When ignorant little young people write to me and chew me out, I’m going to post their letters here on this blog, with my comments. Here is an e-mail I just received, reproduced exactly:
Shame on you! {Hello to you, too!}
I understand that we all have the right of believing what we like best, some poor souls for instance believe in themselves. {? And “believing in yourself” is bad?} What you bring about however is horrifying. Not only a being who draws “life energy” isn’t a vampire, but a necrospectre, {a what????} you also eliminate the tangible mean of the blood and substitute it with prana energy to make the imposture even less detectable and thus more easily appealing. {Which is exactly what I tried -not- to do.} Furthermore the personality kinds you are describing here are best fit for the definitions of manic disorder and bipolar. {Not at all, as I explain more clearly in “Real Vampires Revisited.” Are you a mental health professional and qualified to diagnose, Enyl?} If vampire existed and if I were one of them I’d certainly like to pay you a little visit. {Ooooh, a threat! What a friendly guy!} How sexist must you be. There is, all throughout your essay, the feeling that a vampire can only be female. I though of vampires, as I did of angels and demons, that they weren’t sexual beings. {Another asshole who thinks vampires are all impotent like Anne Rice’s. Folklore vampires are -totally- sexual! Normally, I refer people who ask about the feminine pronouns question to “Real Vampires Revisited,” but this guy is just plain hostile–and seems to have trouble with English.}
In any event, let me conclude by saying that your gain must be egotistical here, {he writes an e-mail like this to a total stranger, and he says -I’m- egotistical?} mabe even monetary, {Oh? he paid to read my article?} but mostly you are drawing a kind of attention to yourself that will last. {Gods, I hope so!} The real vampire is you {At least he gets that one right} and in that you are really cursed. {Wow. And I just thought I was having a bad day.}
yours truly, {and sincerely to you, sugarlips}
Enyl.
“Real Vampires” was written twenty years ago and has been online for ten years. Congratulations, Enyl, on finally locating it. Now go read a book on common courtesy, and brush up on basic vampire folklore, because you don’t have the first clue what you’re talking about. Only an obnoxious little shit dashes off a rude e-mail like that to someone who has only authored an article. I’m tired of hearing from people like you. Bother me again and I’ll publish your e-mail address.