By Alan Forsythe
Why is vampirism of all things so closely link with love and romance or barring that at least sex. But it's usually some form of destructive sex, as in somebody has to pay a price for giving into desire. The latest crop of vampire stores, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood to name a few didn't invent the whole vampirism as metaphor for sex/love. The original Vampyre featured a mysterious young man who seduced young women. Furthermore it was based somewhat on the life of Lord Byron the notorious libertine of his age.
Illicit sex became one of the themes of vampire novels, with precursors to Dracula, like Carmila setting the tone. Carmilla may sound like the B-movie plots of more recent vampire stories: lesbian seduces the beautiful young heroine but it was actually written in 1872 and was hugely successful.
Why is vampirism of all things so closely link with love and romance or barring that at least sex. But it's usually some form of destructive sex, as in somebody has to pay a price for giving into desire. The latest crop of vampire stores, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood to name a few didn't invent the whole vampirism as metaphor for sex/love. The original Vampyre featured a mysterious young man who seduced young women. Furthermore it was based somewhat on the life of Lord Byron the notorious libertine of his age.
Illicit sex became one of the themes of vampire novels, with precursors to Dracula, like Carmila setting the tone. Carmilla may sound like the B-movie plots of more recent vampire stories: lesbian seduces the beautiful young heroine but it was actually written in 1872 and was hugely successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment