Vampires are Us: Understanding Our Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side

(Paperback)

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Starting as a meditation on mortality after the illness and death of her husband, Margot Adler read more than 260 vampire novels, from teen to adult, from gothic to modern, from detective to comic. She began to wonder why vampires have such traction in our society. Why is Hollywood spending billions on vampire films and television series every year This interest led her to explore issues of power, politics, morality, identity and even the fate of the planet. Adler writes, "Vampires let us play with death and the issue of mortality. They let us ponder what it would mean to be truly long lived. Would having a long life allow us to see the world differently, imagine social structures differently, have a longer view Would it increase or decrease our reverence for the planet Vampires allow us to ask questions we usually bury. "Every society creates the vampire it needs," wrote the scholar Nina Auerbach. Adler's book explores how vampires have existed in culture throughout history and how our obsession has continued to grow. Dracula was written in 19th century England when there was fear of outsiders and of disease seeping in through England's large ports. Dracula, an Eastern European monster, was the perfect vehicle for those fears. But who are the vampires we need now In the last four decades, going back to Dark Shadows, we have created a very different vampire: the conflicted, struggling -to-be-moral-despite-being-predators vampire. Spike and Angel, Stefan and Damon, Bill and Eric, the Cullens who are all struggling to be moral despite being predators, as are we. Perhaps Vampires are us.

Reviews

Insightful and compelling...as a tool for understanding the drift of human culture over the last two centuries. The evermorphing vampire, powerful and at the same time significantly flawed, invites us to reflect on our own life as we seek control, community, and some sense of selfworth. -J. Gordon Melton, Distinguished Professor of American Religious History, Baylor University-- "Reviews"
Margot Adler's new book does what I most appreciate in a piece of writing: it makes me look at the world differently. Vampires became a lens to help us examine our attitudes toward sex, death, and how we are sucking the lifeblood out of the earth. She explores her personal fascination and our cultural obsession with vampires with humor, insight, and great emotional honesty. An illuminating and fascinating work! -Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance and The Fifth Sacred Thing-- "Reviews"
Vampires. Why do we care Between these pages, you will find what is, very simply, the most literate, imaginative and just plain fascinating answer to that question that has ever been written. Reading this was pure pleasure. First rate! -Whitley Strieber-- "Reviews"

Author Bio

Margot Adler has been involved with Earthbased spirituality, Wicca, and Paganism since 1972. She is the author of Drawing Down the Moon, the classic study of Paganism and Goddess Spirituality, as well as Heretic's Heart: A Journey Through Spirit and Revolution. In her mundane life, she is a 35year veteran correspondent for NPR whose pieces regularly air on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition. She lives in New York City. Visit her at www.margotadler.com.