i think it can influence people a lot, but i don't think you can blame it for making people murderers as i think thats already inside you anyway its jsut a different style of killnig someone if that makes sense. i mean i still try and walk through my wardrobe in the hope of getting to narnia and try climbing walls and shinning torches on the floor hoping to go to another world, but it never works

Well I think I am going to actually agree with Spike on this one
If you consider the level of violence over time, Impaling enemies on spikes, Gladiotorial games, Jack the ripper. Forms of violence were all carried out by people within a society but not all people within the society carried out or had a desire to carry out those forms of violence.
Most violent actions are carried out by people that know each other in an argument or heat of the moment, the violence such as Vampire blood drinking, Jack the ripper or Impaling were premeditated.
I do not believe that person did not want to kill and would not have killed had it not been for the stimuli, the stimuli may have affected the manor in which the killing was carried out though. It was the person that was deranged and lost their grasp of the difference between fantasy and reality, however the most significant fact is that the persons fantasy was to kill and drink blood. As Spike commented he wishes to go through the wardrobe or into another world via a torch (I can guess the world he would actually want to go to) if he looses the distinction or grasp of fantasy and reality however he will not go around killing people with fantasies like those.

that is awful!

I agree with the above responses.

read about this yesterday and was really disgusted
i can't beleive this boy was only 17, thats my age....its really scary
They say he was not mentally unstable, but to do that...come on, you've got to be. sure, he's responsible for his own actions as they said and yes he knew what he was doing...but i don't understand how they can say he is not mentally unstable...

yikes..i'd just read this in the paper.it's way disturbing. i pretty mucha gree wiht everything people have said before me.

His insanity led him to kill. His vampire obsession gave him his method and his 'excuse'. Without the latter, the former would still have happened.

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by SPIKE
i still try and walk through my wardrobe in the hope of getting to narnia

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The wardrobe only worked if you entered it by accident. This may be where you were going wrong.

I totally agree what all the people above posted.

But I was actually hoping to get a bit more insight in how sci-fi and cult stuff affects your "normal life". The story I picked up in the news was just an extreme example and as we all know extreme examples are always good to get some discussion going

It certainly affected this guys life in a major way that will probably put him away for a few years but these are extremes. As it influanced this guys life in a way does sci-fi / cult etc influance your life and the way you look towards life in a certain, hopefully less extreme, way.

As a person is molded partly by his surroundings and partly by genetics etc etc it must have some affect on you or do you say no it doesn't affect me in any way.

For example people that like the Startrek series a lot could for instance be more likely to believe in existance of E.T. life in the galaxy somewhere. Or it could be the other way around that people that believe in E.T life are more drawn towards series like Startrek. But it could also be that this has totally nothing to do with it.

I'm really curious about this (yes I'm weird like that). What are your viewpoints?

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by Random

The wardrobe only worked if you entered it by accident. This may be where you were going wrong.

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ok someone push me into a wardrobe without me knowing and i'll be in narnia!!

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by SPIKE
(quotes)
ok someone push me into a wardrobe without me knowing and i'll be in narnia!!

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Spike , Now that was funny

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by Chambler
As it influanced this guys life in a way does sci-fi / cult etc influance your life and the way you look towards life in a certain, hopefully less extreme, way.

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I don't think it does really influence me. I mean, yes I'd love to time travel, or be beamed up, or visit other worlds through a gate, or see aliens (well maybe not alien abduction experiments!) but in all honestly the idea of scifi/cult for me is that its fantasy and you can escape your mind into it to get away from reality for a lot of hours a week.

And its fun and it creates a discussion for *can that really happen* and *how many ways can you kill a vampire* but at the end of the day I know its not real.

Yes the above story is the extreme, but as Random says that guy must have been extremely disturbed in the first place to kill.

I still distinctly remember watching Galaxy Quest for the first time before we were going to our first convention and hubby being very worried that everyone would take Buffy/Angel a little too seriously and all be dressed as slayers and asking technical type questions. But luckily nothing of the sort happened

*"Perfectly sane"

Mr Thomas said the defendant was not mentally unstable, but was responsible for his actions.

