Bite Club: Vampires Have Gone from Creepy to Chic
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What Happened:
Harlequin, a publisher known for its steamy romances, is hoping to attract more teen readers; and it’s using vampires to do so. Intertwined, a story by Gina Showalter that features a vampire princess will be the first.
Vampires have come a long way since Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula, published in 1897. Back then, vampires often were depicted as scary-looking, often animal-like creatures.
Now, of course, the undead are downright sexy, from Edward Cullen in Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight series to Bill Compton in the HBO program “True Blood.”
Fashion designers have taken cues from the undead, too. Models often strut down the runway sporting vampire-inspired makeup and fashion, from blood-red lipstick to dark and decadent eveningwear.
“Rarely have monsters looked so sultry—or so camera-ready,” wrote Ruth La Ferla for The New York Times. “No small part of this latest vampire mania seems to stem from the ethereal cool and youthful sexiness with which the demons are portrayed.”
Talk About It:
What makes vampires so cool? Is it the fact they’re always young? They never die? Their special powers? The fact they can sleep all day and party all night?
Is there such a thing as a “good” vampire? If so, name a good example.
Some say vampires are popular because they reflect real worries, such as alienation, the fear of growing old and conflicting ideas about the nature of sin.
Do you believe vampires could be a healthy outlet to deal with those issues? Or, is a fascination with vampires always problematic?
What the Bible Says:
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be temped with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (
“And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them” (
“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (
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