I strongly dislike the whole idea of vampires and cannot understand how one author has written a whole series about them. (There are also some Young Adult series.) Alan Moore developed the idea that, although vampires cannot cross running water, they might be able to survive and thrive by living under the surface of still water - until someone causes the water to flow.
SM Stirling's Shadowspawn turn out to be vampires among other things which does not endear them to me. However, I remain interested in their evolution, history, mental powers, means of social control, civil war and dilution by interbreeding.
The Shadowspawn are homo sapiens nocturnus and the Alfar in "Interloper" are nocturnal life. See Alfheim. Anderson also has "half-world" organisms that dissolve in sunlight when dead in his Operation Luna. See Magic And Goetics.
There is a very old tradition that a different kind of life coexists with familiar life forms on Earth and imaginative authors can tap into this idea. It is as if they were confirming something that we already knew.
7 comments:
Well, technically they're the -source- of the vampire legend; they're not much like traditional vampires, on the whole.
Mr Stirling,
I would have thought that the drinking of blood was pretty explicit?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
The reason why vampire stories appeals to some readers is quite simple, they LIKE horror stories.
I'm not that much into horror myself. But I did like Bram Stoker's DRACULA and Stephen King's SALEM'S LOT (and its short story sequel). Plus, I admit to enjoying Barbara Hambly's THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT and TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD. But Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE and its sequels did not appeal to me.
Stoker and King's vampires have some kind of supernatural origins, even diabolic, it seems to me. The Name of God and the Cross terrifies them. Hambly's vampires becamse that way thru some kind of disease or infection. Both cannot endure the Sun but must hide until night. Stirling's Shadowspawn, at least when corporeal, can walk in daylight. And the Shadowspawn became vampiric thru genetic evolution. And, while corporeal, also need normal food.
And your last paragraph reminded me of Anderson's "Night Piece." I think that story could be added alongside "Interloper."
Sean
Fred Saberhagen twisted the vampire concept with The Dracula Tape and sequels, which gives Drac's side of things. Saberhagen's Dracula can be warded off by the cross not because holy things repel him, but because he's too devout a Christian to willingly risk damaging a symbol of the Lord.
Mercedes Lackey wrote one book, Children of the Night (the title is itself a Dracula reference), in which the main character meets a vampire who, similarly, reacts to having a crucifix thrust into his face ... by gently taking it out of the young woman's hand, kissing the crucifix in the old style, and then tucking it into her pocket. Sunlight will seriously injure him, but he says the bit about not crossing running water is only because vampires are territorial, and use landmarks such as rivers for their boundaries. Warded off by garlic? Nope. Sleeping in a coffin? He breaks down laughing at that one.
Kaor, DAVID!
I'm puzzled by how Mercedes Lackey's vampire reacted to the Cross. If he had such reverence to a Christian symbol like the Cross, wouldn't that "translate" as well into an aversion to inflicting torture and pain on others?
Some of Stirling's postcorporeal Shadowspawn, at least the older ones, do use coffins to protect themselves from the Sun. But Adrienne Brezes laughs at that.
Sean
Sean:
Lackey's vampire, André LeBrel, was very averse to inflicting torture and pain on others. One of his vampiric powers was the ability — an automatic response, really — to make feeding him blood a pleasurable experience for the donor. He usually concentrated to tone it down a bit. When he was injured and mostly unconscious, main character Diana Tregarde deliberately nicked her wrist and put it to André's lips in an attempt to help him. It worked, but because he wasn't awake at first to mute the pleasure effect, it also made Diana nearly pass out from pure ecstasy. If she didn't actually orgasm, she came very close.
Unfortunately, in Children of the Night, there were also several "vampires" of a different sort (two different sorts, in fact), with different powers, and quite evil. They got most or all of their nourishment not from the blood, but from inflicting physical and emotional pain. Diana and André had quite a bit of difficulty fighting them.
This "pleasure effect" has been used in at least a few works by other writers. Stephen King commented in an essay that a certain passage from Dracula pretty clearly describes Lucy Westenra having an orgasm when Drac puts the bite on her.
Kaor, DAVID!
Thanks for the explanation. And we Stirling's Shadowspawn also being able to use a "pleasure effect" so that those they feed on will become addicted and willing to be bled.
Dang! I missed that bit about Lucy Westenra in DRACULA. Something to keep an eye open!
Sean
Post a Comment