Influences: “The Last Vampire” by Christopher Pike

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book series, books, Christopher Pike, series, The Last Vampire, vampire books, vampire fiction, vampires, YA, YA books, Young Adult

When I was in junior high, I read a lot of vampire stories. I read books by R.L. Stine and Anne Rice. I even attempted to read Bram Stoker’s classic novel, but could not get into it. But one book that stands out during my vampire book days was “The Last Vampire” by Christopher Pike.

Here’s an overlook of the book, and the other five that followed it in a series. The books are about Sita, a 5,000 year old vampire who is, seemingly, the one and only vampire left on earth. Although she is tiny, she is incredibly beautiful, extremely strong and quick, and falls in love quite easily. The latter means she falls in love with the son of a detective, mainly because she believes the son, Ray, is the reincarnation of her husband from 5,000 years earlier, Rama.

But Sita is not the last vampire around; her maker, the world’s first vampire, Yaksha, is still out there and is looking to kill her to rid the world of vampires. Yet, Sita survives Yaksha’s attempt and turns a dying Ray into a vampire, to save his life. This breaks a promise she made to Krishna that she won’t create any vampires, and thus will always have Krishna’s grace.

Click here to find on Goodreads

So begins the adventures of Sita, Ray and Yaksha. The adventures involve a trip to Las Vegas, flashbacks to Renaissance Italy, massive explosions, the death of Ray and Yaksha, Sita meeting a non-vampire who managed to live hundreds of years through alchemy (I forget the character’s name), and being changed back into human form. She also winds up pregnant, Ray comes to back to life as some sort of ghost, the baby grows at an abnormally quick pace and later turns out to be some sort of demon that Sita has to destroy. In the end, Sita meets with space aliens – or something like that – and is able to go back in time to kill Yaksha when he is born, and thus, never becomes a vampire and returns to life as though she never lived for 5,000 years.

At the very end, readers learn that Sita’s human nerdy friend, whom she cures of AIDS, had created the story of Sita in order to cope with having full-blown AIDS, and readers are to believe that the story of the last vampire was a product of his imagination.

Hmm. Sounds like a bad movie, right?

Now that I think of it…

Anyway…

I am aware that the series is being continued, years after the sixth and final book was written. I am not sure if I will ever take a peek at any of these books, especially now that I am aware that The Last Vampire series doesn’t sound very plausible. I mean, it certainly isn’t akin to the Harry Potter series in terms of storytelling.

But I do remember a few years ago, during the Twilight craze, walking through a bookstore, and seeing The Last Vampire being marketed as a new series called Thirst. I was thrilled to see that book cover, and thrilled to have memories of my early-teen days come back to me.

Those memories included chatting with friends about Sita and her adventures, and what will happen to her next. It seemed Christopher Pike’s vampire series was widely read in the mid-90s. Also included was my introduction to Hindu mythology, which these books are heavily based on. It showed me a new world, which back then was largely influenced by Catholicism.

I also grew fascinated with vampires, and wrote little short stories about myself becoming a vampire and what sort of adventures I would have as one.

Clearly, The Last Vampire series influenced me, as imperfect as they are. They also influenced the way I created my vampires. For example, I made my vampires walk around in the sunlight, depending on how old they were. This is all thanks to Sita, who could also walk freely in the sun, although she would be exhausted later on. In addition, my vampires, like Sita, do not sleep in coffins.

Even though The Last Vampire series is not the best one out there, it still has a special place with me. It made me fall in love with vampires, let my imagination run wild, and influenced me as a writer and storyteller. Creating stories are like building blocks, and sometimes there’s just that one book that leads to the foundation stone being placed. For me, it is Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire series.

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Movie Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, artsy movies, Farsi, female vampires, feminism, feminist, film reviews, films, indie films, indie flicks, Iran, Iranian, movie review, movie reviews, movies, vampire movies, vampires

In recent weeks, I viewed the art house film, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”. In case you haven’t heard of it, this Ana Lily Amirpour directed movie received a lot of buzz for being a Farsi-language (which is the main tongue of Iran) art house flick about a vampire in a Western-style city. In fact, the movie’s tagline is “The first Iranian Vampire Western”.

