On Vampires and Metaphors.

i'd like to take the time to point to the original social and literary vampires of the middle ages and onward.
le fanu's and stoker's being the more blatant examples, but you can trace some of these features back as far as polidori's.

a creature of the night, normally presented as a handsome, rich, reclusive stranger, attacks traditionally conservative communities, attacking and often killing the older members, but taking the younger ones in loving embrace before biting, and more often then not, doing this in an intimate manner, allowing the youth to become a vampire, where then the story details the trails and tribulations of this infection, as well as the struggle with this new identity.

from my experience, the majority of vampire stories, wether made in a more villainous or humane light, the original vampire was either a metaphor for the homosexual deviant noble, taking advantage of, and sometimes converting the youthfully beautiful peasant to their way of live, in trade of eternal life, and the ability to convert someone of their own. at the same time killing the older generation, disposing of them after getting what they want.

alternatively, you can view it as a metaphor for sexual disease (which homosexuality was viewed as, now that i think about it). both older and newer generations are under threat, but the older ones get killed by it, while the younger people attacked more likely become carriers, joining said original noble in infecting and killing others. would also work at the level of something like stoker, where you get to see a lot more of the intimate life of both the infecter and infectee.



so what say you, dear reader?
i know this doesn't apply to modern vampires completely, but the origin is still there.