This is an item meant for the serious discussion of the vampire in fact and
fiction.

BTW, I recently acquired a book called -The Vampire Book: An Encyclopedia Of
the Undead. It has loads of info, including addresses for a Dark Shadows fan
club, a Forever Knight fanclub, and the Vampire: The Masquerade fan club; if
anyone wants these addresses, let me know.

22 responses total.

I am a big fan of Forever Knight, but that's about as far as my
interest in vampires extends.

You're reviving the "World of Darkness" item here? Cool!
(Don't suppose you know of a "Werewolf/Apocalypse" or "Mage" fan club?)

gee, we haven't had a new item in a long time.  Anyone care to speculate
as to why vampires are so popular these days?

You want my thesis?  :)
Vampires represent a variety of things to a variety of cultures and subculture
s.
When popularity is usually discussed, it's percolated down to one or two 
simplistic reasons, and those reasons are then used to explain the universal
popularity of vampire myths... a tack which invariably fails.  I have seen
vampires used as symbols for:
immortality and the fear of death (Forever Knight, esp. this weekend's)
bloodbourne diseases (Near Dark, Rabid -- the latter more of a werewolf flick
)
raw sexuality as socially taboo (some versions of Dracula)
human mistreatment of animals (underlying in Lost Boys, Near Dark)
subculture as cult (Lost Boys)
coming of age (My Best Friend is a Vampire)
corrupted power (Fright Night, Dracula -- the TV series)
alienation (Martin)
  
One underlying theme seems to be that something desireable (victory over death
,
raw sexuality, power, hypnotic charisma) comes at a high cost (damnation,
exile into the night, loneliness).  Some vampires wind up killing themselves
(e.g., Blacula), while most end up being killed.  In some cases, the vampire
is the hero -- they are misunderstood (The Dracula Tapes, My Best Friend is
a Vampire, Blacula, Bram Stoker's Dracula, etc. etc.).
  
The last wave of vampire films seems to have died down, although the Lost
Boys II may revitalize things.  Within the last ten years, I've seen
examples of nearly every major vampire theme, ... as to why the films
seem to come in waves, rather than a steady stream, I think the market
just gets saturated, then dries out, then gets saturated again.  The novels
*do* come in a fairly steady stream.
  
The Vampire RPG from White Wolf is popular because of the power and relative
immortality of the characters -- unlike D&D, the characters can obviously
and cohesively intermingle with "real world" settings.
  
But all of this is just my opinion, of course.

OK, nice summary, but I'm still wondering why there is such a youth-cult
of vampire admiration/imitation *right now*.

  I'd guess it's the result of the string of vampire movies brighn
mentioned.  Hollywood can make and break trends.
 
  I think one of the reasons they're such an enduring myth in horror
movies is that, since they look (are?) human, they make a more
believable monster than critters like the creature from the black
lagoon, the blob, and so on.  I mean Frankenstein just couldn't
blend in with society the way most vampires do.  I think the public
is looking for slightly more believability in horror movies (and
perhaps books?) lately; hence the relative failure of recent Friday
the 13ths and Nightmare on Elm Streets, and the relative success of
the Hand that Rocks the Cradle (unlikely plot, but nothing supernatural
about it).  It takes less of a stretch of imagination to believe
vampires could exist.  Newer vampire stories seem to dismiss the less
believable aspects of vampirism (e.g., the vampires will say "well,
x, y, and z are actually just myths"), which adds credulity to the
remaining aspects.

Good points, Ajax.  A common (and cheap) trick for adding credulity to any
work of fiction is having a character say, "It wasn't like it always in the 
movies/books, but then, this was real life..."
  
I think the trend was originally spawned (the current trend) by the blood-borne
aspect.  The trend started in the early 80s, about the same time that AIDS
was getting to be well-known.
Problem with that theory:  that would predict more GLB vampires during that
time, but most major gay vampires are outside of that time window, the most
famous being the Hunger (released several years before), Carmilla (fairly old),
and Interview with the Vampire (book predates, movie postdates).  The Lost
Boys has a definite contagion undertone, but you couldn't get much more het
if you tried, and homosexuality is used for ironic comedic purposes in 
My Best Friend is a Vampire (the main character, thank goodness, isn't gay --
he's just undead :).  So either AIDS was not identified during that time
period as a gay disease, or the obvious explanation doesn't easily work.