Click here to learn more at IMDB.com

Even though the film is done in Farsi, it was not shot in Iran. Instead, it was made here in the United States by a cast and crew of Iranian heritage. That is quite obvious when you see the sex scenes and female nudity. I mean, this is not a movie that the Ayatollah would approve of!

“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” is about a fictional place called Bad City. And bad is the best word to describe it. Drug dealing, spousal abuse, prostitution, and just general unhappiness and misery all around. Having the film shot in black and white seems to add to the sadness of Bad City, along with the artsy intentions of the director.

But while the residents of Bad City are dealing with their unhappiness, they seem unaware of a particular young woman who is by herself at night. They might notice her, because this is supposed to be Iran, and in that country, a young woman being by herself at that hour is taboo. She may be up to no good. And this girl is. She’s a vampire.

But she’s no evil vampire. Instead, the young woman seems to use her thirst for blood as a way to punish those in Bad City who hurt others. She kills and drinks from the drug dealers, the pimps and all others who abuse women. Come to think of it, this characterization of a female vampire seems to be a trend with the genre. The film, Byzantium, had something similar. And one of my author buddies, Francis Franklin, wrote a book that had the same idea. It’s like female vampires are the new female warriors against male oppression, and other injustices from patriarchal societies.

At the center of “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” is Arash, a young man who’s father shoots up heroin, owes money and abuses his girlfriend. The vampire watches this very closely, and it is while she’s watching that Arash meets her and falls in love. She becomes a beacon of light for him in his unhappy existence in an unhappy place. This is rather unusual yet touching vampire romance, although the love story is a secondary storyline here. Arash is basically a rebel in Bad City in a sense that he yearns to escape its misery and live a better life.

Overall, the film is about how rough Bad City is and how this vampire (who has no name) uses her vampire ways to bring justice. It’s an artsy, indie flick that brings together Iranian social issues, vampire fascination, and classic American flicks about teenage rebellion. It doesn’t have a driving storyline, but it is interesting to watch. The real catch is the Iranian aspect of the film, which why it received such a buzz among indie flicks recently. For one thing, I liked how the vampire’s chador seems to represent both Iran’s strict clothing laws for women, and the capes traditional vampires wear. It’s actually a cool combination when you think about it.

I recommend this film if you like foreign language flicks, indie art-house style films, and a feminist take on female vampires. If you love cinematography, you’d love this film. But if you are looking for a driving storyline with intense climaxes and drama, you won’t see too much of that here. But it is something different from many vampire and Iranian films out there, so this may be a movie worth watching for you!

 

 

Dracula: Season 1 Review

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Dracula, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, NBC, TV reviews, TV Shows

So NBC’s Dracula completed its first season this past Friday. That was quick. Doesn’t it seem like the show only debuted yesterday?

Click for the show’s page on IMDB

Well yeah, it only had 10 episodes for its first season. It is still not known if the show will be renewed for a second season as NBC is reportedly still thinking it over. Supposedly, there were some issues with the ratings, but those picked up during the last couple of episodes, so there may be hope.

But until then, I’m going to give my thoughts on this season and whether I’ll be tuning in for Season 2, if there will be one.

Overall, I felt Dracula was all right. I thought the acting was pretty much good overall, the costumes and set design was amazing, and the storyline was OK. I was uneasy when the show premiered because I was concerned that Dracula was going to be a soapbox to preach against Big Oil. Fortunately, that did not happen and the Big Oil topic became secondary. Instead, what we got was Dracula trying to walk in the sunlight so he could get revenge on the Order of the Dragon with Van Helsing, whom he was surprisingly in cahoots with.

I grew to like this new take on the Dracula-Van Helsing rivalry. Obviously they despised each other, but both needed each other in order to fight the Order of the Dragon, which had ruined them in two very different ways. I liked how this tale had Dracula as a member of the Order, only to be cursed to be a vampire by them. However, I wished we had seen more of Dracula’s life from before he was turned into the vampire. We kept seeing the same images over and over of Van Helsing’s family ruthlessly being killed by the Order, yet not enough of Dracula suffering from them. I get it that the angle was mostly on Van Helsing as he aimed for revenge, but it got tiresome and painful to see the scene where his son is forced from him and into the burning house. I wished we had seen more of Dracula with his wife, Ilona, who was killed by the Order, because that was what he was focused on, second to getting revenge from the Order.

