But do they sparkle? (my ramblings)

I'm old enough to remember when werewolves and vampires were the bad guys. Does anyone else remember that?

The idea that they might have redeeming qualities, a good side if you will, is generally ok with me. But it always comes off as a weak, childish desire on the part of the creators rather than a convincing, well-thought out circumstance.

The whole idea behind the classic gothic vampire is that he is EVIL. As in, he made a pact with Satan, evil. Gothic vampires are a direct result of Christian doctrine. The creators envisioned a creature that was completely backward from the Christian ideal of goodness. The very antithesis of goodness, if you will. Werewolves are similar, but more secular, deriving from the idea that man could turn back into a beast, leaving behind his society, his well-mannered behaviors, and his knowledge.. essentially devolving. Werewolves represent the antithesis of human civilization.

What I'm getting at here is that I miss monsters being monsters. I always get the feeling that the writers are desperately in love with their monsters. They want them to be likeable, and are so fascinated with them, that they force the monsters into some sort of ridiculous "social contract" to make them acceptable. They say things like, "We only drink cows blood," or "We only hunt bad people," or "We only hunt animals, and we can totally control all of our supernatural urges (even though the very nature of something that is supernatural is that it is beyond our control)."

In short, the creators are so in love with their monsters that they want them to sparkle.. similar to a certain unnamed fiction writer who couldn't stand the thought of her vampire crush burning in the sunlight, and settled with him glittering instead.

I feel like these attitudes are a direct result of a culture that is so intent on pursuing "equal rights and tolerance" that we have lost the ability to distinctly recognize a monster. We can't seem to stomach the idea that this race of werewolves or vampires is intrinsically and irrevocably evil, so we start "humanizing" them, when the crux of the matter from the start is that they are MONSTERS!!

Thank you for reading my ramblings.