Personally, I find it a bit squicky to use vampires as a metaphor for real world prejudices.

I guess it could be a problem but I am choosing to see it as the “monstrous other” made deliberately explicit in order to comment on how/why we construe certain groups in that way. Even if that was the writer’s intention and not just my interpretation, I suppose there is always the danger that it winds up subtly reinforcing the status quo .

Personally, I find it a bit squicky to use vampires as a metaphor for real world prejudices. Although unlike most shows that do so, True Blood acknowledges the literal existence of those prejudices too: Tara having to pretend that the Descendants of the Glorious Dead aren’t celebrating a wannabe nation that deemed her fit to be bought and sold; Lafayette being told his burgers might have AIDS (though his response to that was a superlative laying down of righteousness).

I agree with Alphie about Charles de Lint. Though I haven’t read Jack the Giant Killer, I’ve read a lot of his books. I love he inextricably wraps the magical and the mundane around each other – in plots, settings, and characters – and how they aren’t “chosen,” but win through courage, intelligence, determination, strength, and sometimes even compassion.

I’m a big fan of Kelley Armstrong. In my local shops, her books get filed under both horror and romance, but they read more like mysteries (albeit mysteries where the heroines are very good at landing hot men – but then again, that doesn’t differentiate them much from male-centred mysteries). And her characters deal with those mysteries in detective-y ways. Plus, she has my favourite werewolves – both individual characters and as a species.

Anne Rice books irritate me (not just the angst, but the fact that the really interesting vampires get sidelined: why would I want to read about Lestat when I could be reading about Gabrielle; why would I want to read about Pandora when I could be reading about Flavius? I liked Pandora more than other vampire books). However thing about Anne Rice’s books that I find most perplexing is the widespread notion that it’s Louis who’s the whiny one, not Lestat.

Hmm, looks like another library request coming up…

Overall, I was rather grimly amused when the local Borders decided to stop trying to shunt these into the Horror and Science Fiction sections of their shelves, and put them into Romance, where they more appropriately belonged (Romance with Fangs, as opposed to Romance on Horseback, Romance in Hospital, or Romance in General). I don’t mind the whole genre too much – the heroines are pretty much of a muchness, and you get the standard romance novel dwelling on how they look, what they’re wearing, and how good their supernatural-being-of-choice[5] looks, as well as the necessary arse-kicking prior to their supernatural-being-of-choice stepping in and saving the day with their supernatural abilities (not to mention sweeping the heroine off her feet) and lots and lots of bloodshed.

To be honest, my first and foremost criterion for reading anything, no matter what the genre, is “does it sound interesting?” and the second one is “does it keep me interested?”. Some of these books do actually cover some rather interesting issues in alongside the standard angst – things like having the (generally male) vampires having trouble with the way that modern women act; the issues of how to sustain a lengthy existence (centuries, possibly millenia; this for a species which, as one person so sapiently pointed out, has problems sustaining themselves through a wet Sunday afternoon); even the straightforward physiological problems inherent in being fed on by a vampire on a regular basis (anaemia, anyone?). I’ll admit I like the way Charlaine Harris (Southern Vampires) handles things best, but that’s mainly because I do have a soft spot for an author who manages to have her characters laughing at themselves. Second on my personal list is Jennifer Rardin (Jaz Parkes) because again, her characters don’t take themselves overwhelmingly seriously[6].

For least favourite, I’d have to nominate the works of Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer in equal proportion, primarily because they’re so focussed on being deadly serious about the whole business, and taking it all so seriously. Stephanie Meyer gets an additional serve from me because she’s obviously confused her sidhe princes with her vampires, and mixed either or both up with a good solid serve of Mormon theology then served the whole underbaked mess out in massive slabs. My fourteen year old niece used to be quite a fan of the Twilight series – but both her parents have been working to wean her onto more traditional versions of the vampire mythos (things like the “Vampire Knight” manga, and good old Dracula – the Bram Stoker version), which she’s found much more interesting.

[1] Aka “From ghosties, ghoulies and the long leggedy beasties living at number 28, may the good lord deliver us” genre of fiction.
[2] I gave up buying them when I realised there was slashfic in fandoms I liked available online for free which had better plots, more porn, and less pointless angsting.
[3] Again, dumped for the online slash – much less angst, plus my preferred style of bishounen.
[4] Haven’t seen the TV series as yet, and don’t particularly want to. The books are apparently much better, from all the reviews I’ve read.
[5] Or, depending on the series, the supernatural dish of the day.
[6] Anyone who gets a chronically flirtatious CIA assassin to get himself issued the alias of “Thor Longfellow” can’t be too bad, after all!

I love that Kate Harding called Twilight the new Palin.

I was thinking about ” people as things” and I guess one variant is reducing someone’s lived experience to a narrow meaning so that you can use them as a pawn in your argument or rhetoric. People as cyphers or symbols.

I don’t expect much in the way of feminist awareness from any genre. Romance is hardly the bottom of the list. There is nothing intrinsic about romance tales or romance fandom that means they must conflate creepy, stalkerish abuse and twu wuv.

I recommend Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.