"These are not the views of a mentally unstable defendant - he is perfectly sane and there is no medical issue whatsoever for you to consider."*

I'm struck by the thought tyhat this isn't the kind of act a person of sound mind would commit. Who decided he was not 'mentally unstable'? Are we living in a society where cutting out people hearts is part of the normal range of adolescent behaviour?

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by Jango
Who decided he was not 'mentally unstable'?

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I can only assume that someone decided he knew the difference between *right and wrong*

Ok i have loads of vampire books and films and im almost the same age, does that make me any more likely to do something that awful?? NO! I dont care what anyone says he is not mentally stable!

SPIKE- can we get married in Narnia instead of B&Q and Aslan can be the best man??

Im going to paint the inside of my wardrobe all narnia like because I AM that sad!

I really didn't think that I was that obsessed by Culty kind of stuff, but last year a mate of mine got me a Power Puff girls poster that his company had printed & on Wedesday I came into possession od a cardboard cutout CG Buffy that adverises the new Buffy XBox Game, that he assures me I asked for. So I must be a pretty hopeless case

Haven't tried to kill anyone yet tho'

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by Eve

SPIKE- can we get married in Narnia instead of B&Q and Aslan can be the best man??

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maybe but i'm a bit scared of lions

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by SPIKE
ok someone push me into a wardrobe without me knowing and i'll be in narnia!!

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No need, hun. I think you may already be in Narnia... you're certainly away with the fairies

So many ideas in one little thread. Where to start?

Real life vampires and 'mental instability'. That last phrase gets banded around a little too easily, to describe people who are so deviated in their morality as to be opposed to our own. The sub-conscious idea behind it is that 'only someone who is mentally unbalanced could have morals I don't like'. Pure egoism. Sorry if that offends anyone. But you don't have to be mentally unstable to be a Sado-Masochist. You don't have to be mentally unstable to like only the taste of Vanilla. Nor do you have to be mentally unstable to get a kick out of killing. You just have to be human. We are a diverse species, with diverse tastes and diverse morals. For a psychiatrist or a psychologist to describe someone as mentally unstable (or a more clinical words that this may approximate to) means something far more in depth than 'moral deviancyÂ’, which is all it is really being used to describe here. Think I'm splitting hairs? Sorry, but there are plenty of people in this world that think my moral deviancy is a manifestation of a mental disease. I disagree with them, and I'll disagree with anyone who describes this sick pseudo-vamp as mentally unstable to.

Then to Chambler’s question on the impact of Sci-Fi/Cult fiction formats on our lives. My personal perspective, for what it’s worth, is that the matter is too complicated to simplify to an ‘It is a cause/effect <delete as applicable>’. Did I go looking for Star Wars, or did it go looking for me. A bit of both I suspect. I love the genre for the escapism it provides, but it’s at its best when I find subtle story lines that mirror my own life, or philosophical perspective. Again, did Yodaisms appeal because they reflected my already existing ideals, or did they form them? Again, I have to say a little of both. Yes, reading Frank Herbert affected my opinions, but Star Trek never made me believe in ETs or UFOs. I always liked the idea of a unifying ‘Force’ but I never really believed in it. And yet Han Solo and Princess Leia had a huge impact on my sexuality…

We enjoy Fantasy (let’s call it what it is – Sci-Fi/Cult sounds so clumsy, and Fantasy shouldn’t have to mean Dwarves and Elves only) and through exposure to ideas and concepts within the genre our already existing thoughts are modified, and every once in a while, they’re turned on their heads. If you get lucky.

I guess Buffy has influenced my life a little - I now find it acceptable to wear crosses because i now pecieve them as something other than a symbol of the christian faith and rather as a symbol of faith in general and i have developed an interest in Wicca.

As for sci-fi in general - well i have no life outside of this site so...

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by Sydney
As for sci-fi in general - well i have no life outside of this site so...

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There is no life outside this site I have looked already