More on Vampire Apocalypses

A recent addition to the vampire apocalypse genre is Daybreakers (2009), set in an alternate future in which the vampires have taken over and enslaved the remnants of humanity as a food source.

Andrew's written a great little review of the film.

Its premise is slightly reminiscent of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer called "The Wish", which, in turn, echoes a plot device used in Blade (1998).

However, the blood-farming motif had already been used as far back as 1979, in Rod Hardy's Thirst.

As a general entry into the Vampire Apocalypse genre, I should also mention E. E. Knight's "Vampire Earth" series (2003- ), which chronicles humanity's subjugation by a race of extraterrestrials called Kurians, who prolong their lifespans by draining people of their "vital aura".

Fangs N' Sunlight

Theresa's written an interesting little item on standardised vampire attributes, but I do have a coupla points of contention with it.

For instance, here's what she has to see about a classic vampire attribute:

Equally as common among the vampire are descriptions of long sharp teeth and nails, but this should not be surprising in the least to anyone. Vampires are often painted as being strict carnivores, and having the dull and rounded teeth and fibrous fingernails that we humans have would be of very little use to a creature that needs to be an efficient hunter and killer.

If one reads through folklore on the subject, as well as the various reports by Austro-Hungarian authorities, one finds nary a mention of elongated canines. This caused Jean Marigny to remark the following in Vampires: The World of the Undead (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994):

The overdeveloped teeth so dear to filmmakers are reminiscent of the werewolf's fangs but are an attribute that seems to have been invented by the literature of fantasy. In general, the vampire does not bite its victims; it prefers to get blood by sucking the skin's pores. (55)

To be fair, the stories aren't generally specific about blood being sucked through the pores, but as fangs were noticeably absent, this is a seemingly logical conclusion in itself.

As to her bit about sunlight...

People also assume that vampires are susceptible to sunlight and that their flesh will combust into inextinguishable flames if they spend even a moment in it. Although this is true for a scant few species of vampires, it is hardly the case for the larger portion.

I'm not really familiar with any (folkloric/mythical) vampire that disintegrated in this manner. Vampires were mainly nocturnal beings, that is true, and the occasional Russian tale had them needing to return to their tombs before sunrise. But, this was because they'd return to "death". That is, they'd revert back to being a corpse...only to rise again at night, anyway.

The whole death-by-sunlight thing was an invention of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922). Try and find a source prior to that flick in which vampires disintegrate by sunlight. Go on! I dare ya!

Indeed, the film was even more specific about this modern-day "lore":

One can recognize the mark of the vampire by the trace of his fangs on the victim's throat. Only a woman can break his frightful spell--a woman pure in heart--who will offer her blood freely to Nosferatu and will keep the vampire by her side until after the cock has crowed.

When this lore was incorporated into other vampire stories and flicks, this portion was excised.

The vampire literature of the 19th century had no recognition of this form of vampire destruction: Varney (Varney the Vampire, 1847), Carmilla ("Carmilla," 1872) and even the Count (Dracula, 1897) are all depicted walking about in sunlight.

Navigating the Vampire

Came across an interesting little online article on vampires over at Solar Navigator.

It gives an overview of the vampire myth as well as recent examples of vampire belief.

I gotta say, it's got an impressive references list, too.

X-Rated Twilight

I should warn you that this post is gonna be dealing with some adult content! So, if you're of somewhat delicate sensibilities, I advise you to turn away!

Oh, you're still here.

Anyway, I was having a read through CRwM's "Link proliferation: John can give you cancer", which leads into a subheading he calls "My Most Blatant Bid Ever to Drive Traffic to My Blog":

Stephanie Meyer's, Twilight, the word "porn."

Those search terms alone should pretty much guarantee that this becomes my most read blog post ever.

And it got me wondering...is there Twilight porn? Y'know. Purely for curiousity's sake.

Ahem.

It didn't take long to find out. And don't worry, I didn't Google "images"!

Jenni Miller gives coverage to the "inevitable" pornographic spin-offs of Meyers' success. In particular, a flick that was released in October last year called This Isn't Twilight: The XXX Parody.

Rule 34, indeed.

Uh, that link isn't "worksafe", by the way.

You would've noticed the emphasis on "parody" appearing in my previous post. Obviously, these artistes are trying to avoid a lawsuit.

Although, one wonders what conservative Mormon housewife Meyer must be making of this stuff. If she's aware of it, of course.

Mind you, the main appeal of such flicks is the cheeky titles they use. It's no wonder that Cher Tippetts laments This Isn't Twilight's lack of originality: "Frankly, we were disappointed they didn't even attempt to come up with a vampire-themed pun for the title."

