Comments on: Vampires Are Not Supposed to Sparkle

By: John Ali

John Ali — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:45:36 +0000

i love David Boreanaz in the TV Series bones, he is really a great actor…”

By: JRR

JRR — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:27:54 +0000

In the same ‘vein’ as vampires don’t sparkle, I just watched 30 Days of Night. Leaving aside the usual plot inconsistencies and avoiding any plot spoilers, at least the vampires were portrayed as I imagine them – ruthless, violent, and holding the lesser human prey in contempt. No one’s swooning when these come to town…

By: Cil

Cil — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:38:04 +0000

Only that Edward and his gang are not vampires. They are, if much, fairies! Vampire don’t sparkle!

By: Clever Badger

Clever Badger — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:01:26 +0000

It’s probably more important that vampires consistently sparkle in Twilight world than whether or not sparkles are added to what we might wish to call vampire canon.

I keep thinking of films that I should have mentioned that I didn’t.

By: Clever Badger

Clever Badger — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:50:56 +0000

I’d forgotten Carmilla, which is sad because I read it not too long ago.

My brothers and I had a lot of books as kids that talked about monsters, but many of them defined their baselines in terms of movies – in other words, Lugosi’s Dracula was the standard by which vampires were judged. In retrospect that background has probably colored my views more than I realize.

By: Joshua Zelinsky

Joshua Zelinsky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:46:22 +0000

And a follow-up point, maybe we should replace the “no true Scotsman” fallacy with the no true vampire fallacy?

“Vampires don’t sparkle”
“But Edward sparkles”
“Ah, but Edward is not a true vampire.”

On the other hand this may be a good example of how after a certain point no-true-Scotsman stops being a fallacy (for example if one thinks that Jesus was an evil alien sent to destroy humanity it is a bit hard to reasonably label one a Christian). Vampires don’t sparkle. Period.

By: Joshua Zelinsky

Joshua Zelinsky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:43:15 +0000

Regarding the sexuality issue, vampires in 19th century Britain were always connected in some way to a sexual issue. Dracula at some level has a subtext of the dangerous foreigner taking the good British women. Similarly, look at Carmilla (a pre-Dracula novel from 1872) which has a female vampire and female victims. The book contains heavy lesbian overtones.

The changing nature of vampires shouldn’t be that surprising. The vampire as a well-defined creature is relatively new. Mythological versions vary a lot. For example, in Russian folklore the dividing line between what we would call vampires and what we would call werewolves is not nearly as clear cut.