Our Fascination With the Undead

I began reading Twillight today, and after barely a few chapters, I began to feel like it was just a fluffy pile of...well, fluff. No offence to those who really like Twillight. Years of conditioning by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Anne Rice's vampires have left me unsatiated by the book. Then again, maybe it's just the first few chapters.

At any rate, it got me wondering: why do we have this strange fascination with vampires? Since the days of Bram Stoker's Dracula (who, by the way, is a legend!), many other vampire worlds have sprung out: Buffy and Sunnydale, Blade, Lestat and his vampires (my personal favourite), and now, the much sought-after Edward Cullen.

Perhaps it's because vampires (and ghosts and other undead things that go 'BOO!' in the night) offer us some form of the after-life. It answers the eternal question of what happens after we die. After all, in some way or another, many of us fear death. The belief in these undead beings gives us some hope of life after death. Maybe we become ghosts, or spirits. Maybe vampires exist. Maybe zombies are real.

Personally, vampires are my escape. And I'm sure there are many others out there who feel the same. The description of Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius and all their escapades offer a journey into a world that exists within the pages of the book, or behind the film projector. It gives you a place to hide out. It makes you feel like there is someone out there, someone whom you can turn to, escape to when things get too hard for you.

So maybe that's why we're so fascinated with these things. Anyhow, I might as well get back to Twillight. It may be fluff, but I can't not read it!

--written by bhavna :)