Into the Forest discussion

For the bloodsuckers

Link to an article by an editor of a new vampire collection.

http://chronicle.com/article/All-the-...

Okay, so what does everyone think about vampires in modern books? Do you think they lack bite?

I've just read something by Lara Adrian which is part of one of those urban fantasy series with vampires. I've read several of them (the series, I mean) and they're not particularly memorable. But then I always liked werewolves more than vampires! :-)

Great article ... thank you for sending it on. I have to admit, I've had a love/hate relationship with vampires for the past ten years. The newer version of the undead that have hit the bookstands, I personally find uninteresting. I think some of that has to do with a lack of originality in many of the story lines.

I don't mind if the vampire is basically a good guy, but I want him complex and without the teenage angst. I had enough of that in High School. I'm finding of late, I like my vampires with a touch of the darker side ... he may choose not to act on it, but the option is always there.

I loved the paragraph: :)

"Here's a list of other likely vampires: murderers' victims, the battlefield dead, the drowned, stroke victims, the first person to fall in an epidemic, heretics, wizards, alcoholics, grumpy people, women with questionable reputations, people who talk to themselves, and redheads

I'm with you Anita. There is something so tame about the angst teen vampire. I see the ads for the Twilight movies and wonder why the werewolf just doesn't eat him.

I get how the lack of worry about STDs could be attractive, but there is something a little creepy about bad guys becoming pity me good guys, if you know what I mean.

Chris wrote: "I'm with you Anita. There is something so tame about the angst teen vampire. I see the ads for the Twilight movies and wonder why the werewolf just doesn't eat him.

I get how the lack of worry..."

In one of his reviews of the Twilight books, Manny suggests that they're dangerous in glamorising abusive relationships, and making bad guys into something Romantic and desirable. (That's my interpretation, Manny!)

I read that review. I think that it is part of it. It's like if you watched more recent film versions of Dracula and then compare that to the book. I think therer is a sub text in many urban fantasy novels that deal with what Manny is talking about (Anita Blake for instance).

However, sometimes there are really good versions, like Bloodshot where the main character is a vampire and a killer. You like her, but you are also aware of the fact that she is a killer, so you are somewhat distrustful of her. She reminds more of Catwoman. And there are so few female vampires that to have Red there helps. Yes, you have Ivy in the Hollows, but she's almost a guy.

Chris wrote: "I read that review. I think that it is part of it. It's like if you watched more recent film versions of Dracula and then compare that to the book. I think therer is a sub text in many urban fant..."

That may be why I don't find vampires attractive. I remember Stoker's vampires; not sexy!

I love vampires. I love the bad boy, evil and not afraid to show it vampires. I dont really like the vampires in books that feel that they have to suppress what they are and only drink animal blood or whatever.

I just hate how the petty teen-sort of vampire has overtaken the bestsellers' shelf. Vampires are supposed to be horrific, demonaic monsters that don't give a hoot about people except for the way they're going to taste. Stop ruining a genre! Ugh..

I absolutely agree. Ugh is exactly right.

now a days vampires are good whereas they are supposed to be bloodsucking thirsty horrifying animal but that would be so simple if we put a vampire like this way in our bestselling novels and those novels would not have been bestselling novels.so we always like to have an unexpected thing which we have not been through.why don't we welcome that turned out to be manly vampires while they can raise that horrific,demonic situation for the protection for the people whom they cared about.

vampires are supposed to be mysterious and books like house of night leaves no thrill left for us as it has a school where vampires are civilized..how can you call such books horror??!!!

I have to admit, the current vampire books have characters that are incredibly alike. You have the one that is always trying to stop himself from doing bad, overcoming huge difficulties, the one that's really stupid and we are all amazed that they're lived this long, and the one that actually doesn't care at all. If the books that are current bestsellers had different character types to each other, I think they wouldn't be met with as much derision.

I agree. After the success of the Twilight franchise vampires started to become a sort of "fashion" among YA authors, but people will get tired of teen/angsty/sparkly vampires soon or later so...

I hope so Ndeye. And hopefully, no sparkly ones.

Priyak wrote: "now a days vampires are good whereas they are supposed to be bloodsucking thirsty horrifying animal"

Years ago, I saw a play version of Dracula. It was surprising to me that the quality he seemed to most exude was a dangerous animal magnetism, and his bloodsucking was more a metaphor about sex. It made me curious to actually read Bram Stoker's book, to find out how faithful the play I'd seen really was. It ends up that a lot of my initial impressions still held up.

I think the power of the vampire is that he (or she) can be symbolic of many other things. I enjoy reading all sorts of vampire books and have been doing so since Anne Rice's books.

Chris wrote: "I hope so Ndeye. And hopefully, no sparkly ones."

I couldn't agree more, especially about being sparkly.

When I was a little kid, I wouldn't go to sleep without something covering my neck because I was afraid a vampire would get me. When I got older, this turned into fascination (ok there's a Jungian message there somewhere). I was obsessed with the 70s TV soap "Dark Shadows." I'd rush home every day from school to catch it.

I recently mentioned in the Fantasy Aficionado group that I was just a kid, still in grade school when Dark Shadows ran. It scared the daylights out of me, but I could not stop watching it!
It introduced me not only to the world of vampires, but also werewolves, witches, ghosts and parallel worlds. The series was definitely campy. The actors often flubbed their lines, but it also drew from a lot from classic literature than I read later on like the Turn of the Screw, and Jane Eyre. Annie Rice is often credited for creating a more human vampire, one who is not a total monster, who was turned against his will, but the character Barnadas Collins predates Louis de Pointe du Lac. I am looking forward to the movie with Johnny Depp!
I never could get into Anne Rice, it was too dark and creepy for me. I don't mind a story with vampires in them but I can't read about them all the time.