Fountain of Knowledge

I loved the Blade movies - but more for the action than the vampire aspect. The third one though...BAD. I'm not a fan of Anne Rice, though She's got this habit that right around the middle of her books, they draaaag...I thought interview with a vampire was one of the few books I've ever read that was better as a movie. (didn't think the same of Queen of the Damned. Talk about ruining Lestat).

ANYWAY...I was a fan of the angsty teenage vampire before Twighlight was a twinkle in twighlight lady's eye. Buffy, Vampire Diaries (the first time they were printed, and anything else by LJ Smith), all that. I think two aspects draw me into the genre. In the movies - I love the action (think the Underworld movies). But that's becasue I'm a fan of high action. I can ignore a lot of screaming plot holes if the fight scenes are good enough...the first time around at least.

And second, I think one thing done well in the earlier 'sexy' vampire stories (yes, Anne Rice, but Brahm Stoker even before that), is the intimacy involved in feeding. If that's written well, vampires can have a lot of sex appeal (for some very sick and twisted reasons that usually qualify as fetish in erotica, but I guess they don't have to be called that in tamer fiction, because they're more subtle). But still...

One thing I've never been able to relate to, though...the whiny angsty little girls in vampire stories who want to be 'turned'.

Oh...and what does everyone think about the whole 'soul' thing? Do vampires have them? Is it a stupid bit of legend that's overdone? Not examined often enough? And how does that tie in with the guilt of taking human lives in order to survive?