Evolution of the vampire image

By Brian Bethel (Contact) Saturday, December 20, 2008

Vampire books, films and television programs remain remarkably popular, but the old counts have become more and more courtly, even kind, as time has worn on.

The veiled Victorian eroticism of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," punctuated by the famous 1931 film version starring Béla Lugosi, helped fuel the popular image of the vampire as dark lover.

But it was Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles," the first book of which was published in 1979, that signaled what Abilene Christian University professor Mikee Deloney views as a "huge, sweeping" change in our depictions of vampires.

Rice, at the time lamenting a loss of faith, wanted to write stories about being lost, said Deloney said.

"Her vampires were beautiful and powerful, evil but attractive," she said.

But many of her characters were also tragic, even sensitive.

"Once she made the monster sympathetic, it was only a short to making them kind," Deloney said.

Enter the thoroughly modern vampire. Although many variations still rely on feral power and dark virility to make them appealing, a new class of "good" undead, or at least, those who long for goodness, has emerged.

And with them, an emphasis on often-doomed romances between the living and the dead.

From the tenuous balance of comedy and drama in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," in which the title character is eventually wooed by not just one but two of the formerly living (each with restored souls), to the thoughtful Edward of "Twilight," vampires have come a long way from the still purely evil, but seductive, "Dracula."

In recent years, vampires and other creatures of the night have featured prominently in adult-themed fare, such as innumerable urban fantasy/paranormal romance series in popular television programs such as "True Blood," a recent HBO series, also based on a series of books, in which vampirism stands in for issues of race, religion and gender.

But Stephenie Meyer's teen-centered "Twilight" series, and others, also appeal greatly to young adults and even parents.

"Twilight's" Edward, born in 1901 and still going strong in the series' first novel, published in 2005, is an excellent example of the sort of Byronic hero that vampires start turning into even as far back as the early 19th century, Deloney said.

Stuck in an in-between world balancing humanity and their own darker natures, vampires traditionally commit monstrous acts because of their inherent supernatural nature.

Later versions, though, find the blood-drinkers plaintively struggling against their fate and trying (in some cases) to become even noble.

Edward and his vampire "family" in the books abstain from feeding on humans. In the "True Blood" television series, vampire Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer, is a Southern gentleman of the oldest school, being turned into a vampire during the American Civil War.

Bill romances the unlikely named telepath Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and attempts to build bridges between vampire and human society in a world in which the undead have "come out" to society at large.

Vampires are a reflection of who we are at any given time, perhaps ironic given folklore's insistence that they cast no reflection, Deloney said.

"I don't know if they've run their course," she said, although a perhaps inevitable, cyclic glut of the market will send them back into the shadows -- for a time.

"It may be 50 years from now," she said before they come back fully again, although recent cycles suggest that the time in between feedings might be much shorter.

But as long as we struggle with the concepts of good and evil, and the darkness within ourselves, Deloney is certain there will be some life in the old blood yet.

From Abilene, Texas (right here in area 6) http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/dec/20/evolution-of-the-vampire-image/