‘Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.’ The tagline for the cult horror-comedy The Lost Boys basically covers it all; vampires are cool.
Since Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897, vampires have undergone a slow transformation over the ensuing years, showcasing themselves first as terrifying villains, then reckless outcasts. Now, they serve as pawns in otherwise drab romantic high-school dramas.
Anne Rice, the acclaimed author of The Vampire Chronicles, also made a significant mark on the history of vampires. Presenting them as they were originally intended ‘- Dracula was a count, after all ‘- with European bloodlines, Rice envisioned stories of vampires and their struggles.
Stephenie Meyer, the author of The Twilight Saga, is not of the same caliber as Rice. In an interview with USA Weekend, Stephen King said, ‘Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.’
This unabashed veering off-course in the continuing revolution of vampirism is one for the worse. It has taken the idea of vampires to a new level of mainstream pop culture that appeals mainly to young girls and middle-aged women.
The Twilight Saga novels, along with the movie adaptations, have also ignited a new fad in the way society now looks at vampires: they’re nothing but gay men.
In an Oct. 13 article in Esquire, Stephen Marche explained all of the ludicrous hidden meanings in The Twilight Saga, the HBO series True Blood and The Vampire Diaries on the CW. This is not hard to do; in Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, the male vampires are groomed to look absolutely flawless, and the heroines of each story repulse them when they first meet.
This, according to Marche, ‘happened several times in my high-school between straight girls and gay guys who either hadn’t figured out they were gay or were still in the closet.’ His argument is ridiculous because he takes this evidence and generalizes vampirism.
However, it wasn’t until Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of Twilight character Edward Cullen that people started to think that the undertones of everything that we’ve come to know about vampires has been rooted in homosexuality.
The vampire story has lost its once-high esteem to this new-age wave of ideas, and has now exhausted critics and writers alike. To truly appreciate the appeal of vampires, fans should stick with the legitimate classics.
Don’t waste time with Meyer’s modern interpretation of vampires and the like. This isn’t Dawson’s Creek, and vampires aren’t waiting for their lives to be over.
Ryan Popham is a Universities Studies freshman and may be reached at [email protected]
