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Monday, March 5, 2012

Lusting for Bloodsuckers

So, this is actually inspired by several conversations with some awesome people on Twitter. It started as a question from @inkmuse about whether vampire fiction was over filled and should be laid to rest. Also, how we could revive it? This sparked a lot of opinions. My favorite was between @TheRaymondMRose, @peterdawes,  @ondinal_songs and myself. This got me thinking of vampire psychology and modern fiction.

Years ago, we had some decent vampire fiction. Anne Rice and even Laurell K. Hamilton's first few books were great reads. They let you view some vampire psychology and see how manipulative they can be. Then came Stephanie Meyer. I know, she's on everyone's lips. You either love her books or wish to throw them into the pit of fiery forgetfulness. Why is there so much hate? Well, I'm not going into all the reasons, and there are enough to make a mountain. Her books inspired a flood of vampire romance fiction. Along with the vampires came the werecreatures, the fairies, and *shudder* the demons.There is a big problem here.

These monsters are supposed to represent our darkest fears and emotions. Right now, I'm just going to stick with the undead. Vampires, at best, would be sociopaths bordering on psychopaths. Yes, there are perhaps some that would want to be good but their trying to to do so should be an enormous struggle. And what they consider good to them may not be good to others. Evil and good are relative, depending on your moral compass. A vampire who only hunts criminals is still killing and eating people.

This leads into the whole relationship thing. Sure, I can see the whole dark fantasy, bad boy thing, but these are creatures that want to eat us. We are food and pets to them. Would you want to date a cow? I know, cows can't hold an intelligent conversation. Then again, if you were centuries old, how intelligent would you view a 17 year old? The main point is that these are not healthy relationships. They will end badly. I'm not talking about crying into you half gallon of ice cream bad. More like, closed casket funeral.

So, what about you? Do you enjoy the undead romances? Or would you like to see more stories about the dark side of vampires again?

36 comments:

  1. I like both :P But I think more of the traditional vampire needs to work it's way back into fiction.

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  2. I do too. I didn't mind the occasional relationship with a vampire. Though I would like to see some of the negative points I mentioned added as part of the conflict. But it seems that the market is flooded with vampire romance.

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  3. I agree with Rebecca Hamilton's comment. It is getting old and getting old fast. Not to mention that some of these vampire-hman "relationships" depicted in stories don't actually come across as romantic but rather twisted instead.

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  4. I think the twilight books have a good story (hate me all ya want, but hey) but they have utterly RUINED vamp fiction, I will admit that twilight got me into vamp fiction, but I can't get a decent fantasy book any more without it being based in some way off twilight, and it is REALLY aggrovating. I love the anne rice books, and dracula, more fiction needs to be based off those, instead of crappy romance that is a little bit twisted, and lacks the whole fear factor that vampirism should be

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  5. @moonduster and @impuredestiny: I agree on all accounts. It's one of the reasons I wrote this post. Most of the relationships depicted do come across as creepy, and yet they end happily. It's not believable to me. Now it seems every books needs it. I definitely want to see more books with evil vampires.

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  6. I am not going to bash any Twilight fans. I am also in no way downing Ms. Meyer. She found a niche and a new sub-genre and filled it out very well. Props to her and I could only hope to do as well. But I myself prefer my vampires without sparkles and the smoldering emo eyes. Give me raw, unadulterated violence and feralness. Give me uber-intelligence. Give me conflicted. Just give me something to be afraid of, please. I just recently read the first two books of the Strain series - a good update on the traditional vampire tale from Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Lots of violence, minimal kissy face. : )

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  7. It's true. Vampires represent the shadow of human consciousness, they are--by definition--representative of our own darkness. Vampires are supposed to be subversive, grotesque creatures that inspire dread. These modern "vampires" created by Stephanie Meyer et al. are little more than misnamed fairies, sprites and demi-gods from classical mythology. They are not truly upir.

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  8. Greever: I'll have to check Strain out. Sounds like my kind of book.

    Anon: No, I don't think they are either. And Disney did mess up fairies as well. In lore they weren't sweet benevolent beings either.

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  9. I loathe and abhor the Twilight-inspired vampire, werewolf, etc. craze. These monsters are--monsters. Right?

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  10. That's what I thought. I also hoped with Twilight that things could go as low as the were. I was proved wrong by both the preview for Time Burton's Dark Shadows and "I Kissed a Vampire" musical. How much fluffier are they expecting our monsters to be?

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  11. I know he's not the perfect example of a bad vampire but after having watched The Vampire Diaries tv series based off of some novels by L. J. Smith, Damon Salvatore is an extremely difficult vampire to like on account of his very prolific murdering of innocents with seemingly no guilt whatsoever. So there is proof of some evil vampires still lurking about in modern fiction...

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  12. When I was a teenager I read the Vampire Diaries and loved them. Damon was a favorite of mine. Even Stefan had his evil moments. In the book, he almost killed Caroline and Tyler. Even the villains were vampires. Now that I'm older the thought of vampires going to high school after living for centuries seems illogical. Smith did a decent job of explaining why, though.

