Why are so many die hard vampire fiction readers so resistant to reading Bram St

1. 61

   Christopher Floydposted 13 years ago

   Why are so many die hard vampire fiction readers so resistant to reading Bram Stoker's Dracula?
   
   This is a phenomena I've come across a lot, and I've never been able to understand it. I can guess at reasons, but I want other people's thoughts.

   report
2. 0

   scriber1posted 13 years ago

   Because the original required thought and contemplation by the reader -- qualities and skills lost on many special effects sycophants.  May I suggest my hub: Images Leave Us Cognitively Naked.

   report
3. 0

   3 Finger Readerposted 13 years ago

   The original, while erotically charged to some degree, isn't as explicitly sexual--Dracula is more of a monster than a lust object or figure of romance. My guess is that people prefer the more modern take on vampires simply because it answers to our fetishistic attitudes towards youth, beauty and an incorruptible physical form.
   
   Look at Anne Rice's vampires--basically a bunch of rich, bored hotties (greater beauty is one of the first rewards of The Change after all) that feel intense physical pleasure every time they feed.  Not an awful lot to hate there...
   
   There isn't the same feel to Stoker's novel. Dracula is described as old and wizened, ordorous and filthy, to some degree, at least in the beginning, and Twilght fans (I personally loathe Twilght and everything related to it, let me I interject) have no interest in such--- they want their candied, watered-down masturbatory fantasy instead.

   report
4. 82

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years ago

   Because they are cheese ball pop culture fiends, and not ones to study classics or anthropology, as it pertains to genre, and creation of a genre.

   report
5. 81

   Magdeleneposted 13 years ago

   Because Bram Stoker's Dracula is scary, the kind of scary to give you nightmares and many of the world love a romance with a little bit of magic/fantasy thrown in.  It is entertainment, that is all.

   report
6. 61

   Christopher Floydposted 13 years ago

   I think these answers pretty much cover it. Thank you all. The only thing I didn't see mentioned was the religious themes of willful rejection of God and redemption in Dracula. Won't find those in modern vampire stories.
   Oh, one other difference; Today the story more often than not seems to center on the vampire as acceptable, if not entitled to their existence. Bram Stoker kept his vampires hunted and condemned. They were aware of their own evil.

   report