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The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy by Milly Williamson
vixenreader's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
3.5
Williamson needs to work more on examining fan culture, but she is superb in exploring the figure of the vampire and why it matters today.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Outing, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment
Minor: Ableism, Gore, and Violence
This is a collection of academic essays, so there is frank and clinical discussions about the triggering subject matter.georgegracegibson's review against another edition
3.0
Some of the stuff in here felt like a reach even for me. Chapter on slash fan fiction is what I came for.
Skim read the non fandom chapters.
Skim read the non fandom chapters.
woolfardis's review against another edition
2.0
emilythesmelly's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty good and interesting.
Best parts were discussion of -vampires- such as Dracula and Buffy vampires and Anne Rice vampires.
I felt personally less interested in the (very long) passages on abstract fan theory and on specific Anne Rice fan club scenes.
Best parts were discussion of -vampires- such as Dracula and Buffy vampires and Anne Rice vampires.
I felt personally less interested in the (very long) passages on abstract fan theory and on specific Anne Rice fan club scenes.
lisa_setepenre's review against another edition
4.0
This is an interesting book, studying and exploring the fascination of the figure of the vampire and its impact on the many different facets of society, primarily focusing on issues of gender and identity. Milly Williamson does this by exploring different representations of the vampire and the fandom built up around the figure of the vampire, or "the virtual vampire star".
Williamson takes three seminal texts in the vampire canon – Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and the TV series Buffy: The Vampire Slayer – and analyses them, showing what they have had added to the vampire mythology or thereabouts or, in the case of Dracula, how it might have been viewed by different levels of the society it was published in. Other texts are examined in lesser detail, such as the 1987 film The Lost Boys, but these often form support for Williamson's analysis of the three main texts
I found this section the most interesting and wanted more exploration of different texts and representations of the vampire in fiction. While Williamson's examination of the vampire throughout these texts suggested a shift from the vampire-as-monster to the vampire-as-hero, the monstrous interpretation of the vampire still exists, seen in the likes of [b:The Historian|10692|The Historian|Elizabeth Kostova|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1338298031s/10692.jpg|3061272] and [b:The Passage|6690798|The Passage (The Passage, #1)|Justin Cronin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327874267s/6690798.jpg|2802546] . I also found her assertion that Dracula is no longer central to the vampire figure somewhat strange as Dracula is indelibly entwined with the vampire legend. In addition, I also wouldn't have minded if some time was spent tracing the origins of the vampire in folklore and mythology.
The exploration of the vampire fandom(s) was interesting and insightful, though I never knew how much drama Anne Rice attracted. O.o The text shows its age in the discussions of online fandom (and in the lack of mention of the infamous Twilight, but who cares about that). While I did enjoy getting a glimpse of internet fan sites in the early days and pre-internet fandom, I was also very aware that some discussion and arguments made would need to be revised heavily to be still relevant to today's concepts of fandom.
When all is said and done, The Lure of the Vampire is a revealing book peeling back the curtain to get a glimpse at what makes the image of the vampire so fascinating to Western society. My personal preference would be to see more emphasis on vampire fiction and less on the fandoms produced by this fiction. Despite this, Williamson provides an intriguing exploration of the vampire figure.
Williamson takes three seminal texts in the vampire canon – Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and the TV series Buffy: The Vampire Slayer – and analyses them, showing what they have had added to the vampire mythology or thereabouts or, in the case of Dracula, how it might have been viewed by different levels of the society it was published in. Other texts are examined in lesser detail, such as the 1987 film The Lost Boys, but these often form support for Williamson's analysis of the three main texts
I found this section the most interesting and wanted more exploration of different texts and representations of the vampire in fiction. While Williamson's examination of the vampire throughout these texts suggested a shift from the vampire-as-monster to the vampire-as-hero, the monstrous interpretation of the vampire still exists, seen in the likes of [b:The Historian|10692|The Historian|Elizabeth Kostova|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1338298031s/10692.jpg|3061272] and [b:The Passage|6690798|The Passage (The Passage, #1)|Justin Cronin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327874267s/6690798.jpg|2802546] . I also found her assertion that Dracula is no longer central to the vampire figure somewhat strange as Dracula is indelibly entwined with the vampire legend. In addition, I also wouldn't have minded if some time was spent tracing the origins of the vampire in folklore and mythology.
The exploration of the vampire fandom(s) was interesting and insightful, though I never knew how much drama Anne Rice attracted. O.o The text shows its age in the discussions of online fandom (and in the lack of mention of the infamous Twilight, but who cares about that). While I did enjoy getting a glimpse of internet fan sites in the early days and pre-internet fandom, I was also very aware that some discussion and arguments made would need to be revised heavily to be still relevant to today's concepts of fandom.
When all is said and done, The Lure of the Vampire is a revealing book peeling back the curtain to get a glimpse at what makes the image of the vampire so fascinating to Western society. My personal preference would be to see more emphasis on vampire fiction and less on the fandoms produced by this fiction. Despite this, Williamson provides an intriguing exploration of the vampire figure.
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