Musings Across A Continuum

Vampires thrillling through the ages…

Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Genres, Horror Reading

Thanks to the blog The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire for highlighting an interesting article in The New Yorker by Joan Acocella. It discusses the myth of vampires and the role of Bram Stokers Dracula within the maintenance of this mythology. I especially liked the discussion of those academics who have produced annotated versions of the novel; one discusses Stokers struggle with the character of Mina Harker and her representing the ‘New Woman’ within Victorian times. However the wankery (literally) that comes with some sections of academia also raises its head, look out for the analysis of the ‘white mist’ when Dracula enters Mina’s bedroom!

For those of you who are True Blood TV or Sookie Stackhouse Series Fans and have not read the original, the one and only Bram Stokers Dracula, read this then get your teeth stuck into the novel!

Ms Harker

Dracula's swoon inducing kiss!

Read more | Comments (0) | April 13th, 2009

Can we have an honest discussion about the Twilight series?

Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films, Horror Reading

My husband JH has been hanging crap on me for sometime about reading the Twilight books and forcing him to come and see the film. He cries out fists clenched ‘I can’t believe you like this shit, compared to all the other evil stuff you read/watch’. Now whilst I am flattered he thinks that mainly my film and literature content is evil (and I will rightly reward him later for saying so), I can’t say he is correct in that I like the Twilight “saga”. I started reading them as I was looking for something light, as had run out of Anita Blake novels (of which JH benefited from me reading at night!) and was curious as to what the fuss was about. Now more experienced bloggers than myself have attacked this topic ie: Bloody Good Horror and Bloody-Disgusting with vehement retort from the horror community. Bloody Good Horror makes some very good points about Horror Fans being very protective of their turf and find that Meyer’s ‘interpretation’ of the vampire mythology is bollocks. Meyer is quoted in the Bloody-Disgusting article angsting about her dealings with movie companies and about trying to protect the integrity (!) of her characters:

“The vampires have to have the same basic rules as the vampire world I’ve created, which means no fangs, no costumes, they have to sparkle in the sunlight, the characters have to exist by their present names and you can’t kill anyone that doesn’t die in the book.”

I’ve read all the books, I’ve seen the film. I given positive review to the final book of the series ‘Breaking Dawn’ as (SPOILER ALERT!!) finally things get ugly with the hybrid baby clawing its mother to shreds from the inside, the sexy Edward having to rip it free by his teeth, turning Bella in the process and the Volturi (the closest thing Meyer has to good vamp mythology) return to kick some ass, even though she turns that into an impotent anti-climax. Oh and Bella and Edward finally screw, praise the lord they are married so they can have sex now!

The core issue is Meyer’s commitment or lack there of to the genre and the history of the genre, she talk’s about how she has no real interest:

“I am not a vampire fan, and never have been. I don’t do horror, I’m an enormous scaredy cat, Hitchcock is about as much as I can handle, and I love it, but anything more then that and you’re not going to see me in the theater. It’s widely out of character for me to write about them [vampires].”

This is painfully obvious in the mythology she has created in her books and I think what chiefly gets up the nose of your committed horror fans. FFS what are the Cullens doing walking around in the daytime? Could someone please do something about Papa Cullen’s hair dye in the film, holy crap that was bad! Also could someone please cut Robert Pattinson’s fringe so the poor boy can see!

Let me finish on a benevolent note. If the genre is to continue into the ages there needs to be a gateway (even a shitty one) in for the kids. Not all of us started on Stephen King etc. However the classics like Bram Stoker’s Dracula could provide this in a much more enriching fashion… For some there need’s to be a gentle lead in, or is the Twilight saga a case of a zombie sheep in Mormon clothing?

Ms Harker