Vampires

Hello all. Last week was a tough one for me, returning from a vacation is sometimes worse than needing the vacation at all. A lot of downtime due to the fact that my kids are not in school, so I have to say that I have enjoyed being with them all this week as well. On to this week’s post!

I have been thinking about the direction of this blog, I mean, talking about my preferences in books, games, web comics, TV series and movies is all good; sharing my work in even better. Now, I realized something this week end about my absolute need to write words onto the screen that I never thought would even be part of the equation, but it is: It.is.my.therapy. There, I said it! The funny thing is that it is, or has been, for the past few months, and in an outstanding revelation, you, readers, have now officially become my therapists. LOL. Now seriously, writing has always been an emotional outlet for me, so it comes as no surprise that sharing part of my life on a blog is a natural extension of this desire to be read. So a big thanks to you all!

Writing

I am almost done with Chapter 1, and will post it sometime this week. I was thinking of posting a short story also, so the writing is coming along nice.

Books

I am reading The Way of Kings by Sanderson and boy, I am having a hard time of leaving the iPad down. This had been a pleasant and challenging read so far and will probably finish it tonight.

Blood Noir is next.

Rant

This week it was announced that Ann Rice, one of my favorite authors, is going to have a new book out soon, this one about werewolves, that it got me thinking on the evolution of the characters that gave her fame and that changed the landscape of Vampires in literature, and pop culture as well. The first five book of her Vampire Chronicles are just amazing (Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The tale of the body thief and Memnoch the Devil). The pursuit of happiness from her complex characters, the pursuit of truth and purity even if their lives had been robbed by an unnatural predator and the way the characters interact with each other while juggling their own perception of what is good and evil make the series an instant classic. The books are scary, funny, erotic, informative and simply brilliant. Lestat, the Brat Prince, is the embodiment of what a modern Vampire is all about (Please, please don’t visualize Tom Cruise as Lestat, please; it is for you own good.). Lestat is vicious, cruel, evil in many ways, naïve, but he is also pure in his pursuit of truth and happiness, he is a rebel, a troubled soul trapped between the dogmas of a religion that damns his souls and a lifestyle that allows him to play God.

The series does steer away from its initial glory in the subsequent books- The Vampire Armand, Merrick, Blood and Gold, Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle- but the unifying force of the series is precisely the realization of these vampires that they might be evil, but that they could achieve peace being and accepting what they were.

Now, I read these books when I was 16, the first four at least, and then followed the release of each of the following books eagerly. I knew then, as I know now, that I loved vampire novels. So I searched for other novels about vampires and found a lot of them. I wont list every vampire I have read here, because I do not have the time to do so, but suffice to say that I found some series that really got my blood and heart going (no pun intended), like E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth Series, Brian Lumley’s Necroscope Series and Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series. While the Vampires in each series are completely different from each other, in their appearance, physiology and lore, they are still creatures that either want to enslave humanity, use humans for fun, sport, sex and blood, or are simply part of supernatural society that allows them to thrive in and out of the public eye.

Why, and I really would like an explanation here, why is it that a series like Twilight, becomes so successful? I mean, the idea that a 200 year old Vampire is smitten and in love with a 16 year old teenager is as bad a premise for a story as, say, a town in the US where dancing is not allowed (Yes Footloose, I am talking about you!). Isn’t that ridiculous? I mean, an emo Vampire is a bad idea, simply because being a Vampire is Goth enough. A Vampire has already taken the next step and is NO LONGER ALIVE, thus the heartache of not being important in other’s life, the angst of being a cast out, the melancholic exclusions of not being corresponded in friendship or love, of not being understood, of not being like the others, is a MUTE point. Oh, and with all due respect to Mrs. Meyer, her vampires glow! How can Vampires glow? So the destruction of Vampiric icons is well under way, I just hope that Lestat is listening.

Rant is over.

Harry Potter

I saw the movie last Monday, and I was blown away by how good the finale is. Yes, I have read the books, and I loved them (Well, not the Chamber of Secrets, but nobody is perfect). But this movie, it finally engulfed the epic quality of the series. I found myself crying like a little girl when the Wizards at Hogwarts began to cast the protective spell around the school. That scene, above any other, is what me understand how well the movie was made, and how well they had understood how to translate elements form a book onto the screen, which is not easy at all. If you are a fan, then you will enjoy the movie, if you are not, I’m sure you will become one.

More on the movie and the Potter series next week.

Have a great week!