Writer's Block: The Eternal Nocturnal Struggle

[author_by_night]

[Error: unknown template qotd]I'm inclined to choose werewolves, of course. Two words - Remus Lupin. ;) But vampires are kind of cool too.

I'm writing both a vampire and a werewolf, and it's interesting. Both are good, but the vampire always has that inner demon that sometimes comes out. My werewolf is a good person, but once a month he's a monster - and he will kill you.

Modern fantasy/sci fi seems to want to redeem both - I mean, you go from Dracula and The Wolfman to Buffy and Harry Potter, which have vampires and werewolves that are not inherently evil. In Buffy you have Angel and Oz, and in Harry Potter you have Remus, and there's a scene in one of the books where a vampire is at a Christmas party - and seems fairly harmless, although at one point they mention him looking hungry. And of course Twilight... I wouldn't call Twilight my favorite book series, but it does show werewolves and vampires as redeemable.

I do wonder how that came about - when the "monster" suddenly grew a human being's face. When the "monster" became okay. I suppose even in Dracula, there's some of that - not the redemption, but the implication that vampires can still think like human beings. Evil, sick and twisted human beings, but human beings. He plans how exactly he is going to kill his victims, rather than randomly chase them in a dark forest at night.

This could be an interesting thing to research, actually. Anyone have their own input?

Comments

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of stories where vampirism is a disease of some sort, like a virus.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Hm. Interesting.

[arasnaem.livejournal.com]

I think vampires have been done more than werewolves as the main focus (Buffy, Twilight, etc), so if you're looking for something more individual, I'd say werewolf.

I think nowadays in particular, we like to see everything and everyone as redeemable. Way back when these monsters were first created, there was more black and white, less gray in terms of morals. Heck, Little Red Riding Hood was warning little girls to stay away from strange men so they didn't get "eaten". Today's society seems, as a whole, to chafe under strict morals. We prefer to see that black isn't REALLY black...it can totally be gray.

Of course, I could be totally off base with that.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

No, I think that's very true. And I think we're also in times where we've seen that.

[linda-lupos.livejournal.com]

Well there's something romantic about vampires, isn't there? He's charming and usually rich and tragically tormented by his cursed existence. Came up in the 19th century with all those Gothic novels.
I wouldn't necessarily say Dracula's planning is particularly human, as much as it is predatory. A wolf or cat plans its attack too, after all... I dunno.

I like werewolves best because I like the whole conflict between beast and man.
And also, Remus. ;)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

True, I suppose a wolf or a cat does plan an attack. But he seemed to really think it out - don't wolves and cats act more on instinct? Unless he did too? Hm.

[linda-lupos.livejournal.com]

Euh, good question...

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

If pressed really hard, I'd pick vampires. Vampires have always been my favorite monster.

Remus was the werewolf that made me reconsider werewolves. He's also, still, my all time favorite fictional character.

I think that the teaching of tolerance towards people different than oneself, whether due to ethnicity, religion, physical/mental ability, sexual orientation, and gender (to name a short list) is being applied to fictitious characters.

We've learned to judge people by their actions and character, not their outward appearance.

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

I think one of the reasons we're so attracted to stories about monsters is that they're not really stories about monsters. They're stories about conflict, human darkness made manifest as something supernatural - I think everyone has a little monster inside them, desires they think they should control, and we identify with 'good' vampires and werewolves because we can imagine how it feels to have a bit of yourself that flies in the face of everything else.

I think we like that people like Remus in HP and Edward in Twilight try not to give in to their instincts (just as potentially we like the vicarious pleasure of watching characters like Dracula who do) - in a lot of ways, they're the embodiement of the indominatable nature of human spirit. I think in those two cases particularly, they're compelling stories, first and foremost, about very human struggles - how to love when you think you're unworthy, how to master your darker side, how to find a place in a world that doesn't want you.

I'm not sure things have changed all that much - I'm no expert on Gothic horror, but I know when I read Frankenstien, I sympathised with the monster....

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I actually had a somewhat similar conversation with a friend recently. It's very interesting when writers come up with new twists on vampire mythology (such as vampirism as a disease, like akashsheiress mentioned). The vampires in the Twilight books and in the show "Moonlight" all broke the traditional rules, but in different ways. It seems like it's actually more unique now to stick to the perspective that vampires are all evil and sleep in coffins and can be fended off with crosses.

