Vampire genre has immortal appeal
By Melissa Martin
April 22, 2010 10:08 p.m.
It seems as if vampires have devoured virtually every corner of the entertainment world, including this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. We have suddenly found ourselves in a society of “True Blood” lovers, “Twilight” fans and Edward Cullen addicts.
From books to movies to TV, vampires have even found themselves a place at this weekend’s Festival of Books with the “Blood, Fangs, and Temptation: Everything Vampire” discussion on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Young Adult Stage, a new feature for the event.
In wake of the “Twilight” saga explosion, the timeless vampire theme has been revamped in fictional literature.
“It happens about every 10 years or so,” said Rachel Caine, a fiction author who penned the “Morganville Vampires” series and who will be on stage. “A book will come along that again revitalizes the vampire genre. “˜Twilight’ has done the same thing.”
Since the publishing of “Dracula” at the end of the 19th century, a slew of vampire tales, such as “Salem’s Lot,” “Interview with the Vampire” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” have attained phenomenal popularity.
Each wave of vampire-mania brought a slightly different take on the blood-sucking immortals. Today, the heroic heartthrob has taken hold.
“Now it’s like the hot vampire boyfriend is kind of the trend,” said Melissa de la Cruz, who will also be on stage and who wrote the “Blue Bloods” novel series. “When Anne Rice wrote (“Interview with the Vampire”), he really was a monster. He was totally amoral and cruel. Edward is gorgeous, kind and just happens to be undead. Now the vampires are very good-looking.”
“Twilight” also took the vampire novel and blended in what Caine called a timeless love story, such as “Romeo and Juliet.”
The prospect of a passionate love unattainable took hold in a largely young female demographic.
“The current (trend) is the vampire (as) the romantic hero,” said Richelle Mead, the New York Times bestselling author of the “Vampire Academy” series, who join will the authors on Saturday. “I think what makes that so appealing is that it creates the ultimate forbidden romance. Vampires make this really dangerous romantic figure that can really spice up a love story.”
As the “Harry Potter” series drew to a close in 2007, “Twilight” rapidly attained extraordinary success, blazing the trail for vampire literature to again rise in popularity. Mead, who published her first young adult vampire book in August 2007, saw a substantial sales spike at the time.
Readership of these young adult novels has also extended to a broader age range in the past few years because of the highly commercial and universal appeal of romance and horror.
“They’re a fascinating way to look at humanity without actually talking about regular human beings in regular life,” Caine said. “Vampires typically are part of that regular life, but then outside of it as well.”
