Vampires

Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire proved to be, in its entirety, a quite entertaining novel. The contrast between Louis and Lestat mirrored the larger contrast between vampires and humans. This larger contrast has many facets to it, each with different rules and traits. On one hand we can observe the strengths and weakensses of a vampire in regards to those of a human. Vampires, thought they do have immortality, are burdoned by an inability to experience the sun, the great provider of life itself. Vampires are forced to an eternal existance within darkness, which from a human perspective, we would assume to be rather dismal. They are only able to survive within this existance through parasitism upon the non-vampires; which is all-inclusive to humans and animals alike. So essentially vampires sacrifice the brightness and joy of life for immortality. In the end of Interview with a Vampire, the boy has learned nothing, and still yearns for Louis to turn him into a vampire so he can live forever. The boy had acquired no wisdom from Louis' story.

To discuss Vampires in the mainstream: we have seen a dramatic transformation and recontextualization of the vampire within modern media. Decades ago we were exposed to Nosferatu, who introduced us to all the quintessential traits of a classic vampire. At that point the lore of the vampire was fairly limited, and it had yet to develop into a phenomenon. As we observed previously with the zombie, vampires seemed to harmonize with a deep archetypical chord within people, and they have since flocked by the millions to consume vampire fiction. Once again we are approached with the question: what is it about vampires that people love?

In many cases it is the element of the forbidden love which draws people to vampires. To be more specific, a vampire would fear loving a human being because they fear themselves getting out of control and harming the human they are in a partnership. This scenario comes to light in the recent Twilight saga. But perhaps this is why Twilight works so well with young readers: it emphasizes the fear of love or attraction in the context of supernatural causes A vampire can also, in many cases symbolize an out of control sexual impulse; the desire to feast upon flesh. Why else do most vampire pictures include a woman as the prey rather than a male? Or in the case that the prey is a male, the predator is often a woman. Innately, the audience wants to observe a heterosexual interaction between a vampire and human. Of all fantastic human monsters, it can be said that the vampire is without a doubt the most sexual, on multiple levels. At the very least, it has been the most exploited as a vehicle for sexual emphasis and exploration.