Remember the times when vampires meant danger? Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, the terrific Nosferatu of 1922? However, most of the kids these days (and not even kids) hearing word ‘vampire’ think about none other than ‘OMG EDWARD’ (separate article about him coming later). Vampires have become an object of desire and popularity, and popularity sucks.
The truthful statistics
One post wouldn’t be enough to express my hatred for Twilight. Stephenie Meyer not only managed to ruin once feared name of vampires, but also (as this statistic shows), murder an entire literary genre.
Vampires in other popular literature I liked:
Harry Potter: J.K. Rowling's one and only vampire in person (read also: Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart) appeared in sixth book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - even his name, Sanguini, had a meaning (as most of them did, actually) - Sanguis in Latin means 'blood', as some of you may very well know - and in those three lines Rowling managed to describe a better vampire than Meyer in more than four books (the so-called Twilight saga, "Midnight Sun" (same Twilight from Eddiekins point of view), "The Short second life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse novella", etc) (yes there are way more).
Salem’s Lot: Stephen King’s novel about vampires. Vampires we are used to (were used to) hearing about; they do suck blood (human’s blood for that matter), can come to people’s houses only when invited and the most important, are scary (something Meyer forgot about vamps). No sign of sparkling detected, too.
True Blood: according to the author, Charlaine Harris, when human is transformed into vampire, he/she doesn’t become pretty (or sparkly; I could go on and on), but they have the ability to glamour they victims into believing they haven’t done anything to them and forget they have met the vampire (top that, Meyer). Three seasons of TV series based on the books were already released. True Blood may not be best piece of literature ever, but the story is well-thought, makes sense and vampires behave like vampires, not overgrown fairies.
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