Vampire crap

[Greg Cox]

NOSFERATU is also a masterpiece of silent filmmaking, and easiy on a par with METROPOLIS. Varney the Vampire is more equivalent to some old Planet Stories potboiler.

True that.

As The Comedian sagely observed, dismissing all vampire stuff as "crap" is like lumping STAR TREK and LOST IN SPACE together . . . .

I thought the criticism was towards rather vaguely defined 'teeny-bopper' vampire fare, though. Even if True Blood is dubious under this definitin, I wouldn't be surprised if pressed the OP could come up with vampire stories and/or movies he likes. We all could, I'm sure.

You'd better believe if the Twilight series was about a really sexy race of extraterrestials who mooned over a midwestern girl before boarding their sparkly spaceship of love it'd probably be just as ludricously aggressively loathed on the 'nets, I'm sure.

But again, I'm not sure "the nets" are the target audience here. Condemming teenybopper stuff for being teenybopper stuff strikes me as equivalent to complaining that Saturday morning cartoons are kid stuff. Why can't teens enjoy vampire fiction aimed at them? Not every tv show needs to cater to forty-year-old fanboys like us.

Like I said, I haven't read a DARK SHADOWS or VAMPIRELLA novel in ages, but I'm not going to begrudge today's generation the same trashy pleasures I enjoyed when I was twelve. Indeed, from what I've seen so far, VAMPIRE DIARIES seems to be a teen-friendly, CW version of DARK SHADOWS . . . .

 

[Kegg]

Condemming teenybopper stuff for being teenybopper stuff strikes me as equivalent that Saturday morning cartoons are kid stuff.

No argument there. But the internets have been bashing super-popular teen crazes as long as it's been around. I don't see the Twilight bashing as fundamentally all that different from the Eragon bashing - get a genre-themed smash success that may not be seen as good literature and the anti-shur'tugals will emerge.

My only interest is in the fact quite a bit of the bashing can result in screeds that are very entertaining to read.

 

[Greg Cox]

"Damn kids these days. When I was their age, I only read Heinlein and Asimov, none of this new-fangled girly vampire crap!"

 

[Kegg]

^
They tend to have more jokes than that, but yeah, pretty much.

 

[Lindley]

Since the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I've been the outsider scratching my head at all this populist vampire nonsense

Buffy and Angel were entertaining in spite of the vampire angle, not because of it, IMO.

Which isn't to say that the vampire content was a weakness; it simply wasn't the primary draw. Strong characters and fun stories will shine through in any setting.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, BUFFY definitely had the advantage of having vampires and being brilliantly done. Talk about the best of both worlds.

 

[Forbin]

How about a vampire space opera?

See the film "Life Force." Sorta.

 

[Greg Cox]

How about a vampire space opera?

See the film "Life Force." Sorta.

Based on the novel "The Space Vampires" by Colin Wilson.

(Although the movie is frankly more fun.)

 

[Kemaiku]

This is why Joss Whedon needs to get a Fray series on TV.

I'd settle for an animated series based on it.

 

[RoJoHen]

This is why Joss Whedon needs to get a Fray series on TV.

I finally read that comic last month, and I totally agree!

(or hell, he could at least continue the comic series!)

The Fray storyline is revisited in Buffy Season 8 TPB4: The Time of Your Life.

Ooh, good to know! I've only read the first one so far.

 

[Greg Cox]

It's not for you, just like Star Trek isn't for other people.

Exactly.

A nice, pithy way to sum things up.

 

[Kegg]

Buffy and Angel were entertaining in spite of the vampire angle, not because of it, IMO.

Which isn't to say that the vampire content was a weakness; it simply wasn't the primary draw.

Sure it was. Would Buffy be the same show if it was just a regular teen drama/comedy, without all the Slayer mythos?

And Angel without Angel, well, there's a puzzling concept.

I mean, you may like Buffy and Angel in spite of its vampire material, but I'm sure there are those who like it as an example of vampirism done right. I myelf am quite the fan of vampire stories that I find entertaining also, but vampire tales as an excuse for cloying teen angst is something that I found baffling even as a teen.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Fascination with vampires in popular culture has been growing steadily since at least the mid-1970s. People I know who are involved professionally with this stuff in terms of publishing, etc confess - at least the cleverer ones, IMAO, do - that they don't really know why. It's hard to guess whether the wave's crested or not.

 

[Greg Cox]

I'd say it started in the 1960's at least. The fifties were a lean decade, vampire-wise, but things have been expanding geometrically since the first Hammer DRACULA in 1958. Consider:

60's: DARK SHADOWS, Hammer Films.

70s: Anne Rice and her many imitators. BLACULA, COUNT YORGA, etc. Heck, there were at least four new versions of DRACULA back around '79 alone: the Langella version, the NOSFERATU remake, the Louis Jourdan version, LOVE AT FIRST BITE . . .

80s: Things maybe slow down a bit onscreen, but vamps are still taking over in book form. I used to go through LOCUS magazine highlighting all the new vampire books, only to find way too many to keep track of. Kid's books, romance books, horror books, fantasy novels . . . you name it.

90's: BUFFY, ANGEL, FOREVER KNIGHT, etc.

It's hard to find a decade where vampires weren't a major presence in pop culture.

 

[Lindley]

Sure it was. Would Buffy be the same show if it was just a regular teen drama/comedy, without all the Slayer mythos?

And Angel without Angel, well, there's a puzzling concept.

Oh, each show's premise is certainly intrinsic to its identity. I'm just saying, I don't watch Buffy for the fight scenes; I watch it for the character dynamics.

And as for Angel, well, if there were a show called Worf, I wouldn't watch it because Worf is a Klingon; I'd watch it because he's freakin' Worf. Same thing applies.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I thought about going back to "Dark Shadows," but somewhat arbitrarily chose "Interview With The Vampire" because I thought it pushed somewhat further beyond genre awareness. "Dark Shadows" stylistically mimicked previous stuff.

 

[Davros]

I wouldn't mind all the vampire crap if someone would give us some space opera crap.

But Space Opera has been out of print for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Opera_(role-playing_game)

 

[Greg Cox]

I would argue that, in its time, DARK SHADOWS was a mass-market phenomenon, not a niche thing. Nowadays it's being kept alive by a smallish fan community, but back in the sixties Barnabas Collins was a genuine pop-culture icon. There were toys, board games, jigsaw puzzles, magazine covers, etc. It was a very popular afternoon soap opera.

 

[Davros]

I used to have 2 different Barnabas Collins games.

 

[Greg Cox]

"Interview with the Vampire" (the novel, not the movie) was definitely a game-changer, though. It was probably the most influential vampire novel since "Dracula."

(I'm tempted to cite "I Am Legend" by Matheson, but that ended up inspiring more zombie fiction than vampire tales.)