I found Mina to be likable in this version, though maybe a little naive. Harker had good reasons to be suspicious of what was going on between her and Alexander Grayson. Lucy here reminded me a lot of the one in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1994 film, particularly when she, ahem, measured Harker’s pants. I wonder if having her being in love with Mina was a nod to the hinted lesbianism between the two in Coppola’s movie.

Harker is someone to like and cheer on. Yes, he was a douche for downplaying Mina’s interest in medicine, but given he’s the good guy in this story, there’s a reason to cheer for him. I was so mad at him when he joined the Order, but luckily, he realized that was a bad idea during the final episode. I’m glad he and Van Helsing are going to team up to destroy Grayson. Harker knows he has been causing chaos in his life and wants to ruin him, and Van Helsing is done with Dracula. It will be interesting to see what this duo does to ruin Grayson.

Before the show aired, Jonathan Rhys Meyers warned that Dracula was not a good guy here, and that is true. His Dracula is the unlikable villain that you strangely want to see succeed. Really, him making Lucy a monster because she hurt his reincarnated wife was him being a tool. Yeah, Dracula made Lucy a vampire in Bram Stoker’s classic, but ugh! Oh yeah, his creepy obsession with Mina was not romantic at all. I’d like to see what will happen when Mina realizes Grayson is a vampire. It won’t be easy for her to cope, now since the two of them have finally had sex. It’s like her attraction to him has been sealed. And will Grayson want to make her a vampire, even though he thinks it will be an abomination? Or will Mina ask to be one?

So yeah, overall I thought it was good. Not stellar, but not bad either. There were some episodes that dragged a little. I felt some of the sex was put in for the gratuity rather than to tell a story. The costumes are mostly good, but the makeup on the women was so not Victorian, especially Lucy’s eyebrows and Mina’s lipstick. The acting is fine, though I’m not impressed with Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Yes, the guy is sex personified, but based on The Tudors and The Mortal Instruments, I can’t help but think that he does the same acting over and over. Sigh!

If the shows is renewed for a second season, I’ll tune in. I’m not too worried about this show jumping the shark because if it does, it won’t be as painful because I wouldn’t call this show great. It’s good, just not great. But it is entertaining, pure and simple, and that’s enough.

Why My Vampires Are The Way They Are

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fictional characters, paranormal, scientific explanation, traditional vampires, urban fantasy, vampire books, vampire novels

No two vampires are the same. What I mean by that is, it seems like vampires in each book, movie or TV show have their own appearances, powers, and blood drinking requirements. Sometimes these characteristics are based on folklore (the Eastern European of the vampire has had a big influence on how we see vampires these days) or at times, the author creates their own version (I never heard of vampires sparkling before “Twilight”).

Click here for original Flickr image

So I say it is safe to say writers of vampire stories got their ideas from various sources – as did I. In this post, I will discuss where the characteristics of my vampires in my book, “The Dark Proposal”, came from.

Firstly, let me lay out what those characteristics are:

• very pale skin that turns into a healthier tone after feeding,
• the ability to read minds and erase thoughts,
• move at a very quick speed (think True Blood),
• turn into mist,
• no need to sleep in coffins,
• being able to walk around in daylight or even overcasts after many centuries,
• superhuman physical strength,
• heightened hearing and seeing,

Some of my vampires also have difficulty stopping themselves from consuming blood from a person, which leads to suspicious deaths among humans.

So how did I come up with these traits? Allow me to explain:

Very pale skin that turns into healthier tone after feeding: Almost white skin I think is one of the hallmarks of a vampire. Having one without pale skin is like not giving a vampire fangs. It also comes from Slavic folklore that a vampire was spotted by its pale skin that turned ruddy after feeding. Plus, for my trilogy, there needs to be something suspicious about their appearance. Without the skin issue, there’s no hint that something is off someone.

