Filed under: Natalie
You know I love vampire lit, tv shows, and movies but there have always been some issues for me.
3. There are far too many vamp stipulations, and they change from every author. When I read multiple books at the same time while also keeping up with series and a new movie I get the rules all mixed up. Do these vampires sleep at night? Do they have coffins? Do these ones avoid light or can they step outside? How in the world does one change into a vampire in this series? Is a bite sexy or painful in this one? Do these vamps have mind control? Do they have “special talents?” What blocks those talents? And honestly, what roles do garlic and silver play? There simply are too many to keep straight; give me a book with an index and a clear set of rules for your world, perhaps.
2. Why must the love stories in these pieces be so Romeo and Juliet like? It’s all a bit naïve, no? These vampires simply become obsessed with particular human women with hardly an
y real explanation. Be honest, by the end of book four you hated Bella and Edward’s relationship. Some of the worst scenes in True Blood are the ones with just Sookie and Bill. They are mushy, unrealistic, and have horrible cliché music in the background. (You know you love the scenes with Sookie and Eric better because the love is riskier, more sexual, less high school like) More examples you say….why in the world in Stephan so obsessed to Elena, just because she looks quite a bit like his old flame Katherine? He barley knows her or anything about her character as person, yet he risks everything for her. The love stories in these books put both the human and vampire characters in so much peril and cause so much trouble yet it is just a “given.” It’s just all rather juvenile. Give me a complicated relationship, give me fights, give me jealously, give me real love. Then maybe Bella won’t look so pathetic and Sookie and Bill’s scenes won’t suck.
1. The worst by far…..the all too present, but never discusses, age issue. Why in the world are these vampires obsessed with dating high school girls? They are ageless and ridiculously attractive yet they return to high school to find women. First, if you could choose anytime of your life, high school just seems silly. Still under your parent’s roof, attending daily classes, and not even able to legally drink. Who chooses this an as existence? Second, I also find this all quite creepy; technically most of these men are well over 100 years old 
(mentally/developmentally), yet the women they chase are 17 and 18. Don’t these types of love interests seem a bit pedophile-like to anyone else? We scoff at Ashton and Demi, but Edward Cullen’s age is much farther apart compared to Bella and somehow we seem to eat that up? Stephan and his brother are obsessed with an 18 year old girl, aren’t there some moral and ethical issues we aren’t acknowledging here?
Do you agree? Do you have your own gripes? Lay it on me all……
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1.) I don’t know about Twilight and True Blood fans, but Buffy fans will rarely leave you lacking in detail: http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire. This website lists descriptions of vampire physiology, psychology, lifestyle, social structure, birth, death, etc — basically everything you asked about in gripe one. Maybe people have set up sites for the other series — although few vampire fans are more obsessive or nerdy than Buffy fans . . .
3.) I too think that it’s a little creepy — but vampires are creepy, right? I’m not a vampire scholar, but I would expect that the vampire legend is in some way related to the loss of virginity (specifically a woman’s). The usually young female victim is transformed by a puncture and blood loss. I don’t think I’m crazy to draw some parallels. This may partially explain why young, usually virginal maidens were the primary victims in early vampire lore. The tradition then carried over to modern incarnations. That and the fact that hot, teenage girls mean bigger ratings . . .
Comment by Kimbo October 8, 2009 @ 4:11 amAlso, Buffy and other series hint / state that vampire personality development stops once they are turned. So, if a man becomes a vampire at 18, then his personality is that of an 18-year-old. True, 50 years would make one a little wiser (we hope), but he would be a more seasoned 18-year-old, not a 68-year-old. My point is that at 68 or 368, a living person would have experienced many things: more formal education, having a day-to-day job, marriage, children, the aging of his/her body, etc… The vampires experience their own life trials — but not the same ones. They can conceivably live like a carefree teenager for hundreds of years without the responsibilities that come to aging humans and without the bodily changes — after all, they still look 18.
You bring up interesting points and ones I’m sure most of us who are dedicated vampire followers have thought before. I would have to say to #3–the vampire genre (at least in the literary sense) did not change until Ann Rice. She essentially re-created the vampire into a sexy being, one that can control with both his/her mind and body. That changed things up. Before Rice vampires were not physcially “sexy” rather they were able to control their victims with their mind. Dracula, for example, was not described as even attractive, yet was able to have his pick of women (and men for that matter). These are two very different concepts. Today’s literary versions of vampires are constantly trying to re-invent the vampire–to make him or her more human-like but still maintain that level of being untouchable. Sometimes it works (i.e. I do think Edward as whole works b/c he re-invents the vampire past Lestat or Louis); however, other times it does not work and the audience (those who are committed vampire lovers!) confused and wondering just what went wrong. We want vampires to be something that is slightly unobtainable, so when they become too human-like they lose some of their magic.
The vampire has also been a being that represents something that humans can never be–immortal. On top of that they seem to have no boundaries in life, they do as they please, move around as they please (minus of course for the sunlight in some cases) and yet seem to almost always represent what humans want: the ability to live life with no human restrictions. The restrictions placed on a vampire by being a vampire never seem to outway human restrictions.
Well….ok. It’s official. I love discussing vampires. So I’ll stop with that. =)
Comment by KT October 8, 2009 @ 2:47 pmO..one more thing.
I’m not sure we can compare TV and movie vampires to literary vampires even those representing each other (like Interview with a Vampire or the Twilight series) without taking into account the differences that moving from one media to another means. Movies tend to take liberties with the characters, which changes the overall effect.
Ok–now I’m done.
Comment by KT October 8, 2009 @ 2:50 pmI’ve been wondering why vampires are now so damn sexy. They were scary monsters meant for horror movies; now, they’re someone to have wild, animalistic sex with and/or to fall in love with. What?! You don’t have sex with a monster, and you certainly don’t fall in love with one.
I think the reason this bothers me is because it seems like often it’s the (young) human girl falling for the mature, handsome vampire. The feminist inside me feels really uncomfortable with the act of becoming a vampire…your body is penetrated and sucked dry. Um, gross, and just a wee bit symbolic, don’t you think?
Comment by Leigh October 12, 2009 @ 2:54 pmSaw this, thought of you and this post: http://jezebel.com/5380824/what-women-want-gay-vampires
Comment by Leigh October 13, 2009 @ 11:35 pm