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Vampires Are Us: Understanding Our Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side — Occult Philosophy

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

Name: Vampires Are Us: Understanding Our Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side
Price: 18.95 USD
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ISBN: 9781578635603

✍️ Adler, Margot

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4.6

(1 review)

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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

Margot Adler, an acclaimed NPR correspondent, delves into our cultural fascination with vampires. Prompted by a personal encounter with mortality, she embarks on an exhaustive study of over 270 vampire novels, from classic gothic to contemporary YA. Adler posits that the vampire archetype serves as a potent mirror, reflecting humanity's deepest fears and desires concerning death, eternity, and the "other." Her insightful analysis reveals how each generation reshapes the undead to articulate its unique anxieties and societal shifts, offering a profound cultural dissection of this immortal mythos.

Adler, Margot

📚 all books by this author (2) →

🕯️

Occult Philosophy

Praise for this book

“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

🏛 Weiser Books 📅 2014 📖 256 pages 📔 Paperback ISBN: 9781578635603

Fun Fact

Margot Adler's *Vampires Are Us* offers a brilliantly insightful cultural examination, moving beyond simple folklore to dissect our profound engagement with the undead. It excels in revealing how literary vampires mirror our societal anxieties about death, "otherness," and eternity. While not a conventional history of vampire lore, its strength lies in astute analysis of popular fiction. Readers seeking detailed mythic origins might be disappointed, but those interested in the sociology of myth and popular culture will find it utterly compelling.

📝 Description: Vampires Are Us: Understanding Our Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side

"Vampires. Why do we care? In these pages you will find what is very simply, the most literate, imaginative, and just plain fascinating answer to that question ever written." ? Whitley Strieber In a culture that does not do death particularly well, we are obsessed with mortality. Margot 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 the long view allow us to see the world differently, imagine social structures differently? Would it increase or decrease our reverence for the planet? Vampires allow us to ask questions we usually bury." As Adler, a longtime NPR correspondent and question asker, sat vigil at her dying husband's bedside, she found herself newly drawn to vampire novels and their explorations of mortality. Over the next four years--by now she has read more than 270 vampire novels, from teen to adult, from gothic to modern, from detective to comic--she began to see just how each era creates the vampires it needs. Dracula, an Eastern European monster, was the perfect vehicle for 19th century England's fear of outsiders and of disease seeping in through its large ports. In 1960s America, Dark Shadows gave us the morally conflicted vampire struggling against his own predatory nature, who still enthralls us today. Think Spike and Angel, Stefan and Damon, Bill and Eric, the Cullens. Vampires Are Us explores the issues of power, politics, morality, identity, and even the fate of the planet that show up in vampire novels today. Perhaps, Adler suggests, our blood is oil, perhaps our prey is the planet. Perhaps vampires are us.

📑 What's inside

Preface
Part 1. Mirror, Mirror
Mortality
Power
Power and Politics
The Persecuted Other
The Struggle to Be Moral
Spirituality
Part 2. Margot's Annotated Bibliography of Vampire Fiction
Detective Vampire Fiction
Presidential Vampire Thrillers
Horror: Vampires as Pure Evil, or Close to It
Humorous Novels for Adults-Light, Frivolous, and Fun
Young Adult Fiction
Nerdy, Geeky Vampires
Vampires at School
Hogwarts for Vampires, or Vampires at Vampire School
Coming-of-Age Vampire Novels
Young Adult Romance
Adult Romance
Regional Vampire Novels
Vampires as Other Species, Vampires in Science Fiction, Vampirism as Disease
Supernatural Fantasy
Alternate History
Vampire Hunters Since Buffy
The Classics
Anne Rice Classics
Novels in the Classic Tradition
Unique, Odd, and Unclassifiable Vampire Novels
Lesbian Vampire Fiction
Anthologies of Vampire Short Stories
Nonfiction Vampire Books of Interest
The Best
The List: A Complete Listing of the Books
Afterword
Acknowledgments

