Fountain of Knowledge

The channel "Chiller" on my satellite TV plays reruns of Dark Shadows.

Ari: I absolutely agree about the sexual overtones in Dracula. It's interesting, almost to the point of being a male version of the whole virgin/whore thing that goes on in literature. (I.e., we have Harker--virgin--and Dracula--whore, stealing the good women and all, and although Dracula is more interesting and powerful, we have to kill him in the end.) Also of course Dracula is a bloodsucking horror, but oh well.

I haven't actually read a ton of vampire fiction. I've read Ann Rice, of course, and Stoker, and Salem's Lot, and then I know about how vampires are treated in some roleplaying worlds. (Underworld totally stole their concepts from the White Wolves publishers. I believe they were even sued over it...)

To me the key is, speaking in roleplaying language, that vampires not be "overpowered". I.e., they are already immortal and hard to kill, faster than us, and have the ability to turn into bats or bugs or sort of fold themselves through cracks in walls (if you take Dracula as the ultimate example). If they are also able to walk around in the sunshine, that makes them overpowered and takes away our only advantage. An invincible character is no fun.

Lestat came mighty close for me. The only reason he was vulnerable IMO was because of his own tendencies to get obsessive over people. Otherwise, he just got too lucky.

I would love to see some stuff that has a slightly different take on vampirism. For instance, can it have more and less severe manifestations? What if you are in a situation--extreme heat, proximity to an anthill, etc.--after you die but before you "turn"? Would you be all rotted and gooey for all eternity?

About the soul thing, I always understood vampires have them, they are just eternally damned. In Dracula Van Helsing helps the husband of a just-dead person infected with vampirism hammer a stake through her heart and behead her, in order to preserve her soul. So there's a window there, apparently, where you are infected but not damned yet.

Favorite movie vampire: I like Christopher Lee as Dracula--fast, deadly, with that voice. What say you all?

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