Huh?

Actually, I wonder if it's a natural outgrowth of the nihilistic youth
culture we've been seeing for the last 10-15 years; that can't last
indefinitely, since it's kind of antithetical to the underlying sense of
"youth", so it's now transforming from "death, destruction, everything sucks"
into" un-death, resurrection, we can transcend the suckiness of everything".
Wonder how we get from her back to flower-power in this cycle?

Some addresses for everyone: 

Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat Fan Club
PO Box 58277
New Orleans, LA 70158-8277

Bite Me in the Coffin Not In The Closet c/o
Jeff Flaster
72 Sarah Ln.
Middletown, LY 10940
<gay and lesbian vampires>

The Camarilla
8314 Greenwood Ave. N.
Box 2850
Seattle, WA 98103        <for fans of Vampire: The Masquerade>

Forever Knight Fan Club
PO Box 1108
Boston, MA 02103-1108

Geraint Wyn Davies Fan Club
4133 Glendale Rd.
Woodbridge, VA 22193

Nigel Bennett Fan Club c/o
Star Urioste
25055 Copa Del Oro, No. 104
Hayward, CA 94545-2573

Cool  (though I don't understand the need for gay & lesbian vampires...oh,
well....)

Vampires are frequently erotic.  Why *wouldn't* there be GLB vampires?

I *love* the romance and passion behind the "blood vampire" myths...but if
you want to talk in reality about vampires, you have to see me about the
"energy" or "psychic" vampires.  =)  I believe that they exist...the energy
is in the blood.  That's how myths came about.  The blood was created for the
whole romantic image.  I don't know the entire history, and I have a friend
who would wring my neck if I paraphrased wrong, so I'll stop here.  
<Man...I'm braindead today...  =(  >

We are so civilized; are we not. How could anyone even think that they are
really out for blood. After all if that were the case what kind of world  
would we live in? DANGEROUS!!

Well, Bryan, it's good to hear from you once again.  Where ya been?

Birdlady, myth and empiric reality often meet, at least at a tangent. There
*is* a blood disorder which has in the past been treated by having the 
victim drink blood- for the iron or platelets or something.  Not generally
gotten by biting, of course...

The disease is poryphria, and yes, in the past the only cure was drinking 
fresh blood. Poryphria causes the red blood cells to break down at a 
faster rate than usual, and has the side effects of sensitivity to sunlight,
reaction to garlic, and paleness.

Weird...I had never heard of that...  From what I read and what I was told,
the reason the blood myth came about was due to vampires gaining energy from
pulse points, namely the neck because of the artery.

Thanks, cyberpunk, that's the info I was looking for.  It fits, doesn't it...
Birdlady, dear, what you have read and been told is quite conjectural, and
not really provable, although you might be able to do some empirical 
explorations to see if the neck really is the best place for sensing and
drawing energy.  I don't find it so; better hands, wrists, elbows (yup, they
are nexus points of nerves and blood supply, you may have a point), chest,
solar plexus, forehead and crown- some better for drawing, some for giving.

There are what are known as 'psychic vampires'. Most of the time, the poor
unfortunates don't even knoe they're doing it. Have you ever been with 
someone whose mere presence made you feel drained? That's an example of
psychic vampirism.

Yup.  emphasis on your statement;
>Most of the time, the poor
 unfortunates don't even knoe they're doing it.<<
Doesn't mean anyone has to offer themselves to such a "bottomless pit" as a
willing victim- that's what shields are for...And if they are educable,
teach them to find their *own* energy source.  Of course, there are the 
occasional assholes who do it on purpose.  They deserve whatever defense
you want to mount against them...  But I've met remarkably few.
And it doesn't seem to require physical touch, much less a particular point
of contact.

You're right; it doesn't. Simply being in the room with them is enough.

        Personally, I like Absent Minded & COnfused Sons of Ether (Mage), and
the kiths of Nockers & the Sidhe (Changeling, which I GM.)
,

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