A Serious Gap in The Vampire Literature
A serious gap exists in the vampire literature.
Where are the born-again evangelical vampires? This oversight bothered me sufficiently last night that I couldn't sleep. Someone really ought to tell their story.
What would such a story entail? I imagine that a vampire evangelical would be similar to a gay evangelical – one must not practice the sin. Plus there would have to be a proper theology of vampirism and a vampire's relationship to his or her savior. Holy Communion would have an added piquancy to a born again vampire. If one kept to traditional vampire lore, night services would be packed.
But this is not yet a story. For a story, one must have an evangelical vampire who wants something badly, seeks to obtain it, and is faced with increasing obstacles. Since I am here a YA author, my vampiric protagonist would be a teen. What would a born-again vampire teen want? So here I wing it…
Why, he would want to be a normal kid, the kind that God originally created. Counseling with his vampire pastor doesn't help. Pray and fasting doesn't help. (Fasting from what?....hmmmm….slaughterhouse blood? Or born again vampires take daily meds that allow them to subsist on a vegetarian diet, as any taste of meat would be too tempting? Or, the salvation process partially redeems them and allows them to eat, if not particularly enjoy, food?) A dentist removes his fangs…and they grow right back in again. He joins an end-of-the-world cult, to hasten the Second Coming, which would transform him, but the cult leads him further astray, and his born again vampire family have to have an intervention and practice tough love to rescue him, sullen and rebellious.
Then of course, there'd have to be an entangling subplot…one of the born again vampires is succumbing to temptation, leaving a string of bodies, which summons the vampire hunters. This provides more interesting characters to play around with, and since it's always a good idea to layer in sources of potential conflict, let's make these vampire hunters…postmodern liberal atheists. Vampires are an evolutionary mistake that (not "who") must be eradicated…especially if they are Christian born-again narrow-minded vampires.
(Before anybody is offended: if I were to write this, I'd have fun but I would most definitely be respectful, okay. This is my own background and extended family I'm talking about, and Christianity is still my faith. I'm not mocking here, just trying to engage with the fantastical and how all this might work out.)
But since I am a Headlight Writer (I write as far as my headlights can see) and not an outliner who knows the story before he writes, this is about as far as my tired brain will take me right now.
But seriously, folks, somebody should step up to the plate and do something about this major gap in the vampire literature.
PS: (So why don't I write it? Because I don't want to be one of a species; I want to write a genus -- which is to say, something fairly more original in concept. One could riff on the vampire species forever -- for example, anthro-paleontologists in Africa find fossils of 1 million old hominid vampires -- in fact a range of species of them over time. For those of you who write original vampire stories, kudos, any creative original writing is both hard and noteworthy)
Get more on Richard Lewis at SimonandSchuster.com
Where are the born-again evangelical vampires? This oversight bothered me sufficiently last night that I couldn't sleep. Someone really ought to tell their story.
What would such a story entail? I imagine that a vampire evangelical would be similar to a gay evangelical – one must not practice the sin. Plus there would have to be a proper theology of vampirism and a vampire's relationship to his or her savior. Holy Communion would have an added piquancy to a born again vampire. If one kept to traditional vampire lore, night services would be packed.
But this is not yet a story. For a story, one must have an evangelical vampire who wants something badly, seeks to obtain it, and is faced with increasing obstacles. Since I am here a YA author, my vampiric protagonist would be a teen. What would a born-again vampire teen want? So here I wing it…
Why, he would want to be a normal kid, the kind that God originally created. Counseling with his vampire pastor doesn't help. Pray and fasting doesn't help. (Fasting from what?....hmmmm….slaughterhouse blood? Or born again vampires take daily meds that allow them to subsist on a vegetarian diet, as any taste of meat would be too tempting? Or, the salvation process partially redeems them and allows them to eat, if not particularly enjoy, food?) A dentist removes his fangs…and they grow right back in again. He joins an end-of-the-world cult, to hasten the Second Coming, which would transform him, but the cult leads him further astray, and his born again vampire family have to have an intervention and practice tough love to rescue him, sullen and rebellious.
Then of course, there'd have to be an entangling subplot…one of the born again vampires is succumbing to temptation, leaving a string of bodies, which summons the vampire hunters. This provides more interesting characters to play around with, and since it's always a good idea to layer in sources of potential conflict, let's make these vampire hunters…postmodern liberal atheists. Vampires are an evolutionary mistake that (not "who") must be eradicated…especially if they are Christian born-again narrow-minded vampires.
(Before anybody is offended: if I were to write this, I'd have fun but I would most definitely be respectful, okay. This is my own background and extended family I'm talking about, and Christianity is still my faith. I'm not mocking here, just trying to engage with the fantastical and how all this might work out.)
But since I am a Headlight Writer (I write as far as my headlights can see) and not an outliner who knows the story before he writes, this is about as far as my tired brain will take me right now.
But seriously, folks, somebody should step up to the plate and do something about this major gap in the vampire literature.
PS: (So why don't I write it? Because I don't want to be one of a species; I want to write a genus -- which is to say, something fairly more original in concept. One could riff on the vampire species forever -- for example, anthro-paleontologists in Africa find fossils of 1 million old hominid vampires -- in fact a range of species of them over time. For those of you who write original vampire stories, kudos, any creative original writing is both hard and noteworthy)
Get more on Richard Lewis at SimonandSchuster.com
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