Romantic vampires ... they're everywhere!
These days you can’t escape them. Edward in the Twilight series is only the latest in a long line of scary and often romantic vampires. Used to be that vampires were confined to Transylvania, and between the covers of books like Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic Dracula (still the best and most frightening vampire fiction), or on the screen with Bela Lugosi (still the best Dracula ever).
Bela Lugosi
Modern classics brought vampires back into our lives. Here are three I recommend: Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (1976), which Hollywood filmed in 1994, giving us not only Brad Pitt but also Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas and a 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst as a child vampire … The Hunger, a 1983 cult film adapted from a vampire novel by American horror writer Whitley Strieber and starring Susan Sarandon as a doctor researching sleep and aging, and Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie as a very beautiful vampire couple! … and Shadow of the Vampire (2000), with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe in a wonderfully terrifying account of the making of the classic vampire film Nosferatu in 1922 Czechoslovakia.
Sometimes we laugh at the vampires too. George Hamilton played a romantic but hapless vampire in New York in Love at First Bite (1979). Mel Brooks directed (and plays Dr. Van Helsing) in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), with Leslie Nielsen as a bumbling but earnest Dracula. Then there are Christopher Moore's comic romantic novels set in today's San Francisco: Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story (1995) and You Suck: A Love Story (2007).
And now, right in our living rooms, we have True Blood, in its second season on HBO. This series is based on Charlaine Harris’s series of novels The Southern Vampire Mysteries. And we’re back in Louisiana, the background for most of the stories of Anne Rice, who grew up in New Orleans.
Which brings us to Twilight, the 2005 young-adult vampire romance bestseller by Stephanie Meyer that has spawned a … well, phenomenon, industry, Twilight-o-mania, you fill in the blank. I asked local teacher and writer Cami Nihipali to share her thoughts about this latest vampire craze. So here’s “Twilight and That First Love Flutter” … Cami, the stage is yours!
"Temptation. Animal attraction. Lust. In literature, there is a common symbol often used when working with these themes: the vampire. I mean, who didn't fall for Anne Rice's Lestat? One of the hottest reads right now (and a far cry different from Rice's Interview with the Vampire) is Stephanie Meyer's Young Adult Twilight series. Her fourth installment, Breaking Dawn, was on best seller lists for over a year, and with a film hit in Twilight and the second installment in the series, New Moon, being released on film in November '09, it doesn't look like this pop culture phenomenon is going away any time soon.
"So what's the attraction? Ask almost any female tween and teen (and even quite a few males, as I can attest by observing my own students) and they will be able to explain in great, enthusiastic detail what it is about this story that has them transfixed and rereading it multiple times. In an adult nutshell, Twilight is the story of young lovers Bella and Edward, but the catch is that Bella is human and Edward is a vampire. Edward hungers for Bella's blood, and must resist the temptation to kill her (yes, the symbolism here is elementary). Throw in a few other characters to spice it up—Jacob, a part of the love triangle and a werewolf to boot, the vampire family, the Cullens, and a host of bad vampires—mix together, and Meyer has herself a venerable hit.
"It isn't the heroine, however, that has generated the buzz. Instead it is the hero, or heroes depending who you ask, that have readers in a tizzy. Edward is the nearly hundred year old vampire with old world values, amazing abs, and a ferocity to see His Bella protected. He's sentimental and not afraid to share his emotions with Bella, often telling her how much he loves her and can't live without her. On the other hand, there's Jacob, a generally realistic depiction of an adolescent male despite the fact he becomes a werewolf. He has an unrequited crush on Bella, and strives to make sure she is safe, which often puts him at odds with his enemy, the vampire, Edward. In the world of adolescents you are either on Team Edward or Team Jacob.
"Meyer's faith (LDS Mormon) influences the romance between Edward and Bella. The author draws out the attraction between them, weaving with dexterity the beauty of first love, the confusion of sexual attraction, and the miscommunication between boys and girls. As they begin to submit to their attraction, Edward knows that he cannot "lose control" with Bella because he will be unable to control his hunger for her. This teasing of the reader produces a visceral reaction that somehow binds the reader with the characters' experience. It is in the chaste romance between Edward and Bella that the author so deftly builds the conflict and the tension. Your heart pounds, your palms sweat, your face flushes. Just ask the host of moms who've read right along with their daughters.
"There are discussions in literary circles about whether Twilight is "good" literature. I know my colleagues and I have had this discussion numerous times. The truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter. Like the Harry Potter phenomenon, which became embroiled in a religious argument several years ago, Twilight and its subsequent books have gotten kids reading, and excited about reading nonetheless. As for romance, Meyer hits the nail on the head. Whether the reader likes Edward or Jacob, everyone can find that flutter of first love in this story."
Tags: Cami Nihipali, Romance, Twilight, vampires, young adult
September 28th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Well written Cami! For those who haven't yet read Twilight, your commentary will spur them. And as you said, it's not really about the quality of literature as the connection the reader has with the story. Adolescents and ads at heart (myself included) get sucked in by the characters and fast-moving plot. Pure entertainment!
September 28th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Phavana, that goal of having the reader connect to the story is such a vital element for fiction writers. I often think of the early human beings telling their stories of the day's hunt and adventures, perhaps in a circle around a fire. And now here we are, telling our stories, hoping that readers connect. One reason I love reading aloud to a group is that we all connect during the reading, we all share the same story as it unfolds.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:41 am
thanks for the quick overview of Twilight. the women in my family are all over it and now i have an idea why....will have to check it out...
October 5th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Thanks, Cami. Very well said.
I loved the series also. One of the reasons I think Vampire romances are doing so well is because the Vampires as heroes are as strong and unpredictable as the old Alpha heroes of the early romance novels. Before the recent wave of Vampire romances, our heroes slowly became more and more politically correct. We used to write "bodice rippers" but over the last 20 years, the Alpha heroes were tamed on the pages. But a Vampire? So what if he's strong and dark and brutal and overpowers the heroine? You can't blame him, can you? He's not even human.