First snow of November and thinking about vampires
Quite late this year, no? Been cold for a week at least and now we finally got the snowfall. Not that we got a LOT of snow, but a nice white cover over the roofs of my neighbour's houses, and of course all the bikes. The snow seem to come and go in crazy drifts, I'm kind of worried for my little bike ride to the gym in a few hours, but I'll prevail. It is very beautiful though, even if I want that thick first layer of snow which makes the world completely quiet and creates major traffic problems. Hm, hope I didn't curse myself there, since I'm taking the train up to Gothenburg next Thursday.
I started rereading Nina Auerbach's Our Vampires, Ourselves last night, since I've been thinking and talking about vampires all autumn, just like everyone else, and I remembered how much I liked her book. I just wish there was an updated version which went from the early 90s Anne Rice cult (even if Rice's books of course arrived in the mid 70s, and Auerbach writes quite a bit about them, and pretty well too), via late 90s Buffy and the boom of the paranormal romances genre, to the mass of tv-series and films about vampires in the mid 00s.
Auerbach's book ends with the AIDS trauma of the 80s, and the beginning of the queer theories and their approach to vampires. Actually, reading Auerbach now is kind of eerie, with her talk of the 8 years of Reagan, and the 4years with Bush the older, and the depression she feld during the long Reagen era, and how something new has arrived with Clinton. Kind of unavoidable to compare her situation to our at the end of the Bush the Younger era, and the new hope of Obama.
Is the rise of the new 00s vampire a sign of the times? Is it even a new vampire? A more social realist one like in the Swedish book and film Let the Right One In, which kind of fits the True Blood vamps too? What about Twilight? I've been irritated about the vampire discussions in Swedish media this autumn, which never even mentioned Buffy, and the slow rise to mainstream again of the vampire. I think that the whole explosion of the horror genre, and especially the very female dominated paranormal romance genre just can't be forgotten like that. The madness around the release of Twilight is just the top of the iceberg. It also shows that Auerbach was very right in her point about every generation has its vampire (and its slayer, but Auerbach missed that since tv-Buffy made her impact first in 1997).
Actually, I found some interesting discussion about the vampire in Buffy, and how that show perhaps isn't so much a vampire show as a demon one, over at the televisionwithoutpity True Blood forums. Yes, I know, scary place. But this thread is about other vampire books, tv-series and films, and so many things are mentioned there that I ended up with a long reading list.
Especially liked the discussion of paranormal romances and the domination of "male vampires to female humans romances" in them, and how difficult it is to find examples of the reverse situation. Auerbach also writes about this, or perhaps more about the lack of main protagonist female vampires. Where did Carmilla go? She remained a girl vampire like Claudia? Or the "pleasing to the male gaze buxom lesbian vamps" of the Hammer horrors?
Oh, I have to run to the spinning class now, but will be back for more vampire musings soon. I really need to discuss True Blood, and why it both is great and really bad.
I started rereading Nina Auerbach's Our Vampires, Ourselves last night, since I've been thinking and talking about vampires all autumn, just like everyone else, and I remembered how much I liked her book. I just wish there was an updated version which went from the early 90s Anne Rice cult (even if Rice's books of course arrived in the mid 70s, and Auerbach writes quite a bit about them, and pretty well too), via late 90s Buffy and the boom of the paranormal romances genre, to the mass of tv-series and films about vampires in the mid 00s.
Auerbach's book ends with the AIDS trauma of the 80s, and the beginning of the queer theories and their approach to vampires. Actually, reading Auerbach now is kind of eerie, with her talk of the 8 years of Reagan, and the 4years with Bush the older, and the depression she feld during the long Reagen era, and how something new has arrived with Clinton. Kind of unavoidable to compare her situation to our at the end of the Bush the Younger era, and the new hope of Obama.
Is the rise of the new 00s vampire a sign of the times? Is it even a new vampire? A more social realist one like in the Swedish book and film Let the Right One In, which kind of fits the True Blood vamps too? What about Twilight? I've been irritated about the vampire discussions in Swedish media this autumn, which never even mentioned Buffy, and the slow rise to mainstream again of the vampire. I think that the whole explosion of the horror genre, and especially the very female dominated paranormal romance genre just can't be forgotten like that. The madness around the release of Twilight is just the top of the iceberg. It also shows that Auerbach was very right in her point about every generation has its vampire (and its slayer, but Auerbach missed that since tv-Buffy made her impact first in 1997).
Actually, I found some interesting discussion about the vampire in Buffy, and how that show perhaps isn't so much a vampire show as a demon one, over at the televisionwithoutpity True Blood forums. Yes, I know, scary place. But this thread is about other vampire books, tv-series and films, and so many things are mentioned there that I ended up with a long reading list.
Especially liked the discussion of paranormal romances and the domination of "male vampires to female humans romances" in them, and how difficult it is to find examples of the reverse situation. Auerbach also writes about this, or perhaps more about the lack of main protagonist female vampires. Where did Carmilla go? She remained a girl vampire like Claudia? Or the "pleasing to the male gaze buxom lesbian vamps" of the Hammer horrors?
Oh, I have to run to the spinning class now, but will be back for more vampire musings soon. I really need to discuss True Blood, and why it both is great and really bad.