The trouble with modern vampire fiction

It's time to lay my cards upon the table. I blame Anne Rice. It was she who inspired a lesser band of pale imitators, all of whom ignored the subtleties of her work and went straight for reproducing the angst-ridden supernatural melodrama. Due to Ms Rice, vampiric southern gothic is back with a vengeance. And all because Brad and Tom simpered with their handsome, pale faces in 'Interview with the Vampire' and Buffy kicked vampiric ass while falling in love with a 'nice' vampire called Angel.

One of the best examples of the modern form of the genre is 'True Blood'. I started watching this series with high expectations. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed. 'True Blood' tries too hard. It's too self-consciously cool. It's more about sex, religion and the American South than it is about the vampire genre. The vampiric trope simply acts as a symbol for themes about relationships, alienation, family, persecution and evil. In the right setting this can work but 'True Blood' dwelled too much on the fates of Bill and Sookie, who I didn't even find particularly interesting characters. I also found it too much of a soap opera with supernatural elements, a bit like Twin Peaks with the surreality drained from it or a cross between Knots Landing and Buffy. A big disappointment. Not frightening, not disturbing, not suspenseful and not even atmospheric or interesting. How did it win an Emmy?

I've already mentioned my dissatisfaction with the likes of Twilight (Harry Potter with fangs) on this blog and also the Vampire Diaries. It all appears to be the legacy of Anne Rice/Buffy and I'd like it to stop now please! Let's get back to the portrayal of the vampire being saturnine, dark, powerful, ambitious, morally ambiguous and ultimately tragic. I have been inspired to pick up my pen, and I will write my own vampire novel.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Small World

Image
About three weeks ago, I accepted an invitation from a volunteer who helps me with Italian football research to join a website called 'A Small World'. ASW is a social networking website, very similar to Facebook with one major difference - it's invitation only. Once you join, you have access to all features of the site. However, despite gaining access you don't immediately have the means to send out invitations to others. ASW say that "Trusted and loyal ASW members who meet certain criteria have the privilege of inviting a limited number of their friends." As yet, I do not have the power to invite others to join. It's the highbrow Facebook, basically. Tiger Woods is a member, along with numerous other celebrities. However there are strict controls on who you can contact and what kind of things you can post in discussion forums and the 'events' areas of the website. ASW also has this to say about itself to potential advertisers: "An inte
Read more

The Mothers of Darkness Castle

Image
Some intrepid and courageous explorers posted their visit to the infamous "Mothers of Darkness" castle on Youtube. More information about this site, which may be of interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_des_Amerois https://fourhorsemen66.com/2018/12/16/chateau-des-amerois-mothers-of-darkness-castle-most-evil-place-in-the-world/ It's no surprise to me that a place like this would be in a sorry country like Belgium. I have personally met and had dealings with one or two extremely unpleasant people from Belgium. However, I digress. The story of this place helped inspire some of my ideas for my novel Staccato House.
Read more

One Thousand and One Nights; or, The Arabian Nights

Image
The One Thousand and One Nights , popularly known as The Arabian Nights , is a composite work compiled from Middle Eastern and Indian folklore during the first millennium AD. In its earliest form, its origin was in tales from India and Persia, and then Arab tales were added to it- most of them dating from the period of the  Umayyad and  Abbasid Caliphates. Many of these stories are based around the adventures of the Caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid and his vizier (advisor) Ja'far the Barmecide . ( Harun al-Rashid was an actual historic figure, although his real-life vizier was Ja'far's father, Yahya . The  real Ja'far was mysteriously executed, although it was possibly for an affair with the caliph's sister.) Then later, more folk tales from Syria and Egypt have been added to create as many stories in the Arabian Nights to fill up over a thousand nights. I've read the Penguin Classics English Translation by Malcolm C.Lyons and Ursula Lyons, with a
Read more