Disclaimer—This article surveys a great deal of material, and there will be many topics I simply am not be able to cover in it. Apologies in advance if I miss your favorite vamp…you can rebut me on the discussion boards.
From Lord Ruthven to Mick St. John: 200 Years of Vampires
PART FIVE--CONCLUSION
In fiction and television, where vampires tend to be the main and continuing characters, the tendency of the vampire has been to be a more sympathetic hero, often tortured by his alienation from human society, and sometimes badly behaved, but seldom evil. The 1978 Broadway revival of
Dracula, followed by John Badham’s 1979 movie, cast Frank Langella as a sexy Count, and once again female fans were hooked. The title character of Francis Ford Coppola’s vampire epic, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992),
portrayed Dracula as motivated primarily by the memory of his lost love, reincarnated in the early 20th century as Mina Harker, and made of him more
a tragic figure defying God, fate, and death than a simple bloodsucking monster. It should perhaps be noted that despite the title, the plot line of Bram Stoker’s Dracula only passing resemblance to the original novel.
P. N. Elrod, author of the popular Vampire Files series, features Depression era hard-boiled Chicago detective Jack Fleming, who also happens to be a vampire, courtesy of an old lover. He has the highly useful if sometimes problematic ability to transform himself into a cold, nearly invisible mist. The main problem with this is that it severely impacts his ability to perceive his surroundings. Fleming is also unique in his happy, ongoing relationship with a girlfriend, Bobbi, who is fully aware of his vampirism and happy to accommodate his needs. And Fleming is only the first of several series of “fedoras and fangs” vampire P.I.’s in fiction. Recent examples are Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt series,
and Mario Acevedo’s Felix Gomez,
Notice the obligatory cigarette and fangs in the cover art.
The vampire romance novel has become a staple over the past fifteen years. Lori Herter, Maggie Shayne, and Linda Lael Miller produced vampire romance series in the early 1990’s, and a search of Amazon yields literally dozens of titles like Embrace the Night, Kiss of Darkness, Eternity, Forever and the Night, Dark Prince, Midnight Enchantment…and so on, by such authors as
Christine Feehan,
Lara Adrian,
Susan Squires, and
Kerrelyn Sparks, to name but a few. Vampires are the ultimate bad boys, tall, dark, handsome and sexy, and with their tendency in fiction to have accumulated vast wealth, they become very attractive.
One is reminded of Tanya Huff’s 400 year old vampire Henry Fitzroy, who writes romance novels for a living (or graphic novels in his television incarnation), and when queried about his failure to make stellar long term investments, responds something along the lines of, “How was I supposed to know IBM was a good buy? I’m a vampire, not a psychic.”)
Another factor that may contribute to the popularity of the vampire as a romance hero is his ability to protect his beloved from the vagaries of fate. Sherilyn Kenyon,
who has developed a very odd mix of vampires (good and bad), werewolves, Greek gods, Atlanteans, and other immortals in her Dark Hunters series, makes this very clear. Although her heroines tend to be strong, liberated women, they can always use a better set of muscles to get them through their tribulations.
Another very popular current series is the Black Dagger Brotherhood of J. R. Ward, now up to seven novels, which feature vampires who are a member of a separate race, living among us and feeding only from each other.
These are the ultimate leather-clad bad boys, who fight, drink, and wench through very long lives, until they find the one vampire woman who can match their passion.
Closely related to the romance novels are the “chick-lit “ novels of such authors as
Charlaine Harris, whose “Southern Vampire” novels with the spunky telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse is now the basis for an HBO series, True Blood,
and the quirky Betsy Taylor, a shoe shopping fanatic who unexpectedly finds herself Queen of the Undead in MaryJanice Davidson’s series of Undead novels.
Similarly humorous takes on the vampire romance are found in light-hearted novels such as those of Michelle Rowen,
Lynsay Sands, and
Michelle Bardsley.
There has also been an explosion of vampire novels for young adults. Most notable, perhaps, is
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, but I also wanted to mention
P.C. and Kristin Cast’s House of Night series, which can best be described as Harry Potter meets Dracula, as it is set at a boarding school for adolescent fledgling vamps, Fangwarts, if you will. In addition,
the Vampire Academy books are popular, and there is the sinister world
of the Morganville vampires, a very dark series by Rachel Caine. And every week seems to bring new entries to the genre. Not to say that the marketing of these series piggybacks, but compare…
the classic Twilight cover, with
a new edition of Vampire Diaries.
The success of Laurell Hamilton’s Anita Blake series has spawned any number of similar series as well, including such books as
Kim Harrison’s novels of the Hollows,
Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty series,
Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld, and numerous others.
With all this, you might expect that the more literary vampires have retreated to their coffins, but that is not, in fact, the case. A sampling of literary vamps over the past twenty years would include
Roderick Anscombe’s Sercret Life of Lazlo, Count Dracula,
Perfume, by Patrick Suskind, who tells of a different kind of vampire who kills by extracting the scent of his victims, and, more recently,
Jonathan Nasaw’s The World on Blood,
Susan Hubbard’s The Society of S, and
Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.
The history of the vampire on screen—both movies and television—is a long one. I’ve mentioned a number of movies in passing; there are literally hundreds out there,
from F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic, Nosferatu,
to the recent adaptation of Twilight. And we’ve commented on the major vampire series on television. Some have said there have been too many vampires on tv over the years, but their numbers pale in comparison to the countless doctors, lawyers, housewives, and policemen we have seen. From
Barnabas Collins, through
Nicholas Knight,
Angel, and
Julian Luna to
Henry Fitzroy,
Mick St. John,
and Bill Compton, the vampires have presented tormented, heroic characters with complex stories, and captured our hearts within their immortal hands.
We’ve talked about books, movies, and television…but there are other vampires out there. Vampires have become very popular in online and traditional role-playing games, such as
Vampire: the Masquerade and
Reign of Blood. The vampire is a frequent character in
anime and manga,
graphic novels, and
comic books, from the beginning of that format through the present. This is the area that I need to spend the most time exploring in the future, but as you can see, the vampire is so widespread throughout modern culture, that, like Dr, Van Helsing, one could chase vampires for a lifetime without ever fully catching up. The vamps are always one or two steps ahead.
What all these vampires have in common is conditional immortality and the need for at least a little blood. They are good, evil, male, female, gay, straight, bi, newly dead or millennia old. Some can fly, some can vanish, some die each sunrise, others walk (if somewhat gingerly) at noon. Some are born vampires, some have vampirism thrust upon them. Vampires are European noblemen, vampires are American punks. In the hands of contemporary writers, vampires have assumed all manner of attributes. The continuing lure and appeal of the vampire to a modern audience is held within this almost infinite flexibility.
The critics we mentioned at the beginning predicted, if not the demise of the vampire in fiction and other media, at least a slackening in its popularity. On the contrary, over the past few decades, the vampire has found an ever increasing fan base, and each new reinterpretation of his story has provided a transfusion of life-sustaining blood.
August, 2008
So, Mick, it’s not that vampires are back in style. They never went out. And will the vampire continue to draw us to the dark side?
Well, let’s just say, the buzz is good.
The End of the Beginning
Questions?