Bree Wolf's Blog - Posts Tagged "vampire"
Have vampires been done to death? (No pun intended)
These days vampires are everywhere, and we’ve come a long way from the early days of Dracula and his aversion to garlic.
In a way, yes, the paranormal genre is flooded with vampire books and yet it is quite diverse. There are so many different kinds of vampires (new species spring up every day) that I expect it to turn into a science before long (yes, you read that right! No fiction, just science!).
Equipped with a great imagination (not that I want to flatter myself), authors reinvent vampires on a daily basis. Some vampires can stick their heads out the window at mid-day without the need for life insurance while others can’t. Some have to drink human blood while others are content with our four-legged friends. Some die from a stake to the heart, while others can just pull it out and go on their merry ways. The list goes on and on.
So I guess from a strictly ‘scientific’ point of view, vampires have never been this unique. YET…and here comes the big BUT…from a personality point of view, vampires appear quite uniform. In a few simple words, vampires these days are mostly the dark, brooding, yet sensitive and utterly modest type riddled by guilt.
Back in the 90s, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer was a major hit because it switched things around. The blonde girl was the strong heroine, sending evil vampires to their (second) grave without breaking a sweat. Vampires were not people (well, undead people), but demons. The only exception came in the form of Angel, the first dark, brooding, yet sensitive and utterly modest vampire riddled by guilt. Today, he has multiple clones, and that’s about as much as I’m going to say about this topic.
Personally, I always preferred Spike, and for a very simple reason. He made me laugh. Man, that guy was funny!
In a way, yes, the paranormal genre is flooded with vampire books and yet it is quite diverse. There are so many different kinds of vampires (new species spring up every day) that I expect it to turn into a science before long (yes, you read that right! No fiction, just science!).
Equipped with a great imagination (not that I want to flatter myself), authors reinvent vampires on a daily basis. Some vampires can stick their heads out the window at mid-day without the need for life insurance while others can’t. Some have to drink human blood while others are content with our four-legged friends. Some die from a stake to the heart, while others can just pull it out and go on their merry ways. The list goes on and on.
So I guess from a strictly ‘scientific’ point of view, vampires have never been this unique. YET…and here comes the big BUT…from a personality point of view, vampires appear quite uniform. In a few simple words, vampires these days are mostly the dark, brooding, yet sensitive and utterly modest type riddled by guilt.
Back in the 90s, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer was a major hit because it switched things around. The blonde girl was the strong heroine, sending evil vampires to their (second) grave without breaking a sweat. Vampires were not people (well, undead people), but demons. The only exception came in the form of Angel, the first dark, brooding, yet sensitive and utterly modest vampire riddled by guilt. Today, he has multiple clones, and that’s about as much as I’m going to say about this topic.
Personally, I always preferred Spike, and for a very simple reason. He made me laugh. Man, that guy was funny!
