Vampires: Thoughts?

[devourthesun]

Alright, so I've been thinking about this for a while, and my friend just asked me about it, so I thought i would bring it up here amongst other horror fans on what they think.

I can't even begin to express my distate with the whole mopey "Woe is me" vampire schtich.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't like vampires to have somewhat human characteristics after all they were human, and they really arent that far removed from human.

I prefer the image that Bela Lugosi had in the 1933 version of "Dracula" very sophisticated, very sexy, but still evil,I also like Lestat from Anne Rice's books, he's a bastard, but it's understandable.

Louis just annoys me,whinny little ****.

I don't really like the image of the vampire as being just a beast, the brainless killing machine that just goes wild That works better for the werewolf.

Vampires should be sophisticated, alluring, and deadly they shouldn't think twice about what they do.

Now, I'm willing to accept the idea of a younger vampire (1-50 years) being more wary of what they have to do, that makes sense if they are a bit more uneasy of their nature but the vampires who are several centuries old, they shouldn't feel bad about what they do, but I'm willing to accept that they are a bit weary of their existence because lets face it, If you've been alive for 2 or 3 centuries, You're going to get ****ing bored.

I'm interested to see what others have to say.

[DentFoster]

I agree with you DTS.

[Corpse Grinder]

Since Vampires are still us, then they would still keep their characters. They just have to accept what they are and adapt to their situation.

Interview with a Vampire and Near Dark are good examples of different Vampires and their mannerisms and how they accepted their fate. The veteran Vampires are the teachers and want a few others with them since it's a lonely life to exist for so long without a companion. Some of the newbies accepted their fate and adjusted well (even though Claudia from IWAV & Homer from ND have existed beyond their juvenile bodies, growing mentally only and feeling the lust within them) while Louis (IWAV) at first doesn't want to be a Vampire but the need to feed kicks in and he eventually accepts and Caleb (ND) never accepted his fate and becomes human again but does fall in love with Mae and wants to save her.

Sure, after a few decades or centuries, most Vampires should be more cautious and if their smart, will get together and form a committee like in Blade. But some people will always be the way they are and cannot change, for better or worse, it's what makes us human and eventually Vampires.

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

I will probaly get strung up, beaten , burned, and ran out of town on a rail for saying this, but I like the way vampires are set up in Moonlight, yea, mick is sort of a little bitch and complains about being a vampire but hes still young ( 80 ish years old ) , but his friend josef is just the shit, he loves being a vampire, he loves drinking blood, and has fun doing it.

[hatefuldisplay]

I like various types of vampires.

I like the Bela Lugosi/ Christopher Lee evil yet sophisticated and suave type.

I like Brian Lumley's vampires as well. His are great and evil warlords who seek to conquer and control everything. They are evil and cannot even trust one another.

I like Christopher Golden's vampires from his four-book vampire series. His are free-thinking, have the ability to have sexual intercourse, and have the ability to shift shapes. They have many different drives and personalities. They are pretty similar to the Vampire: The Masquerade types without the clans. Yes. I like them too.

Anne Rice's vampires bothered me in a couple areas:

1. Many of them whimper, whine, and complain too much.
2. The concept that if they can't procreate, that makes them want to make out with vampires regardless of their gender. I'm not against homosexuality, but Rice goes a bit too overboard on it in her books (vampire and otherwise) for my taste. I just can't into the idea of male vampires making out with eachother to pass their free time.

[Corpse Grinder]

I just can't into the idea of male vampires making out with eachother to pass their free time.

Hmm.... I better not mail hatefuldisplay's invitation to my All Male Vampire Overnighter on Dracula's Island next Saturday...! :lol:

[hatefuldisplay]

Hmm.... I better not mail hatefuldisplay's invitation to my All Male Vampire Overnighter on Dracula's Island next Saturday...! :lol:LOL. Nice.

It just came to me that when I mentioned the amount of homosexuality in the Rice novels in the past, a lot of guys defended it. A common argument was that the vampires in her novels were unable to procreate and thus making out with other guys was not in fact an act of homosexuality. Now, I consider the fact that if my plumbing stopped working appropriately I would not skip off to make out with other guys. Why? I'm not interested in them now. Why would I be with my sex drive gone? It's just an odd little debate bit I've had with people. Maybe they just wanted me to smooch on them in a non-gay makeout session type way. :scare:

[devourthesun]

You bring up a really good point, why is it that Anne Rice's vampires would be all over making out with each other just because their sex drives are broken (so to speak)? The obvious answer is that its how the author wrote it, but from the perspective of a reader, it doesn't really make sense.

Now, I don't want this to turn into a huge argument, with people pointing fingers and screaming "Homophobic Assholes!" and such in Rice's defense, because I'm not saying her books are bad, because they are enjoyable, but within her mythos, there doesn't seem to be any real explanation of the overt homo-eroticism that runs rampant in her books.

