Nobody can shut up about vampires these days. What do they represent? How have they changed from Dracula to Lestat to Spike to Edward? People usually reach for the sexual symbolism. But this morning one of the full-time teachers at the GED center where I tutor was talking with a couple of kids about vampire symbolism and said:
“Vampires clicked for me when I was a street worker in the 80s.* I saw people walking down the streets at 3 in the morning, desperate for crack or heroin. And that’s what vampires are: the addictive substance itself doesn’t hurt you, but once you ingest it — once you let it bite you — it sucks out your spirit, your blood. Vampires and drugs are attractive, they convince you that you want them.”
“Everything about me invites you in,” right? I’m sure people have written about vampires-as-drugs before, but I think this reading makes Twilight more interesting — all Bella wants is more of Edward; she becomes an addict with no personality of her own. Edward doesn’t suck blood, but he sucks out her spirit.
Well, he sucks, anyway. Ba-dum-ching.
* He means he worked with youth on the streets, not as a prostitute. It threw me the first time, too.
1 response so far ↓
1 Doug Orleans // Aug 5, 2009 at 11:06 pm
This was right next to your post in Google Reader: http://basicinstructions.net/?p=1149
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