Much more effective titles have been used in other "parodies" of popular vampire franchises. A few of my favourite titles (none of which I've seen, mind you) are Muffy the Vampire Layer (1992), Intercourse with the Vampire (1994) and From Dusk 'til Porn (2004).

Twilight Backlash

In the previous post, I mentioned that the success of Meyers' books had spawned off a massive resurgence in vampire literature.

As usual, there's always a flipside to such things. A backlash, if you will.

Several parodies of Twilight have been written. They include Stephen Jenner's TwiLite: A Parody, Stephfordy Mayo's New Moan: The First Book in the Twishite Saga: A Parody and The Harvard Lampoon's Nightlight: A Parody (all 2009).

Oh, and you check out a Twilight-based tune here.

Obviously, not everyone's so keen on vampires at the moment. Hell, the good folk of Flatmancrooked have even gone out of their way to publish an anthology with the following title:


That's right. It's called, Not about Vampires: An Anthology of New Fiction Concerning Everything Else. It was edited by Deena Drewis and is due for release on the 15th.

If the bloke on the front cover looks familiar, then you'd be right. It's David Duchovny.

Why'd they choose a rendering of him for the cover? Here's what the book's publishers have to say:

On this season of Californication, Hank Moody decried the Twilight series, and in so doing nearly drove one of his students to suicide. Though we don’t want Stephenie Meyer to die, or anyone else for that matter, we’d like to combat the recent spate of popular vampire fiction, some of which is parading itself as literature. Therefore, Flatmancrooked presents Not About Vampires: An Anthology of New Fiction Concerning Everything Else, with cover graphics by the white hot Kevin Best depicting Professor Moody dispatching some teen bloodsuckers.

Trekking Through the Amazon

The success of Meyers' Twilight series has seen a veritable boom of books written on vampires.

Here's some more items of personal interest that have turned up in my Amazon browsings:

Title: Creatures of the Night: In Search of Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves and Demons
Author: Gregory L. Reece
Release Date: October 30, 2010
What's the Appeal? Going by the book's description, it seems to be taking an occultist tack featured in works like Tom Slemen's Vampires (2007) and Brad Steiger's Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Dark Side (2009). Sure, they're generally not all that scholarly, but for a different approach, they're not without interest.

Title: A Brief History of Vampires
Author: M. J. Trow
Release Date: July 29, 2010
What's the Appeal? Trow is the author of Vlad the Impaler: In Search of the Real Dracula (2003). This is dubious in itself, as the connection between Vlad and vampires his highly contentious. However, reviews of that work complain of his attention to the undead, so maybe devoting this entire book to the subject will give him a enough legroom to explore it properly.

Title: Vampires: From Dracula to Twilight - The Complete Guide to Vampire Mythology
Author: Charlotte Montague
Release Date: March 4, 2010
What's the Appeal? Ok, I admit it. I'm sucked in by the title. That said, I'm not expecting it to be much more than a standard wade through the same old stuff. The author has an MA degree for History though, so it might rise slightly above the usual drivel.

Title: The Real Twilight: True Stories of Modern Day Vampires
Author: Arlene Russo
Release Date: March 1, 2010
What's the Appeal? This one's a bit shaky. You see, I didn't think much of her previous work on the subject, Vampire Nation (2005), but for an insight into the modern day concept of the vampire, there might be something going for it.

Title: The Legend & Culture of the Vampire
Author: Peter Henshaw
Release Date: February 28, 2010
What's the Appeal? The title on the book cover reads The Legend & Romance of the Vampire, which is much more indicative of its contents. So, I'm expecting a usual run-through of why the vampire is so appealing to readers. Well, it's gotta be better than Corvis Nocturnum's abysmal Allure of the Vampire: Our Sexual Attraction to the Undead (2009), at least, from what I've read of it thus far.

Title and Cover Variations

When vampire books are translated into other languages, their covers and titles can vary quite drastically.

Here's an example I came across on eBay:

It is a retitled Spanish edition, called Los vampiros aun existen ("Vampires Still Do Exist"), of a popular American work on the subject. See if you can guess which one.

Give up?

Look no further than Konstantinos' Vampires: The Occult Truth (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1996):


This process sometimes occurs even in English language works for British and American markets. For instance, Gabriel Ronay's The Dracula Myth (1972) is more commonly known by its American retitling, The Truth about Dracula (1972) and Christopher Frayling's The Vampyre: Lord Ruthven to Count Dracula (1978) was published in the US as Vampyre: A Bedside Companion (1978).