💎 Expert review

“

💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Adler’s exhaustive survey of over 270 vampire novels offers a compelling cultural dissection, revealing how each generation reshapes the undead to articulate its specific anxieties. However, this book is not suited for readers seeking pure horror entertainment or straightforward plot-driven narratives. Those looking for quick thrills may find the academic tone and analytical depth slow-paced. It is best appreciated by those willing to engage with literary criticism and philosophical inquiry. While some might prefer a lighter touch, Adler’s background as an NPR correspondent ensures the prose remains accessible, making it a valuable resource for understanding the vampire as a mirror for humanity's deepest fears.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers fascinated by the psychological underpinnings of myth and the way society processes mortality through fiction will find this book deeply rewarding. Margot Adler offers a compassionate yet rigorous examination of why we are drawn to the immortal dark side, transforming a simple genre study into a profound meditation on human fear and desire. It is ideal for those who enjoy unpacking cultural symbols and understanding how literature reflects our collective anxieties about death, eternity, and identity. If you appreciate insightful analysis that connects personal encounters with broader societal shifts, this exhaustive study provides a unique lens through which to view the enduring allure of the undead.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.6/5

★★★★★

For those captivated by the enduring power of myth, curious about societal reflections in popular culture, or seeking a deeper understanding of our complex relationship with mortality. If you've ever wondered why vampires persist in our collective imagination, this book is for you.

Reader rating

4.6

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Adler’s exhaustive survey of over 270 vampire novels offers a compelling cultural dissection, revealing how each generation reshapes the undead to articulate its specific anxieties. However, this book is not suited for readers seeking pure horror entertainment or straightforward plot-driven narratives. Those looking for quick thrills may find the academic tone and analytical depth slow-paced. It is best appreciated by those willing to engage with literary criticism and philosophical inquiry. While some might prefer a lighter touch, Adler’s background as an NPR correspondent ensures the prose remains accessible, making it a valuable resource for understanding the vampire as a mirror for humanity's deepest fears.

❓ Frequently asked questions

While it touches upon the origins, the book primarily analyzes vampire novels from a cultural perspective, examining how literary portrayals reflect societal anxieties across different eras.

Rather than endorsing, Adler critically engages with a vast array of vampire fiction, from teen to adult, gothic to contemporary, to illustrate how each iteration serves as a cultural mirror.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Mortality and Eternity

Adler explores how vampires confront our discomfort with death, offering a unique lens through which to ponder immortality. She investigates whether an extended lifespan would alter our worldview, societal structures, or our reverence for the planet, allowing us to confront existential questions we typically suppress.

Cultural Reflection

The book masterfully demonstrates how vampire narratives serve as powerful cultural barometers. Adler shows how different eras craft the vampires they "need," using the undead to embody and explore contemporary anxieties, whether it's 19th-century fears of outsiders and disease or later societal shifts.

Archetype Evolution

Adler meticulously traces the transformation of the vampire archetype across centuries and genres. From the monstrous Dracula embodying Victorian fears to modern interpretations, she illustrates how this figure adapts, revealing an ongoing dialogue between humanity and its shadowed self through ever-evolving narratives.

📜 Historical context

Adler's work situates itself firmly within the tradition of cultural studies and folkloristics, examining popular narratives as reflections of deeper societal currents. It echoes earlier scholarship that analyzed mythical figures as psychological or cultural archetypes, yet her contemporary focus on the vampire's modern resurgence offers a fresh perspective on a timeless motif.

📚 Glossary

Archetype
Gothic
Folklore

📔 Questions to reflect on

Which vampire portrayal in popular culture resonates most with you, and what does that reveal about your own anxieties or desires concerning mortality?
If you were to create a vampire for our current era, what characteristics would they possess, and what societal fears or hopes would they embody?
How might a truly immortal perspective alter one's ethical framework or relationship with the transient world, as explored in vampire narratives?