Text 
Sparkling Edward Cullen immune to vampire rules ... what rules?
By J. MICHAEL CALLAs the shimmering Edward Cullen leaps onto the big screen today in the film version of "Twilight," some moviegoers may be left asking themselves if the rules about vampires have changed.
The answer, according to one university professor, is that there are no set-in-stone rules when it comes to vampires.
"Different cultures and periods invent the vampires they need," said Brian McCuskey, an associate professor of English and specialist in 19th-century British literature at Utah State University in Logan. "Monsters are an embodiment of our desires and anxieties, they shift. ... Vampires are constantlyreinvented."
Edward, a good vampire, isn't repelled by crucifixes, garlic and silver. He sparkles in the sunlight and doesn't hunt humans, opting instead to feast on animals.
He only wants to do right by his girlfriend, Bella, and protect her from the perils of the world, including the bad vampires who inhabit the best-selling series by Stephenie Meyer. He's the perfect boyfriend, except for that whole undead thing.
Edward may not be bound by the same rules that applied to his predecessors, but it's not the first time those rules have shifted.
<25CF> Vampires underwent a major evolution in 1816 when writers Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and John Williams Polidori decided to have a ghost-story-writing contest. What eventually emerged were "Frankenstein," written by Shelley, and a short story called "The Vampyre" by Polidori.
"Before Polidori, the vampire was kind of a brutal figure in folklore," McCuskey said. The big reveal in