Portraying traditionally evil creatures as more human or redeemable is another way to make an old concept new and fresh again. I think it's also typical of modern storytelling conventions. Villains aren't really allowed to be evil just because; they have to have motivation.

That's all just my take on it though. I'm sure someone may have looked into it seriously before... though maybe not, since sci-fi and fantasy don't get tons of serious scholarship.

[arianablack.livejournal.com]

See, I actually prefer vampires *because* of that constant inner demon. With werewolves, like you said, you're really in danger only once a month. They're like big dogs with really bad PMS. But vampires, you could constantly be in danger, and never even know it. They can befriend you, charm you, earn your trust, and you'll never know you were wrong about them until the moment they attack.

Granted, I love werewolves too. The whole transformation, silver allergy, animalistic tendencies is awesome, and so outside the realm of reality that I can't help but love them. But if I had to choose, definitely vampires. They make much more fascinating villains, keeping their human logic and planning. They're cool, calculating, and could be anyone. They're the ultimate "wolf in sheep's clothing."

This probably all stems from the fact that I love true crime stories too. I love hearing the methodology behind crimes, the motive, hearing inside the psyche of the criminal. Same with vampires: I like reading the methods they use to get victims, getting inside their head (can you imagine what having to live on the blood of other living beings does to your head?), whether they've embraced the life or still fight it. With werewolves, its all mostly instinct, and much less interesting.

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

I've decided not to choose, since the novel I'm finishing editing right now is werewolf-centric and one of the next projects I plan to work on (never write the sequel to a novel while you're trying to sell it!) is about vampires, including one who's struggling with not being like other vampires. (The werewolf is also trying not to hurt people.)

I do wonder how that came about - when the "monster" suddenly grew a human being's face. When the "monster" became okay.

I think that happened fairly early on, not with a vampire or werewolf but with Dr. Frankenstein, who was depicted as far more of a monster (he had the hubris to play at being God) than the "monster" he created, who was depicted as much more sympathetic and not to blame for anything he did, much like Adam and Eve before the fall. I've got a little bit of that in my werewolf book, in which I have a couple of characters discuss the origins of werewolves (in my universe). I haven't decided on all of my vampire mythology yet, for that book, but it's a bit closer to Supernatural than Buffy. (I won't say close to Twilight, since I haven't read that and my vampires are decidedly of the non-sparkly variety. :D)

I think, though, that all of the monsters in question are generally used as metaphors for normal human beings attempting to find ways to exist in the world without letting their baser instincts rule them and turn them into monsters, of a sort, so giving a character an extra challenge that sets him apart and also isolates him even within a group in which he should be an insider adds dramatic tension and sets him up to go on a heroic journey in the story; the fantasy elements of magic and/or creatures with special abilities allows the author to make it even more challenging for the protagonist and takes the reader out of an everyday world where those things don't exist.

You also see this trope a lot in non-fantasy with people in groups that are supposedly dreadful: super-rich people, famous people, politicians, stock brokers, grifters, hookers (this is where the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold cliche comes from), convicts, etc. It's fairly standard: person in maligned group decides he isn't going to be like the others with whom he's lumped on a regular basis and basically sets out to prove to the world that he isn't like the others, despite the prejudice he is bound to encounter and the tempation to succumb to being like the people he despises, who tend to take advantage of people not in that group in some way and are justifiably (in the story) hated. The protagonist is practically REQUIRED to have a love interest in the chief group usually targeted by the group he is from, to give the romantic subplot that Romeo & Juliet quality.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

(Hi again! Thanks for finding me. :P )

My impression is that those two monsters became sympathetic when they started being "cursed" rather than doing it to themselves via witchcraft or dealing with the devil. For vampires that would be with Dracula (not the count, but Mina) and for werewolves it would be the movie era, with Werewolf of London, and later The Wolf Man cemented that.

Personally, I'd be thrilled to see a return to the heartless, damned flesh-eating vampires from, like, six centuries ago. Before they grew style and taste and charm, back when they lived in graves for real.

(Eternal nocturnal enemies? I'd love to know when that trope started. At one point, werewolves turned INTO vampires after they died.)

(Werewolf fan all the way.)