"What vampires are in any given generation is a part of what I am and what my times have become."
She describes v.s as "popular confederates as mortals" whose folklore as parasites stretches back to the beginnings of recorded history, but they "began their significant literary life in 1816, with the self-creations of Lord Byron."
Comparing Lord Ruthven and Lestat, each..."feeds distinctively on his age because he embodies that age."
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She explains the political climate between 1989 and 1992 -- w/out the USSR and Reagan, the USA "turned its fears on itself."
FDR: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign: "Freedom from fear is the basic right of every American. We must restore it." -- "us" against "them" -- vague and unspecified, still used today by his party. (2)
Bush 1 campaign: "the president has gone from an exorcist of fear to its agent."
vampires and presidents both personify their age.
The title makes fear an ongoing cultural and personal presence, one no rational, Rooseveltian good will can dispel.
"No fear is only personal: it must steep itself in its political and ideological ambience, without which out solitary terrors have no contagious resonance." (3)
Vampires are too mutable to be allegories.
"The alacrity with which vampires shape themselves to personal and national moods is an adaptive trait their uniformity masks."
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There is no such creature as "The Vampire," there are only vampires. Because they are immortal, they are free to change incessantly.
Eternally alive, they embody not fear of death, but fear of life: their power and their curse is their undying vitality... vampires long to die, at least in certain moods, infecting readers with fears of their own interminable lives.
"Vampires are neither inhuman nor nonhuman nor all-too-human; they are simply more alive than they should be."... they blend into the changing cultures they inhabit.
They inhere in our most intimate relationships; they are also hideous invaders of the normal... they can be everything we are, while at the same time, they are fearful reminders of the infinite things we are not."
"At the end of the century, B.S.'s Dracula -- animal rather than phantom, mesmerist rather than intimate, tyrant rather than friend -- safely quarantined vampires from their human prey, foreclosing friendship and opening the door to the power-hungry predators so congenial to the 20th century."
Vampires oscillate between aristocracy and democracy, at times taking command with elitist aplomb, at times embodying the predatory desires of the populace at large. In both England and America, vampires turn to women to perform the extreme implications of their monstrosity -- erotic friendship in England, social rebellion in America" (7).
Reaganesque vampires, increasingly ghettoized, wilt, dissipate, and even shed undeath when challenged by the paternal authorities they had mocked in the 60s and 70s.
Posing as revolutionaries, they are consummate turncoats... our lives are implicated in theirs and our times are inescapable.
We'll take a break for coffee, and come back for comments.
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Nina has some great writing here, and I like here idea of grafting the Vampire on to the fears of the age. While I do not think I will use much directly from the first half of this book, which is about 19th century England, the second half will hopefully provide a good starting point.
My ideas will work around her general concept, of vampires-as-a-metaphor, and also include some of the rather startling innovations in the last 20 years, especially technology.
I also like her personal slant.
Write soon....
Love,
R. xoxo
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