I've been fighting the urge to write on this subject for almost a week now. And fight I should have, as the subject is so widely discussed there's seemingly nothing new I could say about it. Plus I've been severely mocked on the matter of my obsession with vampires and the inevitability of a post about Twilight. Not that I haven’t been obsessing about it since last Saturday, when I first saw it. Anyway, no biggie. The irony of it is that the person who’s been mocking me most is the very person to whom I’d turn in my dream, looking for a feat or more of the fantastic character in the movie. And why not, I ask you? He’s got the same slightly rectangular face, with clearly visible bones, a wide, poetic forehead, and a pair of lips that could easily compete with Edward’s….
But this post is not about my boyfriend. It’s not about Edward’s beauty either, since the fantastic, inhumanly beautiful and drop-down gorgeous vampire is, in terms of appearance, pretty much the result of make-up and… well, the psychological effect of KNOWING that he’s a vampire and therefore a being above the others... On a side note, I should say that I’m not particularly dazzled by the actor himself, Robert Pattinson, although I would admit to melting whenever he starts singing... or whenever he’s portraying Edward, for that matter.
Anyway, why vampires? I’m not wondering why I am obsessed with them, that’s been going on for too long. I’m only wondering about this mass fascination that people, particularly young people and teenagers, seem to have not only with this vampire, but also with two other famous characters, Angel and Spike of the Buffy TV series. Or, to go back even further in time, the fascination towards the first vampire ever pictured in movies, the black-and-white version of Dracula… Why them? Why not werewolves, or elves, or gnomes, or wizards and witches?
I’m thinking that among all these products of human imagination and folklore (mind that some rather well documented sources claim they might have actually been real!), vampires are closest to us in terms of resemblance with a human being. Leaving aside the fangs (and let me congratulate both Stephanie Meyers and Joss Whedon for their ability of avoiding this cliché in the creation of their vampires), they seem as human as anyone of us. They’re paler, sometimes quieter, sometimes shyer, and in some interpretations they avoid the sun. But that’s really not something that’s exclusively vampirish. That’s something anyone can relate to. What raises them above us, humans, are three rather subtle differences.
The thirst for blood
While people’s beliefs and attitudes about blood vary largely, there is one thing they all have in common. Blood is the simplest and most comprehensive representation or symbol of life. Blood IS life, no matter how you look at it. So the thirst for blood is the craving for life. And it’s only natural this should apply to vampires, since they are, in actuality, pretty dead… Their feeding of blood is an attempt to prevent the body from being disintegrated under the normal laws of nature. They lack this fluid of life so they try to replace it by stealing it from other people. Why? Because they can. Because their ability to be alive when they’re actually dead, and their capacity of taking the blood, and thus the life from someone else, brings them closer to gods than to humans. And because, in most interpretations, being able to kill, they’re also able to give life, again in an almost god-like way. But the life they give is one of eternal damnation.
The enhanced powers
In any movie with vampires, regardless of how they are portrayed (as bad guys or good guys), vampires prove to be endowed with enhanced versions of what are, essentially, human abilities. Physical strength, the capacity of moving fast, improved vision, finer-tuned hearing, even the capacity of foreseeing the future (which is an improved form of intuition) not only raise them above the limitations of the human condition, but they also redefine the limits and the features of the world as we know it. When Bella exclaims “This is not real”, Edward’s answer is, naturally, “it does in my world.” Because vampires do share the same world as us, but have a different perspective on it. A much wider one. Larger than life, you could say. And really, if a 30 m tall tree is simply TOO TALL for us to climb, it’s only NORMAL to them. If a 5 tons car is naturally impossible for us to stop with bare hands, it’s only a PIECE OF CAKE to them. Not because they have different abilities, but only because their abilities are … larger. It’s simply a mater of perception, really.
The immortality
Vampires are not, technically speaking, immortal. There are so many ways of killing them for good that it would take a different post only to make a list of them. But while they’re not immune to fire, decapitation, staking and other such methods, they do rise above the human condition, again, through their ability of avoiding the one illness we still haven’t learned to cure: body aging. The concept in itself is so fantastic and opens so many doors and possibilities, that I could write tens of pages on it. It won’t be the case here. All I’m trying to emphasize is that the very ability of being immune to aging makes vampires have a completely different perspective on time. We, humans, are often obsessed with time because we know it’s limited. Time is precious to us because it’s not a never-ending resource. We know we’ll eventually run out of it, so we rush into everything we do trying to waste as little time as possible… Our perspective on time makes us the slaves of it. Their perspective on time makes them the masters of it. While we’re always rushing, they’re always taking their time. Enjoying things. Tasting them. Acquiring each experience as a special one. When was the last time any of us did that?
So why are vampires so fascinating? I’m guessing each person would give a different answer, but to me they’re simply something to dream of. Creatures human enough for me to be able to relate to, and still perfect enough for me to be able to aspire to. That is not to say I do want to become a vampire (assuming, just for the sake of discussion, that they were real). It’s just that they are a sort of dark ideal of a human being. A damned perfection that I want to look up to. A beautiful dream I crave for. And if watching these movies or reading these books makes me feel seventeen again, it’s because it reminds me to take the time and think about my dreams again. It gives me back some of the innocence and idealism of that age. It brings back memories of when my own boyfriend was my hero, my angel, and my demon. But maybe it also has a little bit to do with the way I suddenly crush on Edward each time I think of him…
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