Trends in the Genre – The Misunderstood Vampire

OLDIES AND UNHUMAN - Purely deadly

In the old days, in Dracula and Dracula’s Daughter, vampires were sensuous and deadly predators. They were not three-dimensional personalities with emotions or a conscience. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula was suave, gentlemanly, sophisticated. Part of that sophistication was his inscrutability. He did not reflect upon the suffering he was creating and we knew nothing of his thoughts except for their cunning manipulations.

Not human

The amazingly chic Dracula’s Daughter also showed us no human qualities. She was a faultlessly dressed and coifed predatoress with no qualms about her mode of existence. The last thing she would do is spill her guts to a shrink about how difficult it is to be a vampire.

Not warm and fuzzy

When Dracula spoke about children, he was referring to wolves and their howls. “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.” He is not a warm and cuddly vampire with paternal instincts. He is syrupy in his charm and poise, knowing the destruction that lies ahead.

TODAY’S TRENDS

Vampires with feelings

We now have new vampires. Ones with feelings. Of course there’s the hero, Edward Cullen in Twilight. He’s moody and darkly brooding but he lives a respectable life with his vampire family. He feels bad about sucking the life out of humans, so he channels his vampirism to animal flesh. He even jokes, “We think of ourselves as vegetarians.”

Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a stylish soap opera about teenage and young adult angst. The vampires of Anne Rice are aristocratic in their extreme sensibilities and sensitivity.

Outcasts integrated

The vampires in True Blood, thanks to a Japanese scientist’s invention of synthetic blood, have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. Humans are no longer on the menu. The waitress Sookie Stackhouse is open-minded about the integration of vampires into human society instead of being the outcasts they are today.

Seeking to be understood

This kindly view of vampires fits in nicely with my own experience. I want the reader to understand that all the atrocities I committed were performed under compulsions that were stronger than my merely human conscience. I strive to give humans a glimpse of the down-side of being a vampire–not in terms of being outcasts from society, but in terms of the suffering they know they create, in their lucid, human moments.

How brave are you? Can you handle the truth? Then read the story of how I, Emma, a gifted, beautiful college freshman, become a vampire in Transdanubia and selfishly vampirize my three best friends for companionship in my nightly quest for human blood. We rampage through Hungary, Vienna, and New York, spreading the scourge…It’s all on my web site, http://Predatoress.com. Sip my Blood™ dessert wine dessert wine while reading it, for a double treat!

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