Vampires

When I think about vampires portrayed in modern fiction I am given a multitude of options to choose from. Do I want sparkling, broody teens trapped in a forever chaste high school romance? (the answer is no by the way), do i want true bloods hyper sexual, red and black clad muscle boys with a taste for fairy blood? (honestly sometime yes). Or maybe the dark, creepy, victorian era egyptian style nosferatue looking vampires of penny dreadful? (hell yes). My point being that modern fiction both in literature and film/television has given us a wide variety of vampiric characters each given their own mythology, rules, aesthetic etc. But I think one of my favorite is still the characters found in Ann Rice's universe in Interview with a Vampire. 

Rice's characters are essentially the prototypes for which many vampire characters of modern fiction will be based on. They have lived, stuck in time, on the fringes of society, hidden in the shadows and blending into the night around them. The thing I enjoyed most about Interview was the way Ann Rice treats her characters and their relationships with one another. They are anything but one dimensional and given the fact that vampires usually live hundreds of years, she gives their relationships nuance by describing the way they change throughout the different decades and eras. Claudia in particular was an interesting character to me- stuck in a childs body while her mind and tastes mature, Rice does not glamorize the lives these creatures lead but rather describes how many of them have to deal with their own issues in their own ways.

It seems that in many pieces of vampire fiction the main good character (if there is one) is more often that not tortured by their state of existence. In Interview with a Vampire  Louis is often tortured by the fact that he must survive of the blood of others and hates killing, many times surviving off of animals. In Twilight  Edward too is tortured by his vampiric nature and won't have sex with his girlfriend for 4 books (sorry I just really dislike those books). In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy's first and only love is Angel- a vampire cursed with a soul.

Conversely there is often a vampire in these books who fully embraces their nature and sees themselves as a higher form of being, above mortals and almost god like. While the vampire story may be a bit played out in many ways, it does make those creating vampires stories put new and inventive twists on them, or go back to the classics.

Something interesting about the relationships in Interview as well as many of the other vampires stories is the fluid sexuality given to many of the vampiric characters. While it is sometimes implied rather than boldly stated, there is definitely some sexual tension between Louis and Lestat and indeed many of the characters in other vampire fiction are at least shown to be no stranger to same sex relationships.

What I think is so great about vampires in fiction is the way they can be described as these genteel, all knowing creatures evolved past social standards, and also as base, monsterous creatures who feast on blood. This to me is what makes both vampire fiction and the relationships within so interesting and fun.