The Twilight Series, Blade, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood and a whole host of other new-age vampire manifestations with varying theories on what vampires are, what they can do and what kills them.  But I don’t care about all that. Why do we find them so interesting that we give it all of our attention and warrant throwing all our money at Hollywood to go see them?

I think the main hook is their immortal nature.  We’re drawn to something that is, in effect, infinite.  Granted in our daily lives or even just by thinking we can not fully grasp the concept of infinity, or eternity.  By nature we are finite beings and hence vampires, by subverting this fundamental aspect of humanity, are made far more intriguing as beings we aspire to.  And we DO aspire to them, what after how glamorous they are made to look in modern literature and cinema.

But still, glamour aside, we subconsciously want the infinite and with most people writing off conventional religion and embracing the religion of atheism, vampires are the only somewhat-infinite idols they can turn their attention to.  For the general religious populace, those who believe in God and the hereafter, vampires give us a glimpse of what we want to be… happy in eternity (without all the bloodsucking and free of any need, ofcourse).

I have written before of how vampires also represent our dark side, but I find the philosophy of the creation of these beings in literature intriguing in itself and required another post with anotehr point of view.

All in all, I find the whole business terribly fascinating.  Maybe there’ll be another post soon form another angle.