I am not sure why, but today - the subject of 'Twilight' reared its ugly head.
It is generally not advisable for me to talk about Twilight - because - honestly, I would prefer to make friends with a large black man called 'Bubba' who wants to play mummies and daddies with me in the shower than have anything to do with that puerile crap trap.
(By the way - in regard to the last sentence - I am exaggerating a little, no offers please)
Dracula is a fantastic & terrifying book. Count Dracula is a suave & sophisticated yes. You could even go as far as charming. He is however also - murderous and truly evil.
Because Dracula is such a good book, and because the very idea of vampires is quite creepy: many many books have been written on the subject.
And for years and years, vampires have continued to be creepy. Sometimes completely inhuman, sometimes with a semblance of humanity, the fear aspect has almost always held true until recent years.
Then - the very prolific author Anne Rice - did something that was to have disastrous consequences for the genre. She began to look at the more human aspect of vampires - with the fantastic 'Interview with a Vampire.'
There is absolutely nothing wrong with these books actually. I've enjoyed the ones I have read. The thing is that they began to dilute the vampire legend - paving the way for talentless hacks like Stephenie Meyer.
Twilight - is not something I have read watched or wish to do so. As such - you can choose whether I am being fair to it or not with todays rant.
However, if I may bullet point my issues with it:
- Vampires should be scary
- Vampires should not be pretty boys with all the charisma of a plant pot
- Vampires are undead, thus - shagging or lusting after vampires is NECROPHILIA
- Making vampire books all about sex is lazy and heavy handed, considering that the inherent fear of vampires comes from the fact that they are a potent metaphor for rape.
And Twilight isn't alone. A plague of this 'vampires are romantic' shite has come along.
The worse thing of all, is that it can only go down hill from here if we aren't careful.
Soon - vampires won't have fangs any more and will drink fruit juices and shit fucking rainbows.
Even now, my beloved horror section at my local book shop has been transformed into a section called:
(I really hate to say this. I really do. Even typing it makes me feel like a complete wanker - really)
Dark Romance. (There, I said it. Happy now!?)
Because - it seems that more people want to shag vampires than read about them as the terrifying essence stealing creatures that they should be.
When did necrophilia become socially acceptable anyway? Beats me.
Rant over.
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