Edward Cullen is the facsimile of what women think they want, at least at first. My wife loves vampires and I understand what the fairer sex likes so much about them, so much so that I honestly don’t see how I could ever like the entire horror subgenre. There’s a ton of it out there, but it runs in cycles. Sometimes the big thing favors you, and sometimes it doesn’t. I just ignore what I don’t like and take up the middle of the bed at Twilight movie midnight launches.
Yep, really.
Extreme example…but I’ll give it to you.
Point to Naughtiest Monkey. But, I do think Cullen is metro-sexual or mildly emo.
Sorry but no, no it’s really not. If you ignore a fundamental part of the mythos without a reasonable supernatural explanation it’s not valid.
“But Prophet that’s how it works in her world!!!”
Don’t care, it’s silly and stupid and the books are trash and I can’t believe the level of penetration the nu-vampire has reached.
It’s all Anne Rice’s fault.
In summation: More Blade/Let The Right One In, less teenage vampire high school drama bs
Here, here for the summation! And, I don’t mind minor tweaks like having reflections or lack of garlic or holy water weaknesses, but daywalking is just no.
Same for werewolves. I can deal with them having the ability to change at will (I’m a Werewolf: The Apocalypse fan), but keep their silver weakness and lack of control during full moons too.
Anne Rice’s vampires burned in daylight!
Or so I’m told, I’ve never read the things.
I’m alright with people changing fictional creatures to fit into their stories, I once saw a film where Vampires could only sleep under water while coughing their lungs out to breathe…
…
…
.
Actually, I’m not cool with that at all, seriously? coughing up their lungs? I wish I knew what film that was so I could never rent it again.
Sparkle Vampires… meh.
Didn’t Dracula wander around during the day? As a low powered vampire? (Insert Eddie Izzard bit)
As an aside, if anyone goes to Dublin, I reccomend heading to the Bram Stoker Dracula Experience it’s all kinda awesome.
I’m cool with changing at will as long as during the actual full moon and possibly the night before/after them not having control of it. Otherwise it’s just too much like a super power and not a monster.
Let’s run it down:
Vampires - Ash in Sunlight, killed by massive sustained piercing damage to the heart, and decapitation. Garlic, silver, holy water, running water, reflections, photographing ability, game face/retractable fangs are negotiable.
Werewolves - Killed by silver and decapitation. Uncontrollable during the full moon. Changing at will, upright or all fours, more human or more wolf like, uncontrollable on the night before and after the full moon are negotiable.
Zombies - Speed dependent on how long dead but no running, uncoordinated, doesn’t stop ever, moans at the sight/smell/hearing of prey, killed by headshots. Viral, magic, alien origin and chain-moaning(IE: One moans, another hears it moans and heads in that direction and so forth for what could be miles upon miles) are negotiable
I think that’s pretty fair for the top three monster mythos, would you agree?
I can be down with that. Heart piercing for vamps, and running and coordinated zombies are negotiable with me though.
I think diseased blood contagion/spreading for vamps (werewolves and zombies as well) should be looked at in my opinion. Treating blood as an addiction for vamps should be added as well imo. There are too many vegan vamps these days. d: Angel and spike should be the only two (I’m kidding here)!
Lke you said, without the core abilities and weaknesses, they are just superheroes instead of monsters.
Werewolf claws infect too or just bites? Thinking both.
As for blood addiction, I’m kinda torn. Vampires should require blood to be effective. Whether lack or blood kills them, weakens them, or drives them mad is negotiable in my mind
In my mind, if the werewolf in question hasn’t transformed or gone through water, his or her survivors has a chance of contracting whatever is tainting the blood through their claws. If he/she bites someone with a disease, the werewolf, zombie, or vamp should become a carrier or infected. How much the infection affects them is negotiable.
Agreed, but I meant more that a vampire should not be able to resist drinking blood when it’s convenient (homeless person, etc.) or somehow aroused (pretty woman or handsome man exposes their neck to them) as easy as recent media portrays them. Could be just me because it seems too many recent vampires are vegans. I don’t expect other people to think the same way.
Agreed 100%
That’s like making an intelligent zombie or a gargoyle that doesn’t turn into stone.
He did, because he was more powerful than his weaker kin, he could somewhat withstand it.
From wiki: Dracula’s powers are not unlimited, however. He is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift freely at night). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burn and destroy him upon contact.
Authors writing “Urban Fantasy” that is NOT geared toward teenagers. (sorry most are not doing so) Not all of these are vampires, but they are all paranormal.
Laurell K Hamilton
Kelley Armstrong
Keri Arthur
Charlaine Harris
Jim Butcher
Simon Green
Kim Harrison
Ilona Andrews
Patricia Briggs
Jenna Black
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Karen Marie Moning
J R Ward
That is the tip of the iceberg.
Oh, I’ve been sick of vampires for some time now. Since at least the last Twilight book was released (funny, I’d never heard of the series at all until the last book came out). It kept me from checking out True Blood, and that show has attractive naked people in it! Give me my vampires darkly comic (Shadow of the Vampire) or expressionistically creepy (Nosferatu), classy (any version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi) or even campy (Love at First Bite, Blackula, etc.), not these shiny, post-modern hipsters with their angst.
Tell you what, I’m starting to get mighty sick of zombies too. And with a new wolfman movie coming out (with Benicio Del Toro. Why, Benicio? WHY!!!) I bet I know what other classic monster I’ll be getting sick of before too long…
Says you. Who made you the person who defines what vampires do? Vampires are fictional and therefore cannot be restrictively defined. Perhaps you prefer that they do not sparkle in the sunlight - but that is your preference.
