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

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I recently saw a Swedish movie you might've heard of called Låt de rätte komma in (Let the right one in) which had a pretty original, fresh take on the whole vampire thing. I've never been a huge fan of the vampire lore (apart from reading Der Kleine Vampir, a German book series as a kid) and something I'm sick to death of is the whole basic sexuality/sexual desire/control of sexual desires intertwining with vampires, whether it's Mormon abstaining vampires ala Twilight or something else (like Angel on Buffy turning evil post-sex). So to see a movie that was like "uhh, nothing sexual about sucking blood here!", it was really awesome.

I think why people say "forget Twilight" is because Twilight's messed with the essentials of vampire lore, and to those who like them, that's pretty blasphemous, especially when it isn't done well. Like, LTROI messes with some essentials of the lore but carries out others creatively and interestingly. So people are down with that.

I do agree with you vampirs aren't that interesting. But those who like them, I assume, would feel Twilight is an abodomation of their beloved fictional tradition.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I've heard of it, but as part of my attempt to do my personal bit in ignoring the whole vampire obsession I haven't seen it. Plus, I guess I'm just not that interested in vampires in general (probably why I don't get the outrage over Twilight screwing with the lore. It has sooo many other problems that getting upset over that would go pretty far down the list. Edward's sparkling are the least of his issues. :p)

Mainly, I just long for the old days when people killed vampires. Good times. Good times.

[salamandersam.livejournal.com]

Let the Right One In (though I respect your staying away from vampire flicks)is an excellent movie. For myself, it focused more on loneliness and bullying than vampires.

[kittenscurious.livejournal.com]

I actually really quite like the vampire trope, I always have for no discernible reason, but for me, the fact that SMeyer has messed with the essentials of the lore is VERY far down on my list of issues with the series (except, sparkling?! really?!?). A few years ago, I might have had a bigger issue with it, but when Troy came out and all the Classicists in the world were pissed off about them messing with Homer, one of the Classics professors at my school, said, "You know what? I loved it because I can accept that since the Iliad is really only a myth/legend/lore, someone who wants to tell this story can rework it any way they see fit." Which is a viewpoint that makes a lot of sense and allows one to enjoy all manner of books/movies/tv shows even if it isn't "canonical". (See: Merlin, X-3/Wolverine).

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

the fact that SMeyer has messed with the essentials of the lore is VERY far down on my list of issues with the series

Yes! I mean the books have so many other issues, it strikes me that whatever she has done with vampires comes wayyy down the list. Plus, vampire mythos or whatever you call it, has never been terribly stable or consistent as far as I know. (Do you know that Roman vampires were old women who turned into birds and sucked babies' blood?) I have to admit I do sort of cherish the sparkling for the hilarity and amusement it has brought to so many people.

As for Troy, while I didn't like the film, that was mainly because I found it boring and not a terribly interesting revision of the story rather than because it messed with the Homeric version. Plus, I sort of think that like Alexander they cut out a large amount of the stuff that made the story interesting in favour of rather boring exposition. But that's an issue of poor adaptation rather than adaptation in and of itself.