Apologies in advance for the following culture-babble (and in case I've posted something along these lines before... this is a topic that I keep coming back to in my own head
( Read more... )
That's different from what I see when I look at the vampire literature. I'm pretty addicted to the paranormal romance genre, but if I were to apply socio/cultural babble to the genre I'd say that the current swing is to humanize the monsters.
Most of the paranormal romance books I read, both vampire and werewolf, tend to have a couple of themes: controlling the beast, redefining what is the "right" thing to do, and taking responsibility.
(I'm not talking Twilight here. I can't read those novels. Vampires do not sparkle. Calling a frog a horse does not mean that horses will develop webbed hooves. Punkt)
What I see with the rise in vampire and werewolf literature is our society battling issues with conformity. I am vampire/werewolf/human. I feel that I don't fit into this society. Yet I long to be a member of this society. Something bad happens, my initial response is different than the people around me. Does that change my view of this society and do I still want to be a part of this society? If not a part of this society, what do I want to be a part of? What am I willing to sacrifice so that I may "live"?
Interesting. For whatever reason, I almost always identify with the humans, not the supernaturals, when I read these books (Harry Dresden being the chief exception - not that the Dresden Files are primarily paranormal romance, unless I'm *really* missing something).
I may see things differently because I'm in a somewhat different place in life than many folk. I have the luxury of doing work where my flavors of weird are actually approved of and supported, and I have a solid collection of friends who are just as odd as I am - the result of this being that issues of identity and conformity are on the back burner for me, personally, whereas as a news junkie, I'm constantly exposed to issues of economics, class, and power, and these issues seem to be far-from-solved for me.
Different series, too, may spin this in different ways - my exposure to the paranormal romance genre is limited to the first few Anita Blake novels, so I may well be missing something.
Hrm... perhaps the supernatual actually often works like a mirror - we look at vampires, and we see things in them that resonate with our own lives and concerns...
Most of the paranormal romance books I read, both vampire and werewolf, tend to have a couple of themes: controlling the beast, redefining what is the "right" thing to do, and taking responsibility.
(I'm not talking Twilight here. I can't read those novels. Vampires do not sparkle. Calling a frog a horse does not mean that horses will develop webbed hooves. Punkt)
What I see with the rise in vampire and werewolf literature is our society battling issues with conformity. I am vampire/werewolf/human. I feel that I don't fit into this society. Yet I long to be a member of this society. Something bad happens, my initial response is different than the people around me. Does that change my view of this society and do I still want to be a part of this society? If not a part of this society, what do I want to be a part of? What am I willing to sacrifice so that I may "live"?
Thoughts?
Reply
I may see things differently because I'm in a somewhat different place in life than many folk. I have the luxury of doing work where my flavors of weird are actually approved of and supported, and I have a solid collection of friends who are just as odd as I am - the result of this being that issues of identity and conformity are on the back burner for me, personally, whereas as a news junkie, I'm constantly exposed to issues of economics, class, and power, and these issues seem to be far-from-solved for me.
Different series, too, may spin this in different ways - my exposure to the paranormal romance genre is limited to the first few Anita Blake novels, so I may well be missing something.
Hrm... perhaps the supernatual actually often works like a mirror - we look at vampires, and we see things in them that resonate with our own lives and concerns...
Definitely things to ponder.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment