Vampire Craze: Why Are Corpses Compelling?

Nowadays, it’s hard to throw a stick in a bookstore (not that any respectable book aficionado would do such a thing) and not hit something fang related.  Or to be more precise in regards to current popular fiction, it’s not often you come across a girl running through the woods who isn’t either A.) Running desperately from a bloodthirsty vampire, B.) About to run into a mysterious and attractive stranger who, lo and behold, will later be revealed as a vampire, or C.) Some combination of the previous two scenarios.

How many vampire books will you find when you raid your shelves?

Most of you know what I’m talking about, for whether it be your daughter, mother, sister, or girlfriend, you’ve probably noticed how many of the women in your life have an entire shelf of the bookcase crammed full with sinister tales of blood, death, angst, and gore—all baggage that inevitably comes with any vampire tale.  These are not typically dishes suited to the female pallet, but we all seem to become very forgiving and indulgent when vampires are involved.  And with hundreds of books catering to the craving, it’s no wonder our shelves are full.

At my first mention of vampires, I’m sure you had a fixed notion in your own mind’s eye of these undead creatures.  For me, when I think of vampires, some impossible ideal starts to solidify in the shadows of my mind—I’d have to argue this figure is of course tall, dark, and handsome (these are, after all, the basic building blocks of any undead creature worth his weight in blood), but beyond this integral foundation, there is a split into two different types.   You have, what I like to call, the brooding and tortured-brow variety and the take no prisoners, hell-raiser types.

To reference The Twilight Saga, vampire Edward Cullen would obviously fall in with the self-loathing variety (he quickly high-tails it out of town to protect the love of his life from the apparent “horrors” of his vampire life, even though as far as Twilight and Edward Cullen are concerned, the torment-scale is pretty tame.  Yes, his brother had just tried to eat his girlfriend, but it’s not like he succeeded, it was clearly all just a misunderstanding.  After all, the Cullen crowd is a gang of “vegetarian” vamps, feeding on the local wildlife instead of the town inhabitants).  True Blood’s Bill Compton, who attempts to mainstream and live with humans, is another vampire tormented by his blood-soaked past.  Like all the broody types, Edward and Bill struggle under the weight of their immortality, good looks, and superior senses and abilities as they walk a fine line between dismal self-pity and tentative hope for redemption.  All the tortured-brow type wants is ample forgiveness and an opportunity to make amends.

That would make Twilight’s James, Victoria, and basically the whole Volturi lot the out of control, self-indulgent types, who despite their more red-meat diet, still manage to capture our fancy.  To reference another True Blood vamp, Eric Northman is another vampire that can unquestionably be dropped in the hell-raiser camp.  These vamps take life indiscriminately and have egos with sizes that correspond directly to the number of centuries they’ve been prowling the earth.  They are often unfair and cruel and unlike broody vamps, they have no need for anyone’s forgiveness.  The hell-raiser variety knows no restraint, and lives life with unwavering conviction—doubts and insecurities are foreign in the face of supreme self-confidence.

Vampires inflame dreaded bad boy syndrome.

After drawing these distinct lines, I’m left wondering, what’s the deal with vampire love fest?  I mean, when you cut right down to it, these stories are about a bunch of dead guys who always look sickly, most of whom harbor serious prejudices against humans as overemotional livestock.  It’s perplexing and I don’t pretend to understand what it’s all about, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say this all connects back to the dreaded, timeless bad boy syndrome.  It’s that pesky need to reform those poor misguided souls.  You’ve all seen it before: “But he wants to be better, I just know it.  With my devotion and faith, he will be a better man.”  In real life, better advice would be to get out now; we all know that you can’t really change anyone’s inherent personality.  Vampire novels allow us to fulfill this impossible fantasy on an epic scale that makes the final reform all the more rewarding.

Whether they are bemoaning their fate sullenly in the corner, or wreaking all kinds of havoc, we can’t seem to put down our burning torches of love for these bad boys and girls, though I’m sure the vampire population, having a natural aversion to fire, would prefer it if we did.

Of course, being of the female persuasion, I am delivering only one side of the story, so let me know what you think.  Guys speak up—why are you drawn to the genre?  Girls, feel like I left something out?  Burning to let your side be heard?  Let me know right below!