...sort of. I promise to keep this one short. (I apologize in advance for the rantiness. My next post won't be a rant--really.)
Now, we all know these modern super-hot vamps that've been floating around lately. The ones that regular humans fall in love with. The ones that angst! About! Their immoral! Situation! And maybe their lost soul!
Seemingly without fail, these beings are described as "perfect." Right. 'Cause no one would fall in love with them if they weren't, huh?
Now, when you take a look at the original vampire--and I don't mean Dracula, although at least he never "fell in love" with his human food--what do you see? Not super-sexy angsters. Scary things. Creatures that rose from the grave to return and suck blood from innocent villagers. Evil beings. Things that couldn't handle crosses and stuff like that.
Most modern vamps never even mention crosses. They'll mention mirrors. Sunlight, sometimes (Look, Ma! I glitter!). Stakes, ocassionally. Fire, usually. Some types of vamps are absolutely impossible to kill except with one certain method (Look, Ma! I can pull pieces of myself back together!). Remember the original vampires? Weaknesses: crosses, stakes, sunlight, fire. People--regular humans--could kill them if the stars aligned properly and they actually tried. Certain "modern" vamps? Weaknesses: Maybe fire. Maybe a stake or two. Or maybe they're practically invulnerable. Regular humans don't stand a chance against the "modern" vampire.
To be fair, Dracula had some sort of trance thing that pretty much made it impossible to fight against him. But, then again, he didn't like garlic, did he?
Amen! Although I like the play on the vulnerabilities vamps, by the nature of the archetype, are scary monsters and should act that way.
ReplyDeleteTruly, the vampires of old were terrifying and CREEPY. Not just all-powerful and wildly attractive. It's an interesting and odd, odd, odd new preoccupation we have with them, as a culture.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying some books aren't great, or stories very compelling. I'm just sort of marveling that we've become seduced by the fantasy of a being that is supposed to be soulless.
And it's cool. :) The line between cool and not cool is always shifting...