Wampyr

In one of those displays of synchronicity I enjoy, this quote came up on Grognardia:

"Like Stoker's Dracula, I find vampires to be both attractive and repulsive: attractive, because the idea of nearly-immortal damned souls stalking the night is a terrifying one; repulsive, because too few people nowadays look on vampires as unambiguously evil. I suppose that's as much proof as we need to illustrate the glamor of evil, but I can't help but feel disappointment at the way the archetype of the vampire has been so watered-down and indeed neutered of the power it packed in Stoker's day. I think there's still a lot of punch left in vampires but most of that punch comes from contemplating their status as thralls of Hell (whether literally or metaphorically) rather than as forever-young demigods."

The other day I was walking home from work and having an imaginary argument with a straw man (or straw woman) about the nature of vampirism, and the neutered undead that've infested popular culture since Interview With The Vampire - the movie and novel's sequels more than the original work.

They're all such human-loving sooks these days - no wonder two out of three people polled would rather be a werewolf.