The ability to read minds and erase thoughts: Many vampires have done this and I think it can come from the heightened senses these undead creatures have. If they can hear and see things humans cannot see, why not human thoughts? And since I have my vampires inherit supernatural abilities, why not also erase human thoughts if necessary? If you are wondering why my vampires do not hypnotize people, like Dracula did or the vampires on True Blood, well, I did think about that. But it wouldn’t have worked for my book. If Daniel was able to make Claire say and do things through hypnosis, then my story had no point, would be boring, be done in 50 pages, with the whole idea down the drain. Plus, I didn’t want my vampires to be too much like their True Blood counterparts.

Speaking of True Blood…

Move at a very quick speed: Honestly, I gave my vampires this skill because I think it is so cool to see them zip around a room in a blink of an eye. Also, when I wrote the scene where Daniel proved to Claire that he’s a vampire, I just had to have him to do that. It worked so perfectly.

Turn into mist: Comes in handy, basically. I loved the 1992 flick, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Francis Ford Coppola, and the way it showed Dracula turning into green mist. While the mist in stories aren’t green, it is still a fascinating ability to have. It adds to the mystery and fear of the vampire.

Click here for original image

No need to sleep in coffins: I really didn’t like the idea of a vampire sleeping in a coffin, even if it is basically a dead creature. It was just too archaic for me. I was also inspired by one of my favorite vampire books as a young teen, Christopher Pike’s “The Last Vampire” series. His vampire heroine, Sita, didn’t use a coffin and slept in a bed like anyone else.

Which leads to the next trait inspired by Mr. Pike’s books…

Being able to walk around in daylight or even overcasts after many centuries: This was something Sita was able to do, although not every single day since the sun would exhaust her after a while. I also had always wondered if a vampire could walk around during a cloudy, rainy day. After all, there is no sun to fry him, right? But I do think being able to deal with some sunlight is best for more mature vampires because age does make them stronger. At least for mine.

Superhuman physical strength: Because my vampires got their traits from ancient tribal gods, why wouldn’t they have the power and strength of those deities? Same goes for heightened hearing and seeing. Vampires are supposed to be, to me at least, creatures that we fear. We fear them not simply because they can kill or torment us, but because they have the supernatural ability to hunt us down easily, get us to do things other humans aren’t able to, and go mostly unnoticeable in everyday life. It’s hard to fear something or someone who isn’t two notches stronger or skilled than you.

How Will a Vampire View God?

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Anne Rice, Bill Compton, Diety, Dracula, God, Lilith, Supreme Being, Theology, True Blood, vampire fiction, writing

With the premiere of the sixth season of HBO’s True Blood coming up this Sunday, I figured this would be a good time to discuss vampires and their relationship – on any level – with God.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an invitation to debate the existence of God or any sort of theology. That is for another topic on another blog, in which there are many. Since vampires and God have gone hand-in-hand for centuries, this is an interesting topic to explore.

Click here for a good article and the Season 6 promo

Now if you watch True Blood, you may recall last season where Bill Compton and Eric Northman got caught up with the Authority and their worship of their vampire god, Lilith. Eventually, the idea of that Lilith wanted all vampires to conquer humans made Bill spiral into madness and at the end of the season, he drank Lilith’s blood and became a vampire god himself (Sounds strange, right? I was baffled over the direction the show went and vowed to never watch it again. Of course, I have since changed my mind).

So with season six getting started, it is clear Bill is not going to be just another vampire, but a sort of deity. How that turns out remains to be seen, but it does give a nod to the centuries old correlation between the bloodsucking undead and deities.

I wonder, though, that if vampires exist, and if there’s a God, how will the vampire see God as it lives it’s supernatural existence? (NOTE: I believe there is a God, but again, we’re not discussing theism here)

I would think that a vampire would look at God with a wary eye. Not wary in how will the Almighty strike him or her down, but wary as in preparing for a fight. A vampire would probably like to know what a supernatural being who rules the world would do another supernatural being who also rules the earth, but in a very different way. I would imagine that God might see a vampire as an agent of it’s archnemesis, the devil, whom poisoned the body and mind of a human being who was forced to become a vampire, or didn’t really know what he or she was in for. This leads to this discussion of whether vampires could be seen with pity. But I already touched on that before, so let’s move on.

