WHY VAMPIRES?
The not-one-but-three prologues to "The Vampire Archives" (by Otto Penzler, Kim Newman and Neil Gaiman each) try to answer the question, with all sorts of fascinating tidbits: Did you know that the ORIGINAL non-folkloric vampire story, "Lord Ruthven", which inspired "Dracula", was just a parodic caricature of Lord Byron's eccentricities? Did you know that Anne Rice's real name is HOWARD ALLEN O'BRIEN? THAT'S SCARY!
But why ask? The vamp's popularity over the last century lies on the double hitting quality of the myth: SEX AND DEATH! What else IS there? (Zombies aren't sexy, not even the stripper ones! Maybe if werewolves shaved their legs?) Also, as a mythologist, you can do just about anything with this creature of the night, including taking it into the day, and this bargain-priced close-to-1000-page anthology proves it. Almost every great horror author is represented here, from Lovecraft to King and Poe to Bloch... Interestingly, I didn't notice Charlaine Harris contributing. HMMM.
I shall end the week's ghoulishness with the closing lines of this classic Poe(m) from "Ligeia", the even classicker tale of unbridled opium consumption, vampiric love lost, and vampiric love eerily regained.
Out—out are the lights—out all!
And over each quivering form
The curtain, a funeral pall
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"
And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.
Food for WORMY thought. And now it's CRIME to say good FRIGHT, Dear Imaginary BLEEDER!
(The Cryptkeeper made it sound so easy!)
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