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A review by lisa_setepenre
The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction, and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Milly Williamson
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.