Vampires, get off my lawn!

[lesbiassparrow]

Is there some sort of new internet law that every time someone mentions a vampire film/book/theme park/whatever horrific contribution to vampire fetishes someone is coming up with next, they have to say 'Forget Twilight'? And then they go on to describe things that if you read Twilight there is no chance that you'd be interested in?

And much as I think Twilight is filled with the WTFness of the first degree, most of the other stuff that is touted as amazing and entirely the way vampires should be depicted sounds almost equally dreadful. And, sadly, more boring (say what you like about Twilight it keeps me endlessly entertained). That may be because I am ready for vampires to be retired as a way to explore the human condition or whatever else people say they are exploring. Seriously, they're not that interesting: They eat people. They live forever or a really long time until some rightminded person comes along and stakes them. That's it, people. They're like human shaped, long-lived, man-eating lions. Who may or may not be able to go out in sunlight, depending on what crappy vampire novel they're in.

Also, introducing a more manly, killer vampire doesn't make your character necessarily better than Edward (though I will admit the odds are surely in your favour). It just makes him more manly and killer. That, in itself, is not inherently interesting and better.

Comments

[chelseagirl47.livejournal.com]

Even the New York Times, which surely ought to know better, ran a piece the other day on the enduring appeal of vampires and blah, blah by Guillermo del Toro and his co-author. Blah blah Polidori . . . blah blah Stoker . . . blah blah contemporary phenomenon.

Although they did NOT mention Twilight at all, which was rather a relief. M. and I are being separately peer-pressured about True Blood but . . . we'll see.

Stay strong!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Although they did NOT mention Twilight at all, which was rather a relief.

While it is a relief, it strikes me as a bit, well, incomplete. Even if you don't like Twilight it does have a horrifically popular presence and shows how flexible the whole vampire appeal is. Though I guess as its primary audience is female then maybe it is not considered important enough for discussion.

(What I do find amusing is the amount of people who keep thinking that if only Twilight fans could be introduced to X vampire story they'd realise how crappy it. Sorry, I don't think it quite works like that.)

Re: Stay strong!

[chelseagirl47.livejournal.com]

But the article contains so many obligatory references as it is, I actually found it a relief to find one missing . . .