The Taming Of The Vampire V””V

Today’s musings are a culmination of many thoughts and discussions that I have had with my lovely Lauren. I simply want to know this …. what is with society and it’s obsession with taming, or fixing, vampires?

Looking around at vampire culture as it stands right now I am amazed at how widely appealing vampires seem to have become over the last few years, and then I look again and see that it is not vampires as I love them, but rather a pale imitation of the darkness I fell in love with. Many people may say that Twilight is to blame with its broad appeal to young and old, and the beautiful love story beneath it, although if you ask me Twilight itself can definitely be read from a darker angle and really it is a tale of obsession that ends with the human being turned into a vampire….. but to be honest I usually stick Twilight and all its connotations in a separate pocket marked “not bad story idea”, and keep it out of my vampyric thoughts.

Twilight, however, is not really to blame as this “fixing” issue has been around for many years.  Probably first really noticeable in the Buffy series with Angel (who was always so much more appealing as Angellus) and then Spike who was the quintessential “Bad Boy” vamp until he fell in love … and “died” to save the world …. YUCK!

Then of course with TV you have the latest 3 incarnations, True Blood, Being Human (2 versions) and The Vampire Diaries.  True Blood emerged 5 years ago on HBO and was different and gritty and even referred to as “vampire porn”.  What started out with really little more than a cult following has become a huge success over the last 5 years launching careers and Alan Ball trying to push the boundaries but sadly sometimes missing the mark as boundaries are being pushed just for the sake of pushing rather than with a purpose.  Do not get me wrong though I will be there, glued to the set on June 10th, along with several million other people, a statistic that I would have thought years ago would never be mentioned in the same sentence as a vampire show.

Then you have Being Human, a small UK show that (at least for the first 3 seasons) was dark, different, and in my opinion compulsive viewing.  Of course the USA had to copy it but the remake is a pale imitation of the original which is so often the case and this will no longer be mentioned.  Back to the UK version and you get to meet some “Real” vampires.  Ivan and Daisy who I adore and who love being vampires and all that it involves, they kill, they laugh, they fight, and they dote on each other.  They love the adventure that being a vampire brings and have no love lost for humans.  Then there is Mitchell, who at his best destroys a train full of people because he has been betrayed by a human. The rawness, the loss of control, the complete abandonment to their nature, THIS is what I want to see.  Oh and we can’t forget Lauren, my lovely Lauren who rips out the throat of a pretty young blond outside a pub … because she can!

Oh and a very brief mention to The Vampire Diaries, mainly because I don’t really watch it but in the clips I have seen at least Damon seems to enjoy being a vampire so props for that but at the end of the day it is a show aimed at teenagers, so sadly I feel it will never compel me to view.

And so we move to literature and the complete flooding in the marketplace right now of vampire based fiction.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love that there are so many options out there and yes I do read pretty much all of them, including the Young Adult books which often have some of the more interesting historical ideas. But when it comes down to it I want the darkness.  Give me Laurell K Hamilton and the darkness that lives in her head, Give me Jeaniene Frost and her vampires that embrace who they are, Give me Anne Rice and her beautiful brat prince, but please, please so not ask my vampires to change.

I do not want them “Fixed”, I do not want them “Tamed”, I want them DARK, and VIOLENT, and I don’t want them being sorry about it afterwards.  I don’t want them to pine for their humanity I want them to embrace the darkness that is in essence for me what a vampire is.

Am I wrong? In reality the point it mute as society will at least move on to new things when they tire of this “fad”.  I have already been told that “Zombies” are the new vampires.  Well then little sheep go chase a zombie, although what you are going to find sexy in that is way beyond me.  Perhaps you are just looking for something to kill? Perhaps in fact society is darker in its thoughts than I am ….. now THAT is something to be scared of lol ….

V””V

A Passion, An Addiction, And A Total Distraction! V””V

Well then followers of the page … I was in the middle of writing up this weeks summary of One Foot in the Grave for the Night Huntress Series page on Facebook when I was totally distracted by a discussion on another page I belong to about Being Human (the UK version).

The discussion started with somebody saying how they had put in Season 1 to get some screen grabs and then gotten totally distracted and ended up watching the whole thing. Which I totally understood having stopped everything just because a certain episode was on the television.  So everything was fine and then the comments started about how the show should have stayed more towards the light and that they took the “easy route” making the vampire blood thirsty.

And that was all it took to get me going.  I am always on the look out for “Wrong” opinions I can correct … be it the latest episode of True Blood (followers of mine will know that I LOVE to obsess about that), or a discussion about the history of vampires and where the legends began (Of theories there are many), What the vampire rules are (depending of course on author, legend or show), or the differences from books to TV/Movies .. I DO love to share my thoughts whether people want to hear them or not! 

Now why you may ask is this important and I have to confess in the grand scheme of things it probably isn’t but like a woman with a purpose, not understood by many I might add, off I went with a few little “thoughts” of my own.

What do they expect vampires to be like?  If they paid attention they would be aware that even as early as their happy Season 1 the vampire in question (John Mitchell) had a very dark and dangerous path having killed too many people to list before settling down to play “house” for a while.  The friendship he shared with George the dog, I mean Werewolf, was not something born out of Mitchell never having been a “bad vampire”.  Quite the opposite in fact.  It was the darkness he knew was inside him that allowed him to appreciate the smaller things in life – like watching the Real Hustle for example.

