Over at Alison Kent’s blog, the question of vampire fiction has been raised and whether its’ time has come, and why there aren’t more darker vamp fiction. Vampires, after all, are ostensibly, evil, blood-sucking creatures who will steal your soul. So why are so many preternatural books written in a light, humorous manner?
Sure, we have Laurel K. Hamilton (and look what happened there), JR Ward and Lynn Viehl, but dark fantasy are few and far between.
You could look at it purely from a surface perspective: people like to be amused, and will support the ‘under-dog’ against perceived corrupt authority. Add that to the enormous market of romance and if your book is well written, it will be a seller.
That’s the simple explanation. But there is a more complex one: That of sociology.
Jim Lee, he of Marvel Comics fame, once said that the X-Men were a conglomerate of marginalised minorities; those who were different in a world of established mores. When you have a society that dictates what is acceptable, the unacceptable is reviled and discriminated against, no matter how powerful they may be as individuals.
Bram Stoker created his Dracule as an evil creature, bent on the destruction of human souls – look no closer than the Bible for that metaphor. The vampire represented the corruption of all that is good, the physical embodiment of a satanic minion.
The vampire is seduction, temptation, sensuous pleasure – and we all know that the biblical result of succumbing to that is the loss of soul, the loss of ascending to heaven, because the victim has indulged in a selfish need. The sin of Lust – and, hell, far be it for anyone to have lustful thoughts!
Within romantic fiction, without lust, there is nothing; without conflict in a novel or a worthy hero, a plot that grabs your attention, a villain you hate, there is Holly Lisle’s How To Write Suckitudinous Fiction. What a lot of readers love is the Bad Boy. Oh, yeah. The guy who we know we shouldn’t go near – he’ll break your heart, he’ll destroy your reputation, he’ll make you an outcast in your close knit community, he is baaad for you; but, he makes you feel oh, so wicked - again, indulging in lust, and if your lucky, greed.
And who is the ultimate Bad Boy – or Girl? Why, something that may kill you for sport, something that will live much, much longer than you – sin of envy here – something that takes you out of your comfort zone, rings your bells with one look, is stronger than you, faster than you, challenges you and all your prejudices. That is something worth reading about.
The vampire, or shapeshifter or whatever has been previously represented as inherently ‘evil’ tempts us as nothing else can. We want to experience what it would be like and then return to our normal, safe lives. And that’s why preternatural fiction is so popular.
Breaking down the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ is easy, especially if you’re looking for the deep, inner meaning of the genre as a whole: we all want a happy ending.
Is it on a downward slide? Yes, I think so, but I also doubt it will go away. The same was said of historic and regency fiction, yet both sub-genres are experiencing a resurgence in popularity, thanks to the brilliance and professionalism of a few select authors.
Preternatural fiction is here to stay. It will evolve and go on – there are too many fans out there for it not to. And I, for one am glad.
The more humorous stories may decline in favour of more dynamic and dangerous fantasy, and that can only be a plus. For that, we have the three authors I mentioned to thank.
No comments:
Post a Comment