The characters in my book mention their attitude towards God, or any deity, several times. The main character, Claire McCormick, is apathetic to the existence of God, Daniel Bertrand, her boyfriend who revealed to be a vampire, tells her that is what made him think she would be a choice to be his eternal companion. He explained that she had a love of life, so why not have that love for as long as whenever? She had no one to answer to.

Daniel then goes on to say this: “When you are made like us, you’ll see the power we have and how we will always reign over humanity. Striking fear into mortals, exercising a power and strength they can only wish to have. Basically,” he leaned forward. “We are the Gods, and it’s a thrilling feeling.”

It should be noted that Daniel was born illegitimate back in Medieval France, at a time where the Church had complete control over society. Being a bastard weighed heavily on him, and becoming a vampire set him free from his misery, hence him saying how thrilled he is to be God-like.

I would think a vampire would see itself equal to God like that. Immortal, supernatural strength and abilities, powerful over humans. If that vampire has accepted it’s new existence and has no real issue draining humans of their blood, then I would say that vampire is flipping the finger at God and the world, and not caring about it’s evilness. Sounds like an agent of the devil to me!

I also wonder if a vampire would ever think about the possibility of an afterlife. They have found the key to immortality and eternal youth. Why bother thinking about Heaven, hell, reincarnation or nothing at all? They got the longevity going and they’re laughing at humans for their short, fragile lives. Basically, I would think by becoming a vampire, a person knows it is superior to it’s former fellow humans in many ways. It will see itself as blessed with a rare gift and it can dance happily in the night forever. There is no one to answer to or to stop them.

But no one lives forever (yes, I know that is the tagline for True Blood this season) and vampires have been known to finally being defeated and killed. What then? Are they doomed for hell since they embraced the dark gift? More than likely that will be what karma would give them. I personally believe how we live our lives affects the way the universe reacts to us. Once we are released from our mortal bodies, we are in the hands of the universe. What we gave to God – which I believe is an energy force – will come back at us very strongly. And vampires will be in for some major retribution.

I will explore how the vampires of my The End of Eternity trilogy think about God and the afterlife a little more in my two next books. Not much though, because that really is Anne Rice’s territory and I don’t want to mirror what she did, which was done very well. I originally had a few scenes where Claire considers God’s existence and even prays for help. But I removed them because they would’ve affected my plans for my characters. But since the relationship between humans and deities played a role in my book, I won’t totally ignore it next time.

So, True Blood returns this Sunday, and Bill Compton is a vampire God now. Even the promos show Sookie asking in fright, “you think you’re God now?” and Bill seems to have fully embraced his status as a supreme being. I don’t know what to expect this season, because the last one was not very good, in my opinion. New writers were brought in for this season, so maybe they had cleaned up the mess left behind from last year. We shall see…

NBC’s Dracula – What Does the Promo Hint?

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Downton Abbey, Dracula, Fall TV shows, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, NBC, NBC Dracula, NBC shows, television, The Tudors, TV Shows, vampires

Earlier this month, the promo to the NBC drama “Dracula” was released, and I finally got around to viewing it. In case you may not know, NBC – which is gaining a reputation for some great shows – has produced a show based on Bram Stoker’s classic, though it is a bit different from the actual storyline.

Anyway, here it is:

Wow! The producers of “Downton Abbey” and the directors of “The Tudors” are behind this! This could definitely be a very lavish show. I’m a sucker for costume dramas because I adore the lovely gowns the women wear.

And I must say, Jonathan Rhys-Myers seems quite seductive here. It was hard for me to find him hot on “The Tudors” because I kept thinking how he looked nothing like Henry VIII. But here, he’ll pull off playing Dracula more easily.

It seems like the show doesn’t have Dracula as the historic Vlad Tepes, the Wallachian prince in present-day Romania who inspired Bram Stoker’s novel. By historical accounts, Vlad Dracula’s wife died by throwing herself off his castle, not from being burned at the stake. Hey, I’m not expecting this program to be true to Stoker’s book. I am just curious how the writers and directors will re-tell the story.

Also, this show looks like it will be very sexy, which is a big departure from “The Tudors”, which some viewers have called historical porn, LOL! But I admit it will be nice to have a show with some sexiness without the gratuity (nudge, nudge Game of Thrones! 🙂 ).

So, NBC’s “Dracula” looks promising. I will be tuning in when it premieres this fall.

