Tired of Vampires?

Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Gunngirl, Nov 21, 2012.

Tags:
  1. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2007
    Messages:
    10,704
    Likes Received:
    3,425
    Location:
    Northeast England
    And again, that's clearly not what I meant or wrote. I don't see how you can misinterpret the words: 'If you are not really interested then stop complaining. Find something you are interested in, and do like, and enjoy that instead of jumping on bandwagons and spewing the same mindless drivel you can hear from any hipster in any Starbucks on any day of the week'.

    There is more to vampires than just the Twilight vampires. I don't know how you could be unaware of the other types, like the more creeping Nosferatu, or the cold yet sophisticated Dracula. If your entire knowledge of monsters comes from the latest fads and emo kids then I can't say you don't deserve to be annoyed by it.
     
  2. Abdoudjamm

    Abdoudjamm New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2012
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    well !! I guess its Not Impossible ! But It will take U a lot of Time to write something Uare not sure about it ..to come Up with a new story based On te same Original Story wont Be that easy .. I mean choosing the right stage .. the appropriate charecters .. an exciting scens etc and Join them together is kind of an impossible mission to do ! BUt There is always a chance ! My Obvious Opinion is **try it cause Nobody can judge it Before its even be done .. and if didnt Work . just try with an whole other Story from Your Own ** My best wishes !! Best Of Luck !;)
     
  3. prettyprettyprettygood

    prettyprettyprettygood Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2011
    Messages:
    450
    Likes Received:
    43
    Location:
    Edinburgh
    I suppose the downside of what you're proposing, if you wish to publish, is that lovey-dovey vampires have been 'in' for a good while now, and clearly a backlash is well underway so by the time your story is written and ready for querying it may look out of date.

    That said, if you're as motivated as you sound I don't think you have much choice except to write it, and if it's your genuine passion that will hopefully shine through.

    As for my own views on vampires, I love vampire stories but I think they should be bloody terrifying and almost single-mindedly destructive creatures; I'm currently enjoying reading The Passage by Justin Cronin, and I'm not ashamed to say that King's Salem's Lot is one of my favourite books, if not my very favourite. I'm not sure I'll ever bother reading the Twilight books though, I've seen parts of the films and they just aren't for me, although I can understand the appeal.
     
  4. Soodanim

    Soodanim New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2012
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Melbourne
    And I think you're being disingenuous. Try Googling that.
     
  5. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2007
    Messages:
    10,704
    Likes Received:
    3,425
    Location:
    Northeast England
    How was I being disingenuous? Or can you not take criticism?
     
  6. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2012
    Messages:
    5,160
    Likes Received:
    4,243
    Location:
    Australia
    You go to starbucks? Have some dignity! :p
     
  7. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2007
    Messages:
    10,704
    Likes Received:
    3,425
    Location:
    Northeast England
    Haha. I know, but it's like an addiction - or is an addiction. Sometimes I just ca ... be right back *runs out to buy a Starbucks coffee*. :p
     
  8. Griplan

    Griplan New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 5, 2011
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    Vampires that hate being vampires, yes. Vampires who are basically serial killers, no.
     
  9. Man in the Box

    Man in the Box Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2011
    Messages:
    254
    Likes Received:
    41
    Location:
    Brazil
    Twilight gets a lot of hate because it is to vampires what Nickelback is to rock music. Not really a good comparison but I think it illustrates it nicely.

    A few months ago I picked the Twilight collection from a relative to read. I'm not even halfway through the first book and I'm thinking about returning it. It's one of those books you just can't get into, it's written in such a simple way that it lacks mystique, you mindlessly move through the pages as if it was an automatic thing. Not to mention most of it is dialogue. If you want easy word counts and page numbers, write dialogue, even if it's pointless. Also, Bella is whiny and Edward is a creep. I'm even starting to admire Robert Pattinson, because he was given so little to work with yet he managed to do wonders with it.

    On the other hand, I strongly disagree with those who say a vampire is only suitable as a mindless killer. A vampire was originally human. Therefore, it will have some form of human emotions left in him. This is the case with every creature with a degree of human intelligence (vampires, werewolves, elves, dwarves, pixies, you name it). Sure, you can turn a vampire into some sort of beast driven only by bloodthirst. But then it becomes all too similar to the character of the zombie.

    The problems faced by a vampire writer aren't that big. The vampire is a myth you can play around with. If you were writing elves, you'd face a much bigger problem, because there was a writer before all of us (Tolkien) who took elves directly from the original source (myths) and, even if you try to base your writing on existing myths, it'll always sound like a Tolkien rip-off, and unfairly because, well, Tolkien ripped off myths as well... Everything about elves in modern media (novels, videogames, card games like Magic the Gathering) has a common denominator in Tolkien.

    Back to vampires, Bram Stoker started it all, but the Anne Rice archetype is the one that still dominates modern art, although every copy of the Anne Rice vampires sounds less interesting than the original because Anne Rice's characters belong to a very interesting setting, while modern vampires are directed to teenagers (Vampire Diaries, True Blood, etc.). Although I've always been fascinated by Lestat, so my judgment is a little biased... :D
     
  10. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2007
    Messages:
    10,704
    Likes Received:
    3,425
    Location:
    Northeast England
    That's all true, and at the same time, despite how lazy and off, morally, Twilight is, I honestly think Twilight is much better than Harry Potter. And yet, like Nickleback really, it's 'cool' to hate Twilight. Not cool to hate Harry Potter though, which is at times ... pure evil. I'm not saying I like Nickleback, I have a natural aversion to really stupid lyrics, but I can have them on in the background while I'm doing something else. I can think of a few bands with worse skills at musical production, and worse musical sensibilities; so for what it's worth Nickleback are not the worst band I've ever heard, but they are close. I guess what I'm saying is I can listen to Nickleback without feeling sick.

