A Writer's Notebook, One-Thousand-Seven-Hundred-And-Ninety-Nine

Earlier tonight,.Melissa and I were watching an episode of a television program from about ten years ago when one of the guests on the show, a comedian, began to discuss the idea that Judas was the first vampire.  I found it very strange to find this being presented so casually, as it is connected with many deeply anti-Semitic myths, and I am certain that it was not anything the speaker was aware of or considered.  Of course, i am very sensitive to this subject, which is both a cause and an effect of writing about the subject, but even if I put aside the particulars of my relationship to these themes, I know that this story has an inherently anti-Semitic subtext.  Yet it was not recognized as offensive or intended that way.  In many ways I have come to think of the vampire myth as serving a function demonstrated here, as providing cover for anti-Semitic tropes in a way that renders them unrecognized by many, to the point that they can remain relevant and even proliferate in culture, even among many who have no inclination towards hate in general or anti-Semitism particularly.

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