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