Savage Garden of Stories: Vampirism at Fan Expo
Written by Rachel Rain Packota
Tuesday, 01 September 2009 14:02
Fan Expo is the sanctuary for gamers, sci-fi nerds, horror freaks, and fanboys (and girls), but it can't be “go-go-go” the whole time, and there is no better to way to break from browsing graphic novel booths, and fan film screenings, than an hour-long panel called “Vampires in Fact & Fiction.” I can't help but notice most of the audience members are female, and the entire panel before us are also women: Dr. Elizabeth Miller, Canada's Vampire Expert; Nancy Kilpatrick, author of Power of the Blood novel series; Karen Dales, author of the new Angel of Death novels; and Kelley Armstrong, writer of Bitten. What is it about vampires that draws females in droves?
I listen intently from the first row as they expound on various topics. Dr. Miller calls vampires an “archetypal energy.” They can altar and adjust to society as it changes, and as mortal beings we are drawn to the idea of a power that can become anything. Literary vampires, while based on folklore, changed consistently throughout history to accommodate the taboos and desires of their time. They represent a “concept of immortality, sense of power, sense of seductive eroticism.” These days, notes Dales, you see less of the monstrous side and a “shaping [of] the vampire into the sensual, seductive [version], sometimes taking away from the horrific aspect that here's a person who takes away the life-blood of your system.”
Of course, you cannot talk about vampires these days without talking about insanely popular novel series and movie franchise Twilight; Stephanie Meyer has created a legion of girls who prefer their men tall, dark, handsome and brooding... and with sparkly skin and fangs. The women in this room, however, have no time for “Sparkle-pires.” To them, the moody teenaged boy who is essentially castrated (he barely even kisses his love interest in the books) is an avoidance of the main draws of the vampire culture, namely sex.
“I think blood and sex are very much tied,” considers Dales. “[It’s] sex and death, the eroticism, combined with the fear and the allure of immortality,” continues Armstrong. Each of the panelists agree that most vampire-human pairings consist of the immortal male with a comparatively naive female. Granted, Dracula was written during the Victorian Era which is famous not only for the Gothic-Classical “battle of the styles,” but also for severe sexual repression, especially of women. It's not surprising that a mere century later, women today are drawn to vampires as a safe way to explore and express their desires towards the enticing, yet sometimes still forbidden, worlds of sexual liberation and power. The vampire is the ultimate in societal and sexual influence.
Although the cultural shift has allowed for outsiders to identify with the “cursed” aspect of a vampire, the result of which is the last 20 to 30 years of books which detail a sympathetic character rather than a horror, there is a general agreement in the room that “the archetypal vampire is [still] a predator.” Without a intrinsic facet of danger to the story, they ask, what is the point of having the character wear fangs at all? “My vampires are never going to be that one that you read about [who is] a sweet, romantic hero that doesn't have any bite in him,” promises Kilpatrick. The room teeters with laughter. Poor Edward Cullen. He has few fans in here.
Yet the question lingers: Why does it seem that most vampires fall into either the category of “genuine monster” or “misunderstood anti-hero?” Armstrong believes that it stems heavily on what we as a society view as an appropriate paranormal romance. Consider it as criteria for suitable suitors in a preternatural reality. “Really, it comes down to 'acceptable Alpha Males,'”, she suggests. “By making a guy a vampire or a werewolf, you can have an acceptable, powerful male. He can be as Alpha as you want him to be, and you couldn't do that if he was just a normal [human] guy. But if he's a vampire, well, then he's been around a long time, he still acts that way [dominant], and he's very powerful.... and that's how you get away with that”.
“You do see a lot of vampire males in sexual [dominance]” Dales muses, “When we see a female vampire it gives permission for the women to be Alpha in a relationship with a man. And I think we're probably going to see more books written where the woman is the vampire and the man is the mortal, because we're leading towards a time where, yes, there's equality, but we're also going to see more women empowered sexually in their own relationships, and will want to read about empowered, sexual women.”
Even with a traditional vampire male-human female pairing, the panelists seem to feel no animosity towards the Twilight saga (After all, they point out, it helps garner interest in their own books!), but Dr. Miller nails down the true downfall of a vampire too sympathetic to its audience: “What's the point of a character being a vampire at all if you've lost all the things about a vampire makes them... scary. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the old scary vampire, and I think if you romanticize them too much, then what's the point?”
For the DVD release of the Neil Jordan directed Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice famously stated, “Remember, this movie is not about vampires. It's about us.” It seems clear, however, that many vampire stories are also about women, how they view themselves and love, and what their roles are in society, culture, and relationships. Appropriately enough, as the panel itself is made up of women, there is a strong representation of creative control over their own stories and, thereby, their own destinies.
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