If you take a look at the wiki page for Anne Rice (I know, Wiki isn't exactly the best source of all knowledge in the world but it's a time saver) it says:

Rice said that the bisexuality was what she was looking for in her characters; a love beyond gender especially with the Vampire Chronicles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_Chronicles) because the vampires were not of human society, therefore did not go by the expectations of that society.

OK, perfectly understandable and well put answer, and if you take into account that Rice has been adamant about gay rights, it makes perfect sense that her characters would flow with a bisexual slant. Anyone on this forum who writes fiction can (and most likely will) tell you that when you create a character, you try to infuse it with the best qualities you see in both yourself and in humanity, which to be honest, can get you into trouble sometimes.

*minor OT tangent commencing now:*
I'm a writer and when I create characters, I don't necessarily think about what will please an audience, I think more about what feels right to me as the author, which is a bit of a slippery slope when you start to delve into what can be considered "Deviant" topics, because it starts to reflect upon you, especially if you create a character that has any vague likeness to yourself, as suddenly the readers who know you start looking at you a little oddly.

*end tangent*

Now, Back to vampires!

as I've previously mentioned, I do enjoy Rice's novels and the world she creates is quite beautiful and no doubt has had a huge impact on my own view of vampire lore within my own writing, but now looking back over my own works, and re-watching "Interview" I've become increasingly annoyed with the overly sensitive vampire, especially within pop culture, where vampires seem to have lost their elegance and seem to fall into one of 2 categories, the "Rice Influenced" vampires, like we saw in "Buffy" and "Angel" and the "Underworld" vampires.

So on the one hand we have vampires who are mopey and super sexy and then on the other hand we have super sexy vampires who look like they walked out of a goth nightclub and run around killing each other. :doh:

I think this is the fundamental problem I've been running into the past few weeks, as I've been trying to write a new vampire story in the mythos I had created, but after going back and reading the older pieces I wrote, I've found myself increasingly frustrated both with my own mythos, but also with the general view of vampires in the mainstream as of late.

Anyway, thought's everyone?

[hatefuldisplay]

If you want your own mythos, I would consider starting from scratch and only using vampires in a loose way. Create your own beginning for how they began or your own idea for their vampiric powers, abilities, and weaknesses. Vampires are another genre that have been used and used and used for decades in film, music, and literature. The only way to escape being compared to other authors is to go outside the mold, be that with the storyline, vampire types, character types, or vampire creation timeline.

[devourthesun]

You're absolutely right hateful, I'm actually planning to attack this new vampire idea from a bit of a more academic view before i get to writing any more stories.

I'm going to basically write out my entire new mythos as a sort of handbook for myself so that I can go back and refer to it as needed.

[Darkness]

You're absolutely right hateful, I'm actually planning to attack this new vampire idea from a bit of a more academic view before i get to writing any more stories.

I'm going to basically write out my entire new mythos as a sort of handbook for myself so that I can go back and refer to it as needed.

"Great idea! That's what I did for the Pantheon and Royal Houses for my novel. It really does help."

[devourthesun]

I'll be perfectly honest, I never do "Outlines" or even pre-writing for most of my works, partially because I'm lazy, and partially because when I start a piece, if I know how it ends, I get bored and give up, but in this case, I've really got no other choice but to work all of this madness out so that I know what the hell I'm trying to go on about.

[Chaosculture]

I'll be perfectly honest, I never do "Outlines" or even pre-writing for most of my works, partially because I'm lazy, and partially because when I start a piece, if I know how it ends, I get bored and give up, but in this case, I've really got no other choice but to work all of this madness out so that I know what the hell I'm trying to go on about.

I used to never write outlines either. My reason was more for my personal perception of the work. I wanted my work to be a living entity, inspired and dangerous... not planned. Trouble was, the more complicated the storyline, the more necessary an outline was. I've used outlines for the last few stories i've written, and they definately help.

As for the homo-erotic vampire debate... You homo-phobic assholes! :lol: That being said, I definately see your point with the Anne Rice Vamps being unexplainably gay-driven.

[devourthesun]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who looks at his work as being a living beast. people ask me how I come up with some of my characters at times and I tend to tell them I don't, they just sort of appear on their own and I let them talk for themselves.


Anyway, Vampires.....yeah

[DarthJoe8]

I would recommend checking out what White Wolf has done with there "World of Darkness". Truly great stuff.

[retro zombie killer]

My 2 cents on Anne Rice is this. I read a biography of Anne Rice entitled Prism Of The Night by Katherine Ramsland and Ms. Rice stated that in her first book Interview With The Vampire that Louis and Lestat were based on her and her husband poet Stan Rice. Hence Louis was based on Anne and Lestat was based on Stan Rice. In fact Lestat's name is a mistake. it was supposed to be Lestan which is an old french name but Ms. Rice felt it was too like her hubby's name so she changed the characters name to Lestat. I haven't any idea about her other novels but that she's always been attracted to the off beat to state it mildly.