Vampires Used to be Grotesque. Why did they Become Sexy?
Vampire romance is all the rage. Countless books, movies, a tv shows have been made where predatory, demonic monsters of the past are made into an erotic turn-on: Stephenie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga, Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries are just some of the most well known in this ever-expanding genre.
To borrow a line attributed to Stalin, if only one book or movie like this had been made it would have been seen as tragic, scandalous, and insane. But hundreds of vampire romances have flooded the market, so it’s normal no one questions it or bats an eye lash.
Shocking as it may seem, vampires weren't always seen this way. People didn’t always want to hook up with and/or settle down and live happily ever after with the undead.
In the beginning, the first vampires of legend were far more like grotesque zombies than James Dean. The folklore of the vampire really began in the middle ages when people started believing in things called revenants. A revenant was essentially a human being who had died and come back from the dead to prey on family members and friends, perhaps out of vengeance, or simple malevolence. In South Eastern Europe, these revenants came to be known as vampires, and by the time of the enlightenment, vampire panics were in full swing across the continent, attracting the attention of rulers like the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, as well as the fascination of scholars and intellectuals like the French philosopher Voltaire.
The question is, How did we get from zombie to teen romance heart-throb?
It all comes down to one man, and one night in the summer of 1816.
That man was George Gordon, Lord Byron.
Sources
Byron’s Poetry and Prose: A Norton Critical Edition
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cajsa/thevampyre1816/polidori_bio.htm
http://www.unicorngarden.com/vamp5.htm
https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780571167920/page/108/mode/2up
news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8517000/8517132.stm
Gagool by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100443
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
-
22:07
Empire of the Mind
1 year agoA CLOCKWORK ORANGE & the ROMANTIC VILLAIN | How EVIL Characters Become CHARISMATIC
233 -
1:12:58
Redacted News
6 hours ago"World War 3 Begins in just 51 Days!" Western media WARNS it is coming in Mid-Summer! | Redacted
77.3K429 -
23:19
Scammer Payback
7 hours agoWe Created the First Ever 𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗜-𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗠 Call Center
20.5K61 -
DVR
Edge of Wonder
5 hours agoReal Frankenstein: Human Head Transplants & Secret Experiments
1.19K1 -
LIVE
Quite Frankly
6 hours ago"Human Shield De Niro & The Trump Question" ft Rich Baris 5/28/24
2,058 watching -
4:00:47
EXPBLESS
5 hours agoHappy Tuesday Rumble! | 🔴Call Of Booty LIVE🔴| #RumbleTakeOver
30.6K6 -
37:18
Chicks in the Office
2 days agoNikki Glaser Talks Taylor Swift Fandom & Her Decision to Be Childfree
33.9K11 -
1:16:09
Awaken With JP
7 hours agoRobert De Niro Takes Over The World - LIES Ep. 42
70.4K150 -
2:34:51
Tucker Carlson
7 hours agoJeffrey Sachs: The Untold History of the Cold War, CIA Coups Around the World, and COVID’s Origin
156K366 -
1:56:55
Darkhorse Podcast
8 hours agoWho Wins & WHO Loses? The 227th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying
47.8K57