But Leslie Ormandy has a pas sion for vampires that she wants to share with thé world. Ormandy is teaching the new Vampire Literature course at Clackamas this term. “I think it’s important to teach literature about vampires because people connect to it,” she said. “I don’t think you can really discuss vampires without also discussing life, death, undeath, souls, victims morality.” “After attending the confer ence (American Cultural Literary Conference, at Princeton), where I found I knew very few of the vampire versions being discussed, I began reading literature ... about vampires,” she added. “Soon the obsession took hold. “Knowing that I wasn’t the only person in academia interested in vampires in literature allowed me to begin thinking about what it would take to create a class about my favorite supernatural.” The results of the experiment seem to want to speak for them selves. “Even the die-hard vampire ... fanatics are learning things,” said one of Ormandy’s students, Ted Johnson. “I’m learning some really interesting stuff. “I did a presentation on Malasian vampires ... the Phii Photo Illustration by Kyle Steele Clackamas Print The legendary vampire Dracula is only one of many in literature. Take the Vampire Literature course to leam about more. Krasue... a crawling, long-tongued Penanggalan (another Malasian vampire) look-alike who feeds on blood, intestines and,” Johnson laughed, “poop.” The class syllabus is full of early vampire literature, along with some modem literature. Students discuss why humanity invented the vam pire myth, religious ideas and social conventions, issues of humanness, the state of the soul in its relation ship to the vampire and how the myths change with different writ ers. “[Ormandy] wants us to stay away from Dracula because she wants to teach a whole other class in the winter,” Johnson said. Ormandy explained, “I sepa rated Dracula from the rest of the vampires in literature because intro ducing the Count - [the] really defining vampire from our western perspective - left no time to exam ine the ... vampires in literature prior to Dracula’s entrance into the scene.” “She wants to teach ‘Mummies, Werewolves and Zombies, Oh My,’ in the spring,” teased Johnson. Ormandy hopes to eventually teach classes on the triad of angels, demons, the Apocolypse, witches and ghosts. “I’m interested in the supernatu ral in all its various manifestations,” she said. Clackamas is one of the few colleges, or even universities, with a literature course concerning vam pires. “Perhaps people haven’t... taught literature about vampires because it doesn’t fit into the traditional canon [of accepted literature],” Ormandy said. “It takes courage for a depart ment to run non-canonical classes; it risks their academic credibility.” While the course is currently considered an elective credit, rather than English, she is working to change that. The class meets in Randall 222 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 11:50 a.m. Who knows? Maybe blonde bombshell vampire hunters do haunt the night and really wicked vampires exist on something other than a television screen. Want to find out? Culture Put that green thuml to work in the gardei Art Jess Sheppard The Clackamas Print How many places are there where the green-thumbed can rent roughly 500 square feet of gardening space for only $20 per season? Clackamas is one. Everyone who enters the campus from Beavercreek Road passes them. Part of the jogging trail runs through them. They’re the Clackamas Community Gardens, where anyone - student or not - can rent a plot of land and grow whatever he or she wishes. Unlike most other garden spac es, there is no contract riddled with fine print and terms of agreement At Clackamas’ Community Gardens, rented plots are maintained with the help of the Greenspaces Chib, which is made up of plot owners and community volunteers like Kathy Vonstriver. Vonstriver has been the head of the Community Gardens for almost four years and has had her plot for more than 15. “It’s my retreat,” she said. For others, gardening is an outlet as much as an escape. But that escape has suffered over the past few years. “Theft has been really bad,” said Vonstriver. In the past, thieves have stolen pipes and brass sprinkler heads to sell as scrap metal. Thankfully, law enforceme: cracked down on scrap dealers, ing them to check their source take down information about cu ers. This year, the gardens have] theft-free, and the staff is now only with the problem of being! handed. With about 130 plots avai fee gardens have no lack of i One person can rent as many pl he or she desires, or two peopl rent one plot and maintain it toj Some plots are available yearn for the winter and fall gardeners The college donates the wal the plots, and the Greenspaces waters them twice every wee! chib also pitches in, pulling 4 trimming and generally