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  13. I prefer my True Blood vampires. They will and do still drink from humans even with the synthetic available. They will still kill if threatened. They cannot go in the sun, and certainly don't sparkle. They can however show signs of love for another and form relationships. All that makes for some mighty interesting vampires.

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  14. Definitely the dark side vampires. I refused to read any vampire fiction in the past couple of years because of the whole Twilight thing. Luckily someone convinced me to read Saltwater Vampires by Kirsty Eager, which restored my faith in the genre. Nasty, nasty psycopathic vampires out to destroy teens at a music festival on the east Australian coast. Great book!

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  15. Kristen: I love True blood as well. Even if they can love, no vampire on there is good.

    Maree: I will have to read those. My reading list keeps getting longer. :D

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  16. I always have my fictional vampires using the pick up line "Would you be the light to my inner darkness," to lure and eat teenage girls. They never go hungry, and have a large collection of "Team Edward" shirts as well.

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    1. I love that! Hehe, that gave me an idea for one of my vampires, erm when they get added to the story.

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  17. Hi Noree (and everyone else),

    A fellow vampire author suggested I swing by this conversation, as the subject is certainly near and dear to my heart. It’s an interesting question: undead romance or the dark side?

    I’ll start by saying there’s room for both, despite the fact that undead romance currently steals the spotlight. I’ll also add that, although I don’t fill my reading queue with vampire novels (and why does that come as a surprise to so many people, I wonder?), I have read a smattering of both—among them the Twilight, Vampire Academy, and House of Night offerings on one side, and the Strain, Blood Legacy, and Stoker offerings on the other. I must admit that I’ve never read Anne Rice or Charlaine Harris, although I do own the Sookie Stackhouse series.

    But, where do I stand? In the shadows, of course. I prefer my vampires violent, virulent, and vitriolic. I want vampires who kick proverbial a$$.

    And now I contradict myself, somewhat, because vampires are the heroes in my novels. Teen heroes, to boot. So, what gives? Well, the real monsters are væmpires—mutated vampires who feed on vampire blood. You see, I want my monsters to kick a$$, and if we’re going to humanize vampires … then I’m going to show them what it’s like to be human.

    It’s not for the feint of heart. It’s more like “vampires meets X-Men meets The Walking Dead,” as one reviewer put it. Not pitch dark, but certainly not light—right in the shadows, just where I like it.

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    1. In the shadows isn't bad. Yes,there are some vampires who strive to be human. But lately, I am seeing less of a struggle. And you books sounds interesting. :)

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  18. I think undead and romance aren't mutually exclusive. BUT I agree that the new vamps are just way too soft. Edward doesn't have fangs, we never see him drinking much blood, and he SPARKLES for crying out loud. Lestat would shred him to bits in about five seconds. Lestat was great because he made the traditional Dracula vampire sexy. BUT he wasn't a good boy. He killed, manipulated, and enjoyed every second of his power--with just enough angst for all us edible humans to love him. Now we have a bunch of demons who want to be angels and vegetarian vampires. If you're going to make a vampire bad boy, he needs to be more Heathcliff and less golden boy.

    My $0.02.

    (Oh, and I second the True Blood love. Eric Northman is Lestat reborn.)

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    1. True, I don't mind the sexy vampire, but I also prefer the dangerous type.

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  19. The wonderful thing about vampires and other creatures of folklore is that their stories can change. The dark, brooding and violent "proper" vampires aren't the same as the vampires most popular in the Victorian era where they were ugly, bloated things like human ticks, and before that, where they weren't called vampires at all, but where hundreds of different creatures of darkness.

    Vampire romance has a place, and I think the problem lies less with the concept itself and more with the fact many authors don't take their time to establish their lore and stick to it because they're merely jumping on a bandwagon.

    Personally, I can't think of a vampire story outside of Stoker's "Dracula" that I even liked, but I'm fickle.

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    1. True. They were not called vampires until Victorian age, but many cultures had a version of the walking, blood drinking dead. I don't mind the lore shifting, but I agree that a lot of authors are not taking the time to establish a lore.

      There are some good vampire stories out there. Personally, I love the "Dracula" story, but the book was a chore to read.

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    2. I found it interesting that in Eastern European folklore, for a long time werewolves and vampires were the same thing.
      For the modern monsters -- a good lore is rare. I really loved what David Wellington did for werewolves in Frostbite and Overwinter.

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    3. There are a lot of tales around the world where vampires, werewolves, and demons are synonymous. A lot of it was based on fear of the unknown in those times. Then as time went on, things changed.

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  20. Hey! Found this through Twitter! :)

    I agree that Ms. Meyers found her niche, but so many people have jumped on her bandwagon that the paranormal genre is saturated with vampires, especially for the paranormal romance (or at least a good chunk of it).

    IMO, vampires are meant to be evil. They're killers and when you humanize them, I think you deviates from what they really are, taking away that special element that made them exciting and dangerous in the first place.

