Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New (Artemis) Moon<\/p>\n
What is it with all the vampire stuff around right now?\u00a0 Those terrible Twilight movies.\u00a0 The much better Vampire Diaries and the Gates on TV.\u00a0 The Passage, which I just finished, written by a “literary” novelist.\u00a0 Not to mention the background of Anne Rice and all those undead erotica books, I don’t recall what they’re called.\u00a0 Is it about the outs and the ins?\u00a0 Is it about the saved and the damned?\u00a0 Is it about the need for mystery and wonder in an increasingly secular age?\u00a0 There’s even a BBC series called Being Human.<\/p>\n
I’ve not read or seen a really good vampire story, I mean really good, since Hammer Films “Horror of Dracula” with the exception of True Blood and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.\u00a0 I enjoyed the Anne Rice material, her stuff about the Mayfair witches, too.\u00a0 I also liked Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.\u00a0 True Blood, the HBO series is among the best ever in my opinion, right up there with Buffy.\u00a0 I’m not sure what it says, either, that the ones I enjoy most are on TV.\u00a0 I’m a literary and movie guy at heart, but the small screen does allow for character development and multiple story lines.<\/p>\n
There’s a lot of media studies and cultural studies ink that has been spilled about the fascination with vampires.\u00a0 I’m sure many of you who read this find them quite beside the point.\u00a0 My guess is that they give us a way of exploring the notion of an afterlife without having to get to close to it.\u00a0 The evil nature of the vampire prevents idolization, though much of contemporary vampire fiction plays with this received wisdom.<\/p>\n
Even so, we wonder, what would I do if I had all the time I wanted?\u00a0 What would I do?\u00a0 What would I become?\u00a0 If the only answer is, feed blood lust, well, that turns out to not be very interesting after a few dead bodies, but the question of love between an immortal and a mortal, that’s juicy.\u00a0 What about power?\u00a0 Would you seek wealth and control if you had eternal life on this earth?\u00a0 What might you do if you loathed the thing being a vampire made you?\u00a0 Self-loathing is a favorite distraction among teens and adults alike.\u00a0 This question drives a lot of today’s Dracula derivative stories.<\/p>\n
Whatever it is, and it’s probably each of these and more, there seems to be plenty of energy and money for turning out vampire stories.\u00a0 Even bad ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New (Artemis) Moon What is it with all the vampire stuff around right now?\u00a0 Those terrible Twilight movies.\u00a0 The much better Vampire Diaries and the Gates on TV.\u00a0 The Passage, which I just finished, written by a “literary” novelist.\u00a0 Not to mention the background of Anne Rice and all those undead erotica books, I … Continue reading So. You’re Undead. Now What?<\/span>