Here’s more info: http://www.nbc.com/dracula/

The Ambiguous Sexuality of Vampires

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bisexuality, bisexuals, fluid sexuality, good and evil, LGBT, morals, Sexuality, writers, writing

I was browsing WordPress blogs this morning when I came across one that had a link to an article on AfterElton.com that discussed how vampires are often depicted as bisexual, and that is not a good thing.

The article, written by Brent Hartinger, pointed out that when vampires are bisexual, particularly on TV and in movies, is usually represents how evil the creature is. In other words, the vampire is so amoral and deprived, it also has sexual perversions, if one considers bisexuality or even homosexuality to be so.

Click here for article on vampire sex by TrueBlood.net

For example, the Cullen clan in the Twilight saga are morally good and heroic, and they are also all heterosexual. But look at True Blood. The villain Russell Edgington is gay and has a boyfriend in season 3 – until Eric kills him. Eric is seen as morally ambiguous throughout the whole series, and becomes sexually ambiguous when he needs to do evil, such as killing Talbot to avenge his Viking family’s murders. Also, Bill was the good vampire for most of the series, and was depicted as heterosexual – with the exception of a scene with shape shifter Sam Merlotte, which disappointingly turned out to be a dream.

Here’s a quote from Hartinger’s op-ed to sum it all up:

Suddenly vampires have stopped being bisexual. The more “good” they are, the less morally dubious, the straighter they’ve become. It’s an almost perfect correlation!

Reading this article shook me. In my book, The Dark Proposal, I have my vampires as bisexual, living in a free-love existence. I never once thought that by giving them fluid sexuality, I was showing how depraved they were. Yes, my vampires are the evil kind, and not the sweet and sensitive ones. But I never once thought that by allowing to be more sexually ambiguous, they were representing their moral sense.

Honestly, I was influenced Anne Rice, who’s vampires are bisexual. But I also didn’t do that just because Anne Rice herself did. My justification of creating bisexual vampires came from how I would think it would be for a vampire, once it realizes it is no longer human and is living apart from humanity. I would think by living in a different world, human rules no longer apply, especially when you realize you have supernatural skills and have found your own key to immortality. Vampires don’t answer to humans, so why should they follow their rules?

In that situation, I would really believe fluid sexuality would be the norm. The reluctance or fear to want to kiss and touch someone of the same gender would be gone. There will be no judgment if one decides to have a same-sex encounter or even experiences homosexual love. After all, they are superior to humans – that is the attitude my vampires have.

I never looked at vampire sexuality as representative of their morals. I always looked it at as part of the sexy side of being a vampire – that no one, male or female, can resist you, and you are open to anyone who interests you, gender be damned. You have no sexual hang-ups, you are true to yourself and don’t care what others think – mainly because you are separate from humans and you look down at them anyway.

But this article has me thinking, especially how I write my two follow-ups to The Dark Proposal. The ideas I had won’t change drastically now, but I will be more aware that some people are not pleased with vampires having fluid sexuality. The LGBT community has been demonized enough, and I certainly don’t want to give readers the impression that I am part of the demonizing crowd. I stand by my reasons for making my vampires bisexual, but I see there are other angles to examine.

The Evolution of Vampires

Tags

folkore, paranormal, paranormal romance, PNR, Pop culture, popular culture, psychology, Twilight

For centuries, vampires struck fear in the hearts of anyone who believed in them or enjoyed films or books about them. They were pure evil, luring humans to them before sinking their fangs into their necks to devour their blood. Vampires were the enemy of God and on the devil’s side. There was no way to pity something so villainous. 

But these days, many people are looking at vampires with new eyes. You might have noticed in popular culture these days, vampires are seen in a good light. They are tortured souls, unhappy with their existence and remorseful over killing humans for their blood. They also are able to have empathy for humans and are capable of having romantic relationships with them. This depiction of vampires is completely different from how they were traditionally viewed.

What has happened? Why the change in viewing an evil creature?

It could be that people today are more apt to think villains aren’t the way they are by accident. There’s always a reason why someone does or behaves in a certain way. You could thank psychology on that, which has made modern humans more likely to analyze theirs and other people’s behavior. Unless you are a psychopath, there’s always a reason why some people become lousy members of society.

