I don’t turn to the NYT op-ed page for meditations on vampire literature — but for some reason, there’s a big piece on the bloodsucking undead today. It’s isn’t even Halloween. So what’s the occasion? Probably the opportunity to have a byline from hip movie director Guillermo del Toro, who is the co-author of a new vampire novel. I’ve got to say, as much as I like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the horror genre, I’m getting a little weary of vampires in pop culture. Can’t we move on to mummies or lake monsters or something? I’m even more tired of pseudo-scientific speculation such as this:
The vampire may originate from a repressed memory we had as primates. Perhaps at some point we were — out of necessity — cannibalistic. As soon as we became sedentary, agricultural tribes with social boundaries, one seminal myth might have featured our ancestors as primitive beasts who slept in the cold loam of the earth and fed off the salty blood of the living.
Whatever. If you’re looking for a smart interpretation of vampires — one that’s kinda conservative, too — read Tony Woodlief’s NRO piece from a few months ago.