Comments on: How TrueBlood Drew Blood (Vampires and Why We Love Them)

By: Zbigniew Lukasiak

Zbigniew Lukasiak — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:16:59 +0000

How about a political interpretation? Vapires are a perfect metaphore for a parasitic elite (if you believe the elites are parasitic). This explains both the abhorrence and the fascination.

By: srp

srp — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:28:47 +0000

It’s interesting that Grant’s post looks at the mass-culture eruption of vampiric stuff in the media and an early adopter of a vampiric/goth style but leaves out the tremendously vital vampire literature that surged along all through the 1970s and 1980s, often found in the horror section of the bookstore. For example, Ray Garton’s Live Girls and Lot Lizards are very far from the romance-novel teen-girl sensibility now rampant (and equally far from the Southern-fried gothic Anne Rice/True Blood world), but they were pretty influential among hard-core vampire-lit enthusiasts. The sex-and-horror world even sustained a number of short-story anthologies during the 1980s and 1990s that specialized in intense, disturbingly sexual tales.

In my opinion, the key appeal of these stories is the fantasy of losing control and giving up choice. We live in a time when everyone is expected to maintain an identity as the in-control maker of endless rational, responsible choices, and for the most part we like that. But we also like to think about release, or scare ourselves about what would happen if we did release…

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:39:08 +0000

Sorry Grant, I have to say I feel like the Celebrity link is a bit of a stretch. I believe that, plain and simple, True Blood gets a lot of its mileage from its sex appeal. However, I think it gets this mileage because it is different than the sex appeal that we are so battered with today by celebrities. Its dark and raw, and truly sensual; not plastic, scripted reality tv show romance. Also I don’t know exactly when vampires went out of vogue, perhaps somewhere between when people actually stopped fearing them and now. But is it really a surprise that Vampires disappeared when sexual freedom was at its highest? Is it that odd that a tv show based on sexuality (but put into vampire context) would not have gotten the response it has now in the sex, and rock and roll era of the 1960, 1970s and even 80′s. They had the rolling stones, david bowie etc…young adults now have the Jonas brothers (a little too Disney for some young people)

I believe a large demographic of the people that watch this show are curious, young adults, who are surprised at how much they like some real wild sex appeal. Especially after the drought of real romance and sensuality in today’s celebrity dating, reality show romance, Heidi and Spencer massacre that is sensualtiy and sexuality for young people.

By: Jorgen

Jorgen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:21:42 +0000

I don’t think the vampire as a character is like a celebrity, but rather the mystery surrounding a celebrity is similar to the mystery surrounding the myth of vampire stories. Of course we know vampires don’t exist and live like in the movies, but are we really sure? As do celebrities. They’re not really that gorgeous and heroic all the time are they? But are we really sure? I think it is the mix between what you call experiential transmedia and real transmedia that might be part of the success. The story itself doesn’t really stop when you turn of your TV or your computer. Instead the story continues in reality, in comics, and everywhere around.

It might also be a very American thing. TrueBlood is yet to be broadcast over here in the Netherlands and I can’t really say that the Vampire genre has entered contemporary culture….yet…

By: Guy Gould-Davies

Guy Gould-Davies — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:49:14 +0000

I wonder if we exist in a time of such great flux and uncertainty that there is a draw towards ideas that by their very nature can only exist outside the context of our rules and thus don’t contribute to the conflict? For sure, there are rules to be a vampire…to be immortal, to be sustained by blood alone, for example. I think it is easier for people to submit to these constructs as they do not violate our world because they are never able to fit it. I am further speculating here, but I wonder if the experience or act of submission takes on a deeper personal significance and value precisely because it occurs in a time of unease, threat and unpredictability.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:32:53 +0000

Kayt / Irene your on to something. The “otherness” , the “reverse world” , the senuality of ” alternative darkness” in a time of ” real darkness”. They are all discussions points I have heard from people ( admittedly mostly women ) of the semingly most unlikley type who have the modern twist on the vampire saga so appealing. Not simple escapism. It’s too complicated and to powerful for just that. I live in Japan and play the game professionaly of trying to interpret trends in Asia. While so many ex-pat Western women I meet are vampire junkies it’s interesting that there has not been a similar trend among their Asian friends.

By: Irene

Irene — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:14:53 +0000

Are TV vampires related to TV guardian angels (and guardian angels who have guardian angels)? Are they the flip-side of angels?

By: kayt

kayt — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:03:13 +0000

I’m a sensible 42-year-old and I’m loving the wave of teen-vamp-romance. It’s super-cheesy easy-reading, (and viewing in the case of TrueBlood) and I like it for that. But there’s other easy reading around that I don’t find time for. (Sorry too busy with politics and finance reading). I often ponder why I’m having such fun reading about vampires. The first answer was that they are clear metaphors for ‘the other’ and that this is a nice way to look at prejudice. Important work given the global political climate and we still have living memory of the women’s, black and gay rights movements to process and draw learning from. But this has been said before. My latest theory though is that these vampire books force us to contemplate our humanity with tenderness and humility. Like most people I’ve spent most of my life exhaustedly trying to be a super-mum, super-employee, super-slim, forever-young-looking super person. I haven’t succeeded on every front of this battle mainly because I am human, not vampire. I wonder if these books are all about reawakening a sense of appreciation for our humanity with all its ageing, frailty and imperfection.