For the record, here is my favorite recent (within the last ten years) portrayal of a vampire:
If you guys haven’t seen Shadow of the Vampire (it came and went back in 2000), find it. It’s worth it. It’s a funny, scary, whimsical and poignant take on the legend as seen through the production of Mornau’s Nosferatu (the conceit: what if Max Schrek, who portraid the vampire, Count Orloff, had actually BEEN a vampire). In a way it kind of mixes the Frankenstein story as well, seeing as it asks the audience who the real vampire/monster is, Schrek or Murnau. Very cool. (And Willem Defoe rocks in it.)
Is it because vampire fiction is increasingly geared towards a female audience?
Actually, the biggest problem I have with demographic literary marketing is that these, and by extension many other novels across genres are being targeted at an adolescent audience…and taking reading levels in adults down with them.
EDIT: just read ASET’s list. Glad to see I’m generalizing and that it just seems like most literature is being geared towards young readers.
well i love vampire fiction, so i’m not sick of more vampire stuff; what really bothers me is that its almost universally poorly done
someday maybe we’ll see another really well done show.
I haven’t read the Twilight books and only one from the series that spawned True Blood. I have loved vampires for years (meet Anne Rice at a book signing-wow!), long before they were popular. They’ve always been a fixture in literature, but, like animal prints in fashion, it’s the degree of how much you can have at one time that varies.
I have a problem with vamps being in daylight without significant cost, I’m a purist that way. Best method around that ever is Chelsea Quinn Yarbo’s Count St. Germain, a 2000 year old vampire who can walk around in daylight if he has the soil of his native earth in his boots. But the soil does lose its power, so he must replenish it and often runs out, which creates problems.
What I am bothered by is all the dime-store paperbacks aimed at teens- vampire cheerleaders, vampire football player, etc. Seems silly. One of these days, I’ll have to check out Twilight, but until then Dracula is still the best.
First off? Why are all these adults reading books out of the kids section! ( twilight/ harry potter and what not) When an adult decides that they want to read a vampire book, why not go to the adult fiction section? Are we so eager to be a part of the tween/ fat single school teacher crowd that we go read a story where the most popular girl in school doesn’t bang her boyfriend? Seriously? That’s how I knew the books were crap - when my cousin’s kid told me that… I knew it was crap. Vampires that don’t feed from , dominate or otherwise aquire the girl/guy… awsome! Vampires don’t win you over… they TAKE what they want!
Seriously- I agree that Anne rice EVENTUALY ruined the vampire mystique.
i’ll give my two cents.
I love vampire stories. I loved Lost Boys, Fright Night, Dracula…etc.
In 1989 I discoved Interview with a Vampire. I was in the 9th grade. I read the book and liked it a lot. Being a kid… I “suffered” throuh the angstyness… but still believed it to be a solid story. There was the “gay” aspect of Lestat and Louis… and Louis and Armand, but that didn’t dominate the narrative. I didnt mind it even really. My mom was reading it at the same time and thought that it might be too adult (this was 1989 and the only gay people I knew were the two guys in glee club) for me. We discussed it and made an excuse for the "gay"ness that these were different creatures and our morales and basic human nature isn’t the same for them.( as a kid, tollerant or not, gay sex and make-out is pretty gross, it’s something you have to get used to ) That a “best” friend , friendship is as intense as a vampire can expiereice, since their pricks don’t work anymore and they have been robbed of their humanity.
In the end… that story was about Louis and his plight, not his supposed gayness. Great book.
So I found Lestat next… ok. Once again, good book. Sure there was a big picture story, and by the way “mom your full of shit, Lestat is jsut gay”. That was ok with me, but I felt that it was just Anne rice wanting to talk about it every step of the way. I’m like… “I get it… he’s gay…” now let’s see him be a vampire and do a bunch of vampire shit! ( felt this way when Tony Stark was an alchy- i get it… he drinks, now go fight the Iron Wars!). I liked the book ( his rock band awaking Akasha …not so much) and really liked the backstory about Lestat and Akasha. Queen of the damned… I felt was a good wrap up.
I didn’t mind the vampire lore here. ( althou I never understood her need to render them impotant, or to talk about it 2-3 times per book)… I did feel that in Memnoch and Tale of the body thief, she could just relax and tell a good story. i loved those books. I know that I am probably blashpheeming…But I really really like Memnoch. Sorry religious folks!
Her downfall, for me, came wiht eh Vampire Armande. In the first 4 chapters there are 5 instances of child rape… the last two… the kid’s totaly cool with. Marius ( an established charater from previous books) is nothing more than a child rapist and Armond is a victem/turned cool with it charcter who eventualy repeats the same behavior. All this is portrayed positively.
OK here’s the thing. I respect that maybe she had something that she need to get out of her system… but this book is in the sci-fi/horror section of the book store. I want to be entertained. 4 chapters in and I am reading a VERY detailed passage about how marius “drains Aramand of his young manly juices” was about enough for me. Even if it had been a girl vampire…give it a break. Entertain me… i get it, you are obsessed with this subject… now have Marius go tear someone apart or dominate someone… don’t have him … doing this… it’s boreing to read and its gross!
Most guys don’t want to read that crap. I don’t think most ladies do either. There is a big differance between tollerance and being entertained by something. It’s one thing to be totaly cool with the gay couple next door, it’s another thing to feel like you bought a book about vampires and it’s really jsut a description of a pederast blowing a teenager. I felt that the gayness of her characters in the first three books fit the stories… it made them different than other vampire lore. I liked to think that they were cool… and happened to be gay. With Armand she was just saying " I am going to really throw some crap at the fans and let’s sit back and laugh at how they take it" it took away from any interest that I had in a series I liked. My ex-wife felt the same. Haveing Lestat love Louis is a big stretch from old dudes sucking off 11 year olds.
After anne rice… i think only Blade and Underworld remembered what Vampires were supposed to be.