195 — Darkness and Blood
Consider this a follow up from the last question…
I’m still not clear on what you consider witchcraft. If the Harry Potter movies are just fun or, even, spiritual metaphor, then do you think all the Twilight books and the current fixation on vampires is just innocent fun?
I have to argue from ignorance here (not that it would be the first time that’s happened). I haven’t read any of the Twilight books nor did I see the movie. From what I’ve heard, the books have very little violence, bad language, or sex in them. Fact is, that is one reason the movie got mediocre reviews!
I have read a lot about vampires, seen my fair share of movies from Bela Lugosi to Wesley Snipes and even done some research on the history of vampire legends. Shrinks have done a lot of work on this subject, too, and as an ex-shrink I retain some of that knowledge. All of this reading and viewing has led me to a rather firm conclusion: vampires are a different subject entirely from adolescent wizards. While Harry Potter is about light vs. darkness (and the stories actively root for the light to win), vampires are creatures of the dark who shun the light. It is hard to get past that. When the legends of vampires are so wrapped up in sexual metaphor, darkness, damnation, and rejection one wonders where the redeeming bits are.
Tons of Christian women — and a far smaller group of Christian men — have read the Twilight books and enjoyed them. They find them to be a sweet relationship story that happens to have vampires in it. I confess some difficulty accepting that but, again, I haven’t read them. The Blade movies have good vampires battling bad vampires — but when both are eternally damned rejects from heaven and humanity one wonders if there really is a side one wants to be caught rooting for.
By way of contrast, think about Tolkien’s work. There are damned creatures there, too, but they are not sympathetically treated. Golem is shown to be a tragic figure, but one ruined by his own lust and greed. Evil is plainly drawn as evil while good characters have struggles within themselves as they try to do what is right (or find the courage to do great things). Vampires become vampires — by and large — willingly through a bit of, shall we say, heavy petting. While the act is one of ecstasy, afterward the victim considers themselves, well, a victim. There is no search for right, for light, for morality among the vampires.
In a month or so Michigan will have its Renaissance Fair not far from my house. We went two years ago and enjoyed it but we found ourselves steering between what was quaint, what was fun, and what was dark. We avoided the darkness. We’ve found that to be a good idea in literature and movies, too.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I doubt I’ve seen anywhere near the darkness that you have. I can usually tell when a movie is about nothing but darkness. I have little time for movies right now anyway so I have to choose wisely. My wife has read the Twilight books and I’ve seen the movie around the house.
I’ve seen 2 1/2 of the Harry Potter movies.
I know that even Satan can masquerade as an angel of light, but how long can he keep the act up? I’d suspect it’s long enough to trap the unsuspecting, but not much longer.
August 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Like you, I have not read the Twilight books. I really don’t need to clip any corners off my Man Card.
I find I fall pretty close to where you do on the subject of vampires. It is hard to find a vampire story that is redeeming. The exceptions I’ve read have been Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula series. In those, Dracula is presented as a flawed creature, but not a damned one. He has no fear of Christian symbols, and can live quite happily off the blood of any mammal.
But those are the exception. The current trend of vampire books are very dark, very darkly sexual, and not for me. My wife and daughter have read the Twilight books, and don’t see any problem with them. I’m always leery of such things.
For many of the same reasons, I don’t read horror novels or watch horror movies. I really have no desire to wallow in that. Suspense, yes. Horror, no.
August 6th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I don’t generally like to watch or read murder mysteries. But I find Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry an absolute hoot. Same with Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace. Then again, I get a chortle out of reading about Saul and the Witch of Endor.
So, isn’t the rule of thumb something like, “Am I reading this to be entertained? Or because I would secretly like to have a little bit of my soul sucked away by it?”
August 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Okay…I have read all the books and seen the movie (which was terrible)
The story is basically of a “love” relationship between two teens…one a vampire and one not. The twist is that the boy vampires’ family have chosen not to feast on human blood, they have chosen to overcome the strong temptations therein and be “vegetarians”
They only drink the blood of wild animals. The story is one of the good vampires overcoming the evil ones (who do kill humans). It is a good story (great read) of sacrificial love, staying pure and overcoming strong, and maybe even “inborn” temptation. The moral of the story is that goodness and purity are always the best choice and will win in the end.
They are books that will draw you in. And for you men…there is lots of action and adventure!
I highly recommend them and I was very skeptical at first.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
How can you say the Vampires are damned? They are fictional characters. There are some authors that have them turning into bats. Others have them out in sunlight. Some have them doing this or that. I really have no issues with a vampire book because it is fiction. Period.
It reminds me when I saw “Interview with a Vampire” years and years ago. At the end of the movie I heard a girl behind us say “What about them turning into a bat?” Her boyfriend responded “Oh, that’s just the myths…” as if saying there really are Vampires. lol.
I don’t actually believe in vampires, Roland. I was just mentioning part of the legend of vampires; that they are damned souls, possessed of an eternal life which is only loneliness and misery. It is one of the earliest and most enduring parts of that legend.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Patrick, I know you like to avoid delving into your past as a shrink, but if I might ask a favor, would you discuss a little bit some of what you see as the psychological underpinnings of the vampire mythos?
Vampire stories move me, because they resonate with a place in my heart. I’m an orphan who was adopted late in my tweenage years by my aunt and uncle who were relatively cold parents. They never allowed me to listen to goth music (or its predecessors, since I’m 35 and was growing up in the 80s) and I never got into wearing makeup and swimming in tackle boxes, etc.
But the social isolation, the feeling that there is something different about you that pushes people away, and the feeling of hopelessness — that no matter what you do, you’re damned by things in your past — yeah, that still resonates. Not as much as it did 15 years ago… but it still resonates deeply. Probably not surprising that Meyers-Briggs says I’m an INFP, huh?
August 8th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
You might be interested in my 14 year old daughter’s assessment of Twilight (this is a speech she presented at school) http://wjcsydney.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/the-suspect-morality-of-twilight/
Thank you for sharing that. Please tell your daughter I enjoyed it.
August 8th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
And for a totally innocent vampire story, there’s Bunnicula – the story of a vampire rabbit – she sucks the juice out of carrots and other vegetables, leaving them drained and white.