They argued that with the desecration of human life in the Box Tunnel 20 Episode they gave in to people’s expectations of what a vampire should be. Hmmmm let’s think for a minute … the humans ATTACKED his coven, KILLED one of his best friends, he was betrayed by a woman he cared about who was only using him from the very beginning, so what was he supposed to do? Sit back and say awwwww stupid humans??? WHY would ANYONE tolerate that yet alone a creature born from darkness that has been trying to justify the mistakes humans make only to have it thrown in his face?

No he does what any predator would do if you backed them into a corner and then just kept poking at them with a stick.  HE ATTACKED!!!!  He attacked, and he killed, and if you ask me, he should have been allowed to get away with it and to this day I believe that had the actor playing him not already given notice that he would be leaving they would not have gone in the direction that they did in Season 3.

Of course the big question is why does this bother me?  Why can I not just look at it and say well they are wrong but so be it.  Well ever since Dracula and then the Anne Rice novels I have been in love with the darkness that is the vampire.  I read everything, watch everything, and have done since long before the “Trendy” vampire was introduced.  My vampires are dangerous, obsessive creatures and killing is but a part of their lives whether they choose to acknowledge it or not. With over 20 years of  an adoration that has done nothing but grow and expand as time has passed (and it continues to do so ), why do people suddenly want vampires to be light and goodness.  Isn’t this really a complete contradiction of all that the true fans love?

And with that I will leave it, rant over, thoughts shared and now I wait for my true love to return to me, a man who adores me despite my over whelming obsession, who’s daily absence makes me long even more for the night as I know that then he will be by my side.

 

V””V

 

An Apology To Subscribers …. And The Flood Of Reviews From Today …….. V””V

To all those that are subscribed to my blog please forgive, what I know to be an annoying influx on email pinging (my husband is subscribed) this afternoon.  As True Blood season 5 sneak peeks are going to start appearing on HBO this weekend it got me to thinking about my reviews from Season 4 and how it would be easier for everyone to access them on my blog.

After a large glass of wine it seemed like a very good idea to transfer them from their original home at The Vampire Loving Dorks Facebook page to here on my blog at WordPress where my season 5 review / spoiler posts will be.  As I already had a category for reviews my wine addled mind assumed that people subscribed to “My Vampyric  Musings” would be safe.  4 Email pings later on my husbands phone I realized that this was an error but by that point I was a transferring fiend and would be stopped for no one.
So if, like him, you were grinding your teeth and the constant invasion please rest assured this was a one-off occurrence, not to be repeated EVER.  I adore each and every one of you that take the time to read (and occasionally comment) on my little vampyric thoughts and my crazy dark musings and would hate to lose a single one of you.

With that said I will leave you to enjoy whatever part of the day it is where you are (Saturday evening here) as I pick up another glass of red wine and head to play Guitar Hero with my husband and son.

Until next time …..
V””V

 

Soul Mates, Psychic Connections, And A Little Black Cup V””V

If you had asked me 15 years ago if I believed in Soul Mates I would have answered with an emphatic NO!  The idea that there is one person out there that you are destined to be with always struck me as ridiculous, especially when my best friend died just after I turned 16 leaving me on a downward spiral which probably ended up at least in some way adding to my love affair with darkness that I so easily embrace today.  That being said growing up being so different never bothered me but I never dreamt that I would find the other half of my soul living over 3000 miles away.  A connection that was so immediate that after I saw him I knew I had to be with him forever.  Not only does he accept me for who I am, he embraces my darkness and completes every fibre of my being.  When I am feeling lost and overwhelmed a simple touch from him helps ground me and reminds me that I am not alone as I stand precariously close sometimes to losing touch with reality. 

This wonderful man has helped me understand that the commercial concept of love that I abhor with all that I am is not the only way despite what Hallmark would like to have everyone believe.  An antique poison ring for an engagement ring, a trip to a cemetery for my birthday, a random vamp inspired jewellery box picked up at a gas station, and sitting through hours and hours of various vampire based musings from tv shows, books, and movies just because he knows I adore them is just the tip of the iceberg.  I cannot even list everything that he does to make my life complete. That is real love.  The shared look, the laughter, the tears, a feeling that your life would end if you couldn’t be together. And he is MINE!

Which leads me to a slightly different connection.  A connection in fact that was initiated by my wonderful husband who had been talking to a lovely woman called Meagan for months and suggested that we should in fact talk to each other rather than the odd message passed through him.  I am pretty sure that he never dreamt that the simple suggestion would lead to a connection so strong that from the other side of the Country we type the same thing at the same time, buy the same things without realizing it, and can often read each others thoughts despite never having physically been in the same room.

People may want to pass things like this off as coincidence, my husband for example used to laugh until even he had to face that something was weird as I was in the emergency room one day and he got a frantic text from Meagan as she “felt” something was wrong.  Now she could have easily have sent me a message and then contact my husband when I didn’t answer but she was so sure something wasn’t right that she went straight to him. And this is not a one-off occurence.  Things like this happen on almost a daily basis.  There are so many things that if I was to begin listing them I would probably still be here several hours from now and not have written them all.

So I will just say this ….. Little Black Cup …. a seemingly innocuous little phrase except that when looking for a name for her coffee company Meagan and I both came up with exactly the same name at the same time, one posted to Facebook as one sent a text.  The time stamps are within seconds. There is no explanation for this it just is what it is.  Take from it what you will but I know that I must have done something really right at some point in my life to have discovered both my soul mate and through him a friend that I would be lost without.  Sometimes life is not so bad after all ………

V””V