But should vampires be sympathized at all? Should a human pity a monster?

For me, it depends on how they became vampires in the first place. Some are forced, while some choose to be without really knowing what they are getting themselves into, much like Louis in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire – the book many credit with bringing about the sympathetic vampire into popular culture. In those cases, there can be sympathy. I’m sure we can all agree anyone who willingly chooses an existence of killing people almost night after night is not worthy of any pity.

But is it possible for a vampire to hold on to his or her humanity once they are transformed? A newborn vampire, I believe, can. Too bad they’ll be wrestling with their new nature that makes the scent and taste of blood too intoxicating for them. Also, I would think having supernatural abilities and senses would make a new vampire feel not exactly human anymore. At this point, a new vampire is a hybrid of a human being and a supernatural creature that could cause much damage in the world.

Now you may argue that a vampire could easily drink from animals – PETA wouldn’t like that – or drink enough from a person so that the prey would survive. That can happen, and I may be a bit more easy around a vampire like that should I ever meet one (or rather, if any actually exist).

But let’s say a vampire is not a newborn, and is 100, 500 or even 1,000 years old? Will that vampire still have any humanity left in them? Did they have any to begin with? After all, in some parts of the world, people are more compassionate to each other than ever before. But a century, or centuries ago, there wasn’t much empathy going around. It was OK to have disdain for, mistreat and even kill someone who was different from you in any way. With that in mind, I would think someone who became a vampire during then would be quick to see humans as anything but sources of nourishment. The Middle Ages, for example, were a brutal time, so a newborn vampire in that time period would be used to such cruelty and wouldn’t have been taught to be empathetic as much as we are today.

At the same time, I think a very old vampire would eventually lose his or her humanity because they had spent so many years living separately from humans. They usually only come out at night and hide their identities, because they can’t let the world know that they are bloodsuckers or else they’ll get a stake through the heart. This would cause vampires to live detached from humans and have their own way of life, and therefore, their own mindset. How could a vampire in that situation maintain their empathy for humans like that? I could see a newborn vampire doing that, but not an old one. By then, their memories of being human are miniscule compared to their centuries of being vampires. Their humanity becomes a faded memory, almost like a legend in their minds.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

But in that case, can a vampire regain their humanity? Could a 1,000 – more or less – year old vampire learn to be compassionate and empathetic to humans? Could they ever realize that they are killing their victims, and not just getting their fill? Could they ever melt their hearts from such hardness? Can a vampire ever have a heart, no matter their age?

All this is worthy of debate because of the way vampires are portrayed these days in books, movies and TV shows. Some may complain that Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga has ruined the vampire lore by making hers very different from the traditional vampire. But when you really think about, all myths and legends evolve as humans progress. Those stories reflect the society that either creates or enjoys them, so having the compassionate vampire who is worthy of pity reflect how people today are more analytical then ever, and are less likely to see the world in black and white as they did in the past.

Blog Tour Stop: My Chaotic Ramblings

Tags

Book tours, guest post, indie authors, Indie books, paranormal, promotion, urban fantasy

Sorry for being a day late with this, but I’d like to mention my blog stop at My Chaotic Ramblings. Here, I have an excerpt of Chapter 1 and also a guest post where I talk about the importance of writers having thick skin.

So, stop by and give the post some lovin’…please! 🙂

Special thanks to Dark Mind Book Tours – these ladies are amazing!

And don’t forget to check out my newly released debut novel, The Dark Proposal. It already has a 4 out of 5 star review on Amazon!

Blog Tour Stop: Darkest Sins

Tags

blog tours, book promotion, indie authors, Indie books, paranormal, self publishing, self-published authors, urban fantasy

Another stop on my blog tour! Thanks to Silvia Paoletta, her blog Darkest Sins is featuring an excerpt of my book, The Dark Proposal. It is part of Chapter 1, the excerpt making its rounds in the book blogosphere.

So, stop by Darkest Sins to show your support!

Many thanks to Dark Mind Book Tours – you ladies are the best!

And don’t forget to check out my newly released debut novel, The Dark Proposal. It already has a 4 out of 5 star review on Amazon!