Vampires as Bedfellows

Asked to think of Dracula, what image comes to mind? Is it a tall, pale man with dark hair, a cape, and extra large incisors? Is it sparkly seventeen year old? Is it an effeminate Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt? Go back a little further and maybe you think of a clan of teenagers jumping off the Santa Cruz train trestle. I have a feeling both Bram Stoker, author of the original Dracula, and John Polidori, friend of Mary Shelley and author of The Vampyre, the original vampire story, are both rolling over in their graves over the modern vampire.

What began as an entity to be feared, an entity completely evil with no redeeming qualities, has become overly romanticized by today’s culture. Arguably the most famous “count” in history, Dracula is ruthless in his pursuit of fresh, human, most often female, blood. In Stoker’s novel it takes the unifying of five gentlemen to redeem the accursed wife of one. Mina represents all that is pure and holy until she falls victim to Dracula, and along with these five heroes, she studies, strives, and seeks for a way out of her predicament.

Fast forward 100 years or so and the vampire has become a seducer in a whole new way, one that is not always rejected by those he wishes to conquer. Anne Rice gives us Lestat, a sympathetic character whose bloodlust is woven together with a romantic intensity into story after story. Stephanie Meyer gives us the Cullen clan, an altruistic, “vegetarian” group of young vampires who only bite humans as a last resort to save their lives. Walk into any bookstore today and it would seem that vampire novels have become the new Sweet Valley High.

What’s the big deal, you say? It’s just good, fun, entertainment, right? My worry is that it’s just one more indicator of a society gone amuck. What was supposed to be inherently evil and despised and fought against with every fiber of our beings has been romanticized and accepted and taken to bed. I’m not just talking about the vampire here. Our culture has become desensitized on multiple levels as is evidenced every time we turn on the TV.

So if you truly want to call yourself a fan of the vampire novel, try honestly picking up one of the originals. Let yourself be freaked out by the undead like we really should be. Enjoy the banding together of communities against what threatens purity. Appreciate the mystery and challenge of hunting down the offense and destroying it. If Bram Stoker’s a little dated for you (and no, I don’t mean the movie), try out a modern read that actually adheres to the spirit of the original: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Finally, someone who gets the point.