Vampire v Vampire

Edward may be cute, and Eric may be the hottie of our wildest dreams, but people have been telling stories about these beings for centuries.

Why now, of all times, have we fallen in love with the idea of the vampire?  

And that’s just it – the romanticised idea of the vampire we have fallen in love with, not the real deal.  As Bella displayed using google in the first Twilight movie, these (arguably) mythical beings are described in many cultures as having various different attributes.  Their physical descriptions vary from hideous to beautiful, their skin colour pale to dark.

In pop-culture, they are described as generally attractive beings with pale skin, retractable fangs (Trueblood) or no visible fangs (Twilight), with super-human strength and the ability to run at a pace that would made an olympic gold-medalist sprinter jealous.

Is it because we all want to be the most beautiful?   

Is it because we want to be able to do the most things in the least amount of time? 
Is it because we want to be the best at everything?

I think it’s all these things, and more.   

You see, in a world where we pay thousands of dollars to be beautiful, feel that we can never get enough done in the time allotted to us each day and (because no one ever has the time to tell us we are good enough) want to be better than everyone else at everything, I can see why the idea of becoming something more than human is appealing to us.

I guess the question really is; if Stephenie Meyer had lived and written the Twilight series 50 years ago, would it have been received the way it has been?

Beliefs about Vampires

One popular belief is that Caine was the first vampire.  After killing his brother Abel, he was sent to the land of Nod (or night) and was told that everything he touched would die.

Apparently, there are several different types of vampires:

Vampyres

Those who are attracted to modern vampire lore and to emulate it by dressing in dark and/or old-fashioned clothing , wearing fake “fangs” and living in dark, Victorian or funeral parlour style homes.

Sanguinarians

Those who drink blood, due to some desire or compulsion. 

Psychic Vampires

Those who have the “power” to drain life-energy from others, rather than blood.

Mythical Vampires

An animated corpse that is demonic in nature (often considered a servant of Satan himself) and consumes the blood of the living, determined to spread evil.

Psychotic Vampires

A person (interestingly, only ever a male) who has a mental illness that causes him to believe he is, infact, a vampire, and begins to behave like one.

From garlic to crosses, sunlight to reflections, the list of possibilities is endless.  There was even book published in 1616 (though its author was later burned for heresy) suggesting that vampirism was nothing more than a virus.

What are your theories about how the demonic-type vampire once believed in developed into the hunky, fast, sweet and dreamy vampire we fantacise about today?  And why are we so into them now?