maint the spaces. Now feat it’s fell, most of th are either being harvested or cl for the next season. The garden a lot of potential, Vonstriver sai nothing can be done without [ to help. Vonstriver hopes to put in raised flowerbeds, as well improve the paths, put in son work and possibly even a pienk The sky is realty fee limit | Anyone wishing to rent a need only contact Vonstriv 503-655-0637 or by e-ma cccgreenspaces@yahoo.com Greenspaces Club also has a pa the college Web site. Josh Hudson Clackamas The community gardens at the college are filled with beautil plants and a scarecrow which has established it as its reside A few words from the “Doctor” on how everything startet Disclaimer: Dr. Kim is not a real doctor, nor has she ever been. She’s working on it, though. To read more of “Dr. Kim, ” go to askejean.com and click on “Top Campus Sex Columnists. ” To send Dr. Kim a question, e- mail her at drmaier2006@yahoo. com. — When I was in fifth or sixth grade, my school started sex educa tion. I sat there in a classroom of 25 of my 12-year-old peers and our school nurse, both horrified and excited at the prospect of her say ing dirty words like “penis” and “vagina.” Oooooh, dirty. When she finished with her lec ture about fee anatomy and physi ology of fee human reproductive system, she collected fee book feat had horrified and threatened all the girls wife fee “curse” of their peri ods and asked if anyone had any questions they would like to ask I stared around the room at 25 silent prepubescents, all sitting on their hands for fear she would think someone scratching their hair want ed to know more ¿bout sex. My hand shot up in fee air proudly, for I had never been told that sex was an ugly secret My schoolmates gasped. “What does semen smelly like9” I asked. “Well, umffi ...” fee lazy-eyed nurse stammered. ‘Well...” She stopped and cleared her throat, confident that she could answer this one while still uphold ing her dignity. “You know ... uhhh ... just like any other bodily fluid, it has its own scent.” That was her answer, and she was sticking to it Two negative things happened as a result of this experience. 1) My friends thought I was completely disturbed. 2) I went on for years trying to determine if semen smelled like sweat urine or worse - feces. Let’s jump forward in time, shall we? Last year, I was lucky enough to convince fee editorial staff at 77n? Clackamas Print to let me write my own advice column. They even put my picture on it and allowed me to pass out flyers to attract questions for “Dr. Kim” on campus. It was not a sex column by any means. As the letters came pouring in, it turned out that many of them were about relationships and sex. Six months into the column-writing experience, Elie Magazine colum nist E. Jean Canoil asked me if I would contribute fee column as a sex column on the askejean Web site. I was reluctant at first, because I didn’t think my lifestyle fit fee description of a sex columnist. Then I decided feat all you realty need is a healthy reserve of synonyms for fee words “penis” and ‘Vagina” and an open mind. Now I write about everything from intimacy to anal sex. Little did I know feat I was about to encounter the same reaction from my peers in college feat I did when I was just a wee youngster in sex ed. class. I should have listened when they all told me sex is a dirty secret that no one talks about. In fee beginning, I thought it was cóol to be recognized from fee paper. People would be reading The Print in the cafeteria, and they would ask, “Are you Dr. Kim?” I quickly learned that, depend ing on what fee content in my column was that week, sometimes fee answer should'be “No. I’ve never seen that woman before in my life.” Word started spreading feat Dr. Kim is a vulgar, unclean slut. My editorial staff started ques tioning whether the content in “Dr. Kim” was appropriate for a school newspaper. In a conservative room of pure-minded, annoyed editors was reminded once aga i n that sex a dirty secret, and if 1 talk about I’m a bad, bad girl. The truth is, the judgmt doesn’t bother me. Having s doesn’t make you a bad, uncle person, talking about it doesi make you a temptress, and writi about it sure doesn’t qualify you a whore. I’m a stay-at-home mother ai frill-time student. I can count tl number of sexual partners I’ve h on one hand. Sex is not a dirty secret, and v should talk about it. Think of i the girls like me, who walk aroui afraid of sex because they thii semen smells like urine. If we al 1 felt more comfortab talking about fee natural event i sex, girls might be more hone wife their parents about needii birth control. Women might ' more open to telling their gyn cologist fee truth about their sexi) history, and new couples would I brave enough to ask when fee la time was their partner was teste for STDs. I’m not just a sex column)! - I’m a sexual superhero!
