Vampires in pop culture... I don't know when the trend started, but I would have to guess it would be centered around Dracula by Bram Stoker. What gets me (and why I'm writing this) is becuase Stoker had a working relationship with Oscar Wilde. Right around the time Wilde was imprisoned for "homosexual" acts, (I think Stoker put all of his bottled up emotion together) and came up with the famous novel "Dracula". If this is/was indeed the case, then wouldn't vampires represent the LGBT community? I may have been reading too much of Anne Rice's "Interview With The Vampire" Series, but it kind of makes sense to me. In stories, people fear vampires at the same time vampires hide from people. This certainly contradicts the romantic aspect of "Twilight", but then again the vampire "Edward" did kind of resemble the ambiguous James Dean. In "Rebel Without A Cause" Dean was the new kid in town, In "Twilight", the opposite gender was instead (Bella...Bella Lugosi refrence?) I wonder what people would have thought if Sal Mineo was Jacob... As a bisexual teenager rambling, I hope I haven't offended anyone but at the same time I wanted to express this thought to the LGBT community. How do you guys feel about this? After all, part of Vampire lore is camp (at least to me it is, look at Vampira)
I think you overestimate the thought put into Twilight. I'm pretty sure she used "Bella" because it means "beautiful" in Italian, which is foreign enough to use it as a name. Especially when combined with her last name, "Swan", she is the quintessential Mary Sue. :/ With that said, I like vampires. I never really cared until playing the Dawnguard expansion of Skyrim, where you get to join the vampire faction. The idea of a vampire's (un)life being all darkness while the rest of the people sleep is appealing. It's almost like another world entirely, when you consider that a walk outside will mean all is quiet except for the animals. And with supernatural powers thrown into the mix, it makes for a very appealing concept. I sort of want to write a story about a teenager who gets turned into a vampire and discovers what it's all about, but no matter how well I think it turns out, I don't think I could escape the wake of the Twilight juggernaut XD. It would come off as totally disposable fanfic. I wish there were a way to make YA vamp stories respectable.
Search around a little bit you'll find a fair number of scholarly articles that talk about the connections between vampires and homosexuality. Your ramblings hit on a pretty solid literary trope.
Okay, The entire Vampire culture has evolved from the dark underpinnings of society that Stoker was writing about in his great work into its own culture outright. As for the different types, well let's just say you've got your classics, like Stoker and Rice, then you have your campire.... (Like what I did there, made a portmanteau of camp and vampire.
Somebody else who knows that word! (!) +20 cool points. I can't really see how Dracula could be connected to homosexuality though, seeing as he was very focused on the ladies. Unless by sucking their blood, he robs them of their power over him, because he doesn't fall for their seductive influences. :S
As a traditionalist in the vampire fan-base, I just have to point out that the creatures in Twilight are merely fey creatures of a vampiric nature, not actual vampires. Vampires, in the original sense, tend to look like this: I wish that gay people had powers like Vampires, I would love to be able to hypnotize people, "You want to go to Starbucks and get me coffee."
this sounds like the introduction to a literary analysis english class. let me pull up a chair, some tea, and learn something new
