A new brand of Vampire has arrived -- a kinder, gentler breed. But, does anyone remember when the Vampires were the bad guys? My daughter loves Twilight. Why is that bad? Because Vampires are supposed to scare you! She won't watch Salems' Lot, but can't get enough Twilight.
.English Teacher Sharon Gerald gives a list of three Vampire novels that are actually scary. What a breath of fresh air! Salems' Lot topped her list. She writes: Stephen King's "Salem's Lot." King is the master of horror. What more do we need to say? "Salem's Lot" is, after "Dracula," the best vampire book ever. Vampires invade small-town New England, and a few Bela Lugosi fans are onto them.
.The best vampire book -- ever! Now in my experience, English teachers tend to downplay King's mastery of the modern novel. It's nice to hear somene like Gerald rave about King.
.King broke new ground with Salems' Lot. He didn't put his vampires in some distant country, long ago -- he didn't even base them on real people -- he moved the entire thing to America. What if Dracula was in America? This is important because it cuts to the heart of WHY King's novel is actually scary. We don't identify with characters in far away castles. And Vampires who go to highschool is -- ridiculous. King gives us the haunted house, the mysterous vampire and moves it all to a landscape we're familiar with. A landscape it's actually reasonable to find vampires. (Can I just ask. . . why do vampires in Twilight need to attend High School?)
.I like how Gerald wraps things up: Leornard Wolf, in his introduction to the Signet Classic "Dracula," calls the book a Christian allegory with God's warriors fighting Satan's own demon. Romanticizing of the vampire, he says, is a secularization of the tale. That thought is probably not going to stop me from catching an episode or 10 of True Blood. It's just part of how I sort out the "trash" and the "bad trash" of vampire books, as Stephen King tells us his mother did with his library books. Vampires are supposed to be dangerous, and I prefer a little moral purpose in the characters who encounter them. I'm just not sure I can ever be comfortable with a world where they've turned sweet. That said, who wants to go see New Moon?"
.Gerald also recommends Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" and Dan Simmons' "Children of the Night."
.
Twilight vampires go to high school just for appearances, They live in a house saying they are a family but they are not related, they eat animals blood and act like regular people, anytime they graduate high school they move to another city and start high school again, over and over, hundreds of countless times, because they look 17, they have to appear as children, also the "father" of the family is the guy that turned everyone into a vampire, and he is a Doctor, he helps humans in his office, I kid you not, he is a certified doctor,
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan but I did see the movies so, yeah
I totally agree with you about Salem's Lot. A truly fantastic book. This is vampires SHOULD be: downright scary! I hate all this paranormal romance rubbish that has so diluted the scare factor of the vampire.
ReplyDelete