A Sucker for Bloodsuckers
Written by alex santos
Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past couple of years can tell you vampires are back or out of the coffin and have risen again to in trance a new generation. Thier choice of weapons? Books, movies, television shows and even soundtracks are all vampire related now a days. Girls in our school, city, nation, even our world have become bloodthirsty for vampires.
The typical story line: vampire boy falls for human girl. Faces danger and several plot twists. “Hero” goes on a special diet of hemoglobin and lives happily ever after (literally) with his heroine. Each series has its own tweak and twist to the story line but no matter what book you read the vampires are at least a hundred years old, smarter, stronger, faster and hotter than mere mortals. Female fans of all ages have become obsessive about these mysterious creatures that fear the dawn.
The pull of characters like Edward Cullen, Bill Compton and Eric Northman might be simply attributed to looks on the outside but ask any fan and they will tell you there is so much more involved. Immortality and power are a real pull and they even seem to get a little thrill that the vampire boyfriend could overpower them in an instant and kill them with a bite. Some believe that these bloodsucking novels are a plot to convince girls they are powerless and are not happy that young minds are being filled with “evil” legends. Perhaps it is all a plot by real vampire to convince humans that they really are sparkly, cute and cuddly. No, probably not. . . .
The fascination with the Twilight Saga has brought up an interesting debate over the struggle between right and wrong.
“Its about evil creatures who want to be good; who don’t want to be murderers,” photography teacher Marsha Poholsky said. “In Twilight it’s good versus evil and Edward seems to be winning.”
For Poholsky the idea of vamp literature promoting sexism is taking the stories “way too seriously.”
“Its meant to be a love story about two teenagers who had a doomed relationship that ended up OK.”
Since the time of Bram Stoker’s Dracula the idea of immortality has captured people’s attention just as much as the living dead. Many seem willing to pay the price of living off of human blood for a chance at immortality.
“Its like reality but with vampires who aren’t of this world,” junior Porscha Radford said. “Its mysterious and exciting.”
Any Twilight fan will tell you that Edward Cullen attracts their attention because he is old-fashioned. The hundred year old vampire has a sense of chivalry that is lost on most teenage boys in this day and age. Juniors Aubrey Lewis and Jessica Hill agree one plus to vampires is they are always portrayed as very attractive– especially Edward Cullen.
The most popular vampire series are full of strong, female characters like Alice Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Bella Swan, Sookie Stackhouse and Rose Hathaway. They fight, win and take control just as much as their male counterparts even if some of them are still human. Sookie Stackhouse and Bella Swan are both human characters that get sucked into the world of vampires but they hold their own through out their own series.
With help from Stephanie Meyer, Charlaine Harris, Darren Shan, Dacre Stoker, L.J. Smith, Melissa de la Cruz, Richelle Mead, Anne Rice and even J.K. Rowling the vampire genre has achieved a kind of immortality similar to its popular characters. Those who have been sucked into the vampire craze need not worry, it shows no signs of dissipating any time soon. True Blood is destined for another season next summer, vampire related books are being released daily and be prepared for the much anticipated movies such as Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (October 23), New Moon (November 20), Daybreakers (January 8), Eclipse (sometime in 2010) and eventually Breaking Dawn (?).
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