Supernatural beings (zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc.)

[darthkiwi]

I don't necessarily see what (if anything) is wrong with being a fashionable young lady conquest of someone with a castle, even if it turns you into an undead monster. Clearly this is just Christians going crazy as usual.

I agree, but I think most of Polidori's vampire victims just died.

Cray: Oooh, interesting! That makes a lot of sense!

There's also a school of thought that says Dracula represents fear of *bisexuality*, because Stoker had a dream (which became a scene in the book) where he was fawned over by the three female vampires, and then a powerful nobleman came in (he would become Dracula) and said "This man is mine!" and shooed them away. Some people think this was Stoker's unconscious homo/bisexuality manifesting itself. Make of that what you will.

I also like the idea of immortality having a price that's not worth paying. What I like best about "Interview with a Vampire" is that

Spoiler (mouse over to reveal):

the elder vampire, who was in his element in the 19th century,  becomes a confused, out-of-touch maniac by the end of the film. I thought it was a good way of exploring the way that life can pass you by - and who would it pass by more radically than a vampire?

[Deloria]

I suppose that assumes that people evolve mentally based on how many years they've been alive and not how young/old their body feels.

[darthkiwi]

I guess so. It would be interesting to have a vampire story from the perspective of a perpetually young vampire, in both mind and body, who constantly wants new experiences. There's a dynasty in Vampire: the Masquerade like this, who see themselves as connoisseurs of life, art and experience. Their lives, which are comprised of wandering through successive epochs and cultures, are a bit like a wine taster's, working his or her way along a table of vintages.

I do think there's an appeal to this idea of things being lost, though. It's not just that a vampire will be overwhelmed by the appearance of electric lights, petrol engines and the internet - it's also that they'll remember the horse-drawn carriages of their youth, or the silver-topped cane that their sire poked them with to wake them up after their metamorphosis, and wish those things still existed within the same world-structure.

[Blackthorne]

"Excuse me?"


Bt

[crayauchtin]

I was just reading about one vampire mythos (and now I can't remember which) where vampires don't mature as years go by -- like, they can learn but apparently there's one character who is like a 600 year old vampire but was turned when she was like five or six and even though she's devious and manipulative and thoroughly evil and powerful, she carries around a teddy bear as a security blanket.

Darth, the bisexuality thing is just an extension of the fear of sex. Bisexuality, especially at that time, was viewed as being so lustful and so free with your body that it didn't matter who you had sex with. It's because of this, vampires are generally bisexual (even in modern day vampire mythologies). Partially, I think the idea is that if you live forever and you have no hope of reproducing children, like wouldn't you at least experiment?

Deloria... if you don't like the sun, I guess there's not really much of a downside.

[Blackthorne]

My guess is that if you lived forever, you'd lose interest in sex pretty quickly.

Bt

[KatieHal]

It makes sense that vampires would both get experimental and also get bored with things like sex. If I were gonna live forever, if I had all that time, I imagine I'd go through all kinds of phases and interests. I'd also probably actually finally learn some other languages and some instruments too. Why not! What the hell else am I gonna do?