    Don't even get me going on the whole 'bad boy' thing…

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    1. Thanks for posting your thoughts. I see a lot of people are of the same mind. :)

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  21. By far the meanest vampires I have come across in fiction are those from Brian Lumley's epic "Necroscope" series. Those vampires are alien symbiotes that infect their hosts and drive them mad.

    If you're a vampire fan and you've never read Lumley then you really owe it to yourself to check them out.

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  22. +1 for Necroscope, it's one gruesome, twisted tale :)

    I also miss vampires with more bite to them. It seems a lot of the vampire romance these days just takes what is convenient about vampires - like the already mentioned fact that uber intelligent, centuries old vampire immediately falling in love with a mopy teenager...

    It's nice to see some humanity in vampires, but I want to see some darkness and struggle too.

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    1. Neroscope, alright adding it to my to read list!

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    2. Necroscrope was the bomb. Lumley's vampires wern't really undead though, I won't spoil it if you havn't read it. But his reinvention of them made them 1000% more interesting.

      My self I prefer vampires to actually be monsters, that only have an interest in people as food, not romantic partners.

      I have more thought out opinion here on my blog: http://www.ebfrey.com/ Why Daylight Walking Vampires Suck!

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  23. Vampire-human romance has icked me out since the early 90s, actually, when a speaker at the college I attended pointed out that it's *necrophilia.* And werewolf-human romance is... well, you get the picture. I like my Buffys slaying, not smooching the undead.

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    1. I think Buffy was one of few storylines in which they addressed the complexities and problems inherent in this kind of relationship -- even as a kick-ass Slayer, she was still a teenaged young adult dealing with partners with centuries of life experience.
      The other thing, which I feel is dominant in the trend now, is the vampire as a metaphor for our society's obsession with eternal youth. Almost all the vampire leads are frozen physically and emotionally in high school, which makes no sense, but taps, I think, into a deep fantasy of not growing old.
      Which is not to say that the genre ends there or will collapse. I just read "Let Me In"(haven't seen either movie version of it) and that is one great read -- it handles well the realities of a relationship between a young adult and a vampire who looks -- and feels -- like the same age, but isn't.
      Another good book, out recently, is "Enter, Night" -- that gets back to the dark, macabre horror of the vampire, and for the characters that encounter them, what vampirism does to human relationships is taken to its logical and horrifying conclusions.
      There's probably a whole blog post -- or series! -- to be had here, but I'll just leave my two cents at: the vampires popular now are the ones encapsulating our obsession with eternal youth. Werewolves have tended to be metaphors for our fears of the wild or animal nature within us, but as a civilization we're not too scared of that anymore, hence the lack, IMHO, of many truly frightening modern werewolf stories.

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    2. I can understand that vampires can represent our thirst of immortality. Throughout the ages humans have tried to find the secret to immortality and eternal youth, such as the Philosopher's Stone or the Fountain of Youth.

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  24. Hello! Newbie, here.
    I've done some surface research on the cultural aspect of the vampire myth and of monsters in general, and I think I can understand the need for caricature; it's a natural response to fear. There is a difference between the thrill created by a good scary story and the real fear of superstition. People may enjoy the former, but the latter is unpleasant. Fairy tales were originally intended to frighten children into staying in line. The typical morals are - Don't go outside because something will eat you; Stay out of the woods because it is the domain of the Other; A woman with power is a force of evil; Toe the line or everyone you love will die.
    People blame Disney for watering down the old stories, but I truly believe that it was intentional. These were a generation of men who grew up in fear of the thing in the shadow, and they did not want that for their own children.
    The vampire myth has evolved in the same way. The moral of the vampire myth usually seems to be spiritual or sexual, since in most vampire transformation stories, the vampire is created by some sort of earthly moral deviation. Conform, or you're doomed to destroy everything you love. Real belief in that myth is an unpleasant thing, so the natural reaction is to change the myth. The unfortunate thing is that, with the abandonment of superstition, the squishy vampire stuck around, even though it has been reduced from belief to literature.
    And of course, sex sells - even the watered-down sex of the Meyerverse.

    And really, I don't mind a bit of vampire romance. The element of danger is exciting. But PLEASE, give me some legitimate reason for this powerful, experienced, intelligent, unstable creature to be attracted to a teenager. -__-

    On the Twilight topic, I actually find those vampires terrifying. Yes, the sparkling thing is stupid, and they don't have fangs, and they spend far too much time angsting around, and there's the, um, smell issue... But they're indestructible. There is NO way for a human to defend herself against them. Because they're basically made of rock, struggling will only cause you more harm. That could have been played up a lot better, in my opinion.
    Of course, it's a problem in itself, since the whole point of any historical monster myth is human triumph. There has to be a way to defeat the monster, or else it becomes a tale of despair.
    (And seriously, if they're indestructible and undefeatable, why the hell is it so important that their existence remain a secret? It's not like humans could do anything about it.)

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