The Problem with Vampires? Too Straight

Not that you were waiting for anyone's permission, but remember it is a legitimate critique to say a work is not gay enough, or, quoting this week's New Yorker, "annoyingly heterosexual." As Joan Acocella examines the world's undying fascination with vampires, she cites Nina Auerbach, the sixty-five year-old academic powerhouse and Guggenheim Fellow, who co-edited the new Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Acocella writes:

At that time, furthermore, people in England were forced, by the scandal of the Oscar Wilde trials (1895), to think about something they hadn’t worried about before: homosexuality. Many scholars have found suggestions of homoeroticism in “Dracula.” Auerbach, by contrast, finds the book annoyingly heterosexual. Earlier vampire tales, such as Polidori’s story and “Carmilla,” made room for the mutability of erotic experience. In those works, sex didn’t have to be man to woman. And it didn’t have to be outright sex—it might just be fervent friendship. As Auerbach sees it, Stoker, spooked by the Wilde case, backed off from this rich ambiguity, thereby impoverishing vampire literature.

Got that? The inclusion of gay experience makes for richer work and the exclusion impoverishes it. Practice saying that (in your own words). Aloud. In print. Online.

As for inclusion elsewhere in the magazine's current issue, Ariel Levy profiles openly gay, Moroccan-born fashion designer Alber Elbaz who has re-established the prominence of Paris's oldest surviving house, Lanvin. Previously he worked for Geoffrey Beene, Guy Laroche, and Yves Saint Laurent, only to be fired by and replaced by Tom Ford after Gucci bought YSL. Elbaz has been with his partner Alex Koo for sixteen years. Article not available online.

Oh, and totally unrelated to erotic adventures of neck-biting gay vampires in leather, The Black Party's video is up. As if I have to say, NSFW.

Comments

[Corinne Quinones]

I love this picture, so artistic. Vampires have always been known as very open minded creatures. I am pretty sure they have always been known as bisexual creatures as most of them are written in fictional stories, or the ones I have read. "Twilight," is a great example of what a vampire is NOT.

[Storyofalice.wordpress.com]

Lovely picture! Where is it from? x