Quote:
Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda
It's not just vampires. Witches, dragons, werewolves, the fae folk, and even mermaids (which mostly evolved from the tale of the Sirens) have pretty much left their unholy origins behind. Pirates have also been extremely romanticized.
I'm not convinced that's a bad thing. I'm not convinced it's good, either. In fact, I'm not willing to pin any kind of moral judgement on it at all. It's just what happens as literature evolves.
I do agree that there's historical value in remembering the roots of the modern tropes, though.  |
I don't think in this case it is so much a matter of literature evolving as of going through phases. Perhaps the old-style vampire will come back into fashion at some stage in the future. There was recently some discussion on another thread about what is and is not encompassed by the term science fiction. In my view a rather pointless discussion. We are dealing with the world of the imagination, which is not concerned with such artificial limits. Literature is richer for having both the old and the new style vampires. After all, if we don't like something, we are not forced to read it.