    For some reason I really hate Anne Rice's work. I don't know why, but I've really tried to read her and I just do not see what the hype is about. But saying that, I really like the creeping and ugly Nosferatu of Salam's Lot, even over the aristocratic coldness of Dracula. Though, Bram Stoker didn't start it all, technically that was Samuel Coleridge, and what is clearly a vampire appears in John Keats' poetry.

    Also, the elves of myths were more like faeries. It was a Germanic thing similar to the Celtic faeries that W.B Yeats seemed to like banging on about. They were little buggers who hid in your garden being annoying. The Pentagram was a symbol used to keep away evil elves. If you use the original elves in a fantasy work you would be further away from Tolkien (and thus, doing what fantasy should be doing) than most other fantasy writers have been in the last 50 years. The whole tall, pointy ears, mystical elves who live in something of a utopia like Rivendell was completely Tolkien's own invention, having nothing at all to do with the original German myths. If you don't believe me check out Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

    Am I the only one who is slightly depressed now that we have a standard fantasy setting with standard fantasy creatures. Isn't that not the point of fantasy.
     
  11. Man in the Box

    Man in the Box Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2011
    Messages:
    254
    Likes Received:
    41
    Location:
    Brazil
    The "coolness" of hate is one of the bad things about the internet. I believe it has peaked with Eragon's hate sites. Now I haven't read Eragon, but to me, making your mission in life to show people Paolini can't write crap is a poor pastime. The internet made everyone a critic, but it hasn't granted everyone the sensibility of good criticism.

    I won't dispute the rest because you seem more knowledgeable than me.

    Not sure why people feel less guilty about ripping off Tolkien than they would if they ripped off someone else. It's true that Tolkien's art had such an impact that he basically created a sort of modern mythology. A lot of people start writing elves with an idea that they think is "public domain" when in fact it started with Tolkien.
     
  12. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2007
    Messages:
    10,704
    Likes Received:
    3,425
    Location:
    Northeast England
    It is a real shame that we do have, and it might be because of the internet, a lot of people who are such hacks when it comes to criticism. I always like the first two couplets of Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism:

    Only Pope could make that point so well.

    With Tolkien though, I guess it's because the world he gave us was just so rich in color and detail. And since there is so much to Middle Earth, and so little in the way of work that he left behind, that there has got to be something of 'What could Tolkien have done if he had more time to write?' behind things like Eragon and Dungeons and Dragons. With Eragon, I've read the first book, I didn't like it, and never went back to the series. I can see why it get's all the stick but, honestly, it's just not something I'm really too bothered about.
     
  13. Dagolas

    Dagolas Banned

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2012
    Messages:
    642
    Likes Received:
    68
    Location:
    France
    One could say that Tolkien created a modern mythology. It's true, if you asked most people what an elf is, they would say a tall, fair and noble being with pointed ears. And of course, pure and kind. They would also say that Dwarves are short beings that live in mines and hate Elves, and they are also excellent blacksmiths.
    Before Tolkien, Elves were short mischievous little buggers, and Dwarves were... short humans.
     
  14. Soodanim

    Soodanim New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2012
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Melbourne
    Eh, like everything he wrote, Tolkien just co-opted real-world myths and legends. Dwarves weren't just short humans. They have a steep folkloric tradition dating back hundreds of years in Norse and Germanic culture. Much like vampires, the legends have evolved through fiction and superstition. In a hundred years time, everyone will think vampires are made of diamonds.
     
  15. BlackBird

    BlackBird New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2012
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Actually no. Go to any celtic country and you'd probably still get some of the old timers giving you the proper belief of elves, as in they are short tiny fairy like creatures. As Soodanim said dwarves are Norse and Germanic folklore. Tolkien was a very smart man in that he merely took what people believed - legends and myths - and made it more likeable / believable with which to relate to his audience at the given time. If he had written about aliens and outer space in at the time of The Hobbit (1937) he probably would have been deemed a nut.

    However, just because the average brit, american, canadian, etc believes everything they read at face value doesn't mean people who travel and/or research, explore, etc are just as naive.


    I bet in a few years Bram Stoker's Dracula will be replaced with Twilight's Edward, the dashing fairy lad who doesn't burn in sunlight but sparkles like a diamond if you question people about vampires.


    As for the comments of Anne Rice's vampire work, most people don't like it because she approaches a slightly more dark ideal on the human mind than other vampire works. Stoker had heros and villians and as such easy to understand. Salam's Lot - I always felt S. King wrote for children instead of adults, despite the genre due to the basic writing style used, personally but then I was reading Herman Melville and Charles Dickens by the time I was 11 years old. Rice on the other hand had you rooting for one character during one chapter and the next chapter it was someone else - confusing for most people, disjointed, but a very good read if you can tune your mind to her work. I prefer Lestat to most vampires as he is what a traditional vampire would be, selfish and vain.


    As for is the vampire genre overused. Yes. Twilight wreaked it simply put because people will be expecting the lovey dovey garbage that is no where near what a vampire should be. Vampires are always supposed to be parasitic, creatures to hate and fear going against nature. Some cultures even say they are demons.

    So yeah, vampires are overused and for the next few years probably a wreaked genre.
     
  16. Sved

    Sved New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2013
    Messages:
    108
    Likes Received:
    3
    Location:
    Norway
    I like vampires and I would love to see more material that expands the "mythology." I think the market for love stories between vampires and mortals is saturated at the moment :)
     

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice