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!