Today Dear Readers, I bring you news from my very own home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan! You see, there’s this reverend holding a class on werewolves and the evil within us. Sounds interesting, however, the fact that a reverend is holding a werewolf discussion, well, I just don’t see his lectures being unbiased and based in fact. But who knows, I could be wrong. Personally, I’d rather not have my history and facts mixed in with religious ideals.
According to Mlive.com, Reverend Tom Tavella has asked the question, “Are we as human beings simply animals that have evolved, or are we something special and different? The werewolf examines that.”
He plans on discussing this further in a three-week class titled “Wolfman: The Beast Within,” held at the Catholic Information Center on January 10, 17, and 24. He has led previous classes on “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” as well.
The first week of his lecture will take a look at the classic concept of lycanthropy, with information on physical abnormalities such as hypertrichosis and illnesses such as schizophrenia, as well as a look at classic werewolf literature. The class will then watch the classic film (not the new version) “The Wolf Man” during week two, with a discussion to follow. Finally, week three is a deeper discussion about what it means to be human.
“Is there really a beast within? Are we capable of doing that ourselves?” Tavella asks. “If so, how can we deal with that evil within?”
Now, that sounds fascinating! I’m honestly tempted to go to the lecture myself.
The Mlive article then took a darker turn. Everything written above is all well and good, but then the author of the article spoke with one Charlotte F. Otten, a retired Calvin College English professor and a self-proclaimed “werewolf expert.” From the sounds of the interview she sounds more like a werewolf fangirl, than a werewolf expert. She has made the ridiculous claim that, “Vampires never actually existed except in fiction, but werewolves have a long history of existence. There are court records from France describing werewolves.”
That has to be one of the most idiotic things I have ever read. As many of you know, I have been writing for both Werewolves.com and Vampires.com for a long time now, I have been studying each creature for years and I have written about countless historical stories, folktales and more. Every single culture, every country has their own vampire cases and legends, and they are no less “real” than werewolves. Vampire hysteria in the Middle Ages and on reached a level that the werewolves never came close to. There are more court cases on vampires than on werewolves. So before Otten makes such embarrassingly stupid claims, she should first take a look into the history of vampires. Both vampires and werewolves have a fascinating and dark history, and both should be thoroughly explored before anyone argues anything.
Now, before I go into full on rant mode, I’ll end this here.
– Moonlight
