VAMPIRES EVOLVE, TOO

My friend recently asked me to write something about vampires and ghosts for her class... I was working at night, and being the scaredy cat that I am, I just worked on the Vampires part. haha.. here it is.. :p 

Vampires Evolve, Too.

Vampires might as well be the most celebrated English folkloric beings. We learn more and more of these creatures mainly because they are much-publicized like Hollywood celebrities.

The fear of vampires has become so trivial. Gone are the days when vampires were simply associated with bats, garlic, fangs, and capes. Now, we associate them with action, romance, and inhumanly good looks.

In this age, with the mere mention of “vampire”, the Cullens come into mind -- yes, the Twilight characters. They have made vampires so admirable, that fanatics desire to become vampires themselves. But before Twilight, various media have contributed to the popularity of the undead, namely:  Blade, Dracula, From Dusk till Dawn, Queen of the Damned, Van Helsing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Interview with the Vampire, Underworld, The Vampire Diaries, and a lot more.

What is it about vampires that make them ever-so-annoyingly-popular?

1.       Immortality. In a world of false ages and anti-aging products, one thing is certain: Being bitten by a vampire is way easier than scouring the ends of the earth for the fountain of youth.

2.       The Battle. One hot vampire in combat with an equally hot rival? Anticipate a media hype that will build into a crescendo. Plus, all boys love a good fight.

3.       Sex. Vampires are driven by lust, a factor that always finds its way into the plot. You can expect either a vampire hero saving his love interest or a vampire adversary who is destroyed by the power of love. Goodbye, wooden stakes!

The vampires that were accustomed to hiding out in caves now dominate high school and play baseball. The convenient bat-flying has long been forgotten thanks to the Volvos and Aston Martins today’s vampires now display. The sunlight which led to their painful destruction now transforms them into shimmery wonders. In spite of all these changes, one particular idea remains fixed: We continue to involve ourselves with vampires despite the negative consequences associated with them. They truly are, in a word, addicting.

Not only have vampires become more accepted in pop culture, they have also become more acknowledged by the younger generation. Parents used to forbid their children into watching movies or reading books about vampires; but as we live in a technological world, little do parents know that they are encouraging their children through video games such as Mortal Kombat, The Sims, Castlevania and through comic books, mostly Manga. These forms of entertainment not only expose children to what a vampire is, but depict violence and give them distressing obsessions.

If vampires live infinitely, shouldn’t they also get with the times and change their ways? They can hibernate, mutate, adapt, blend in, get married -- whatever they need to do. Real or not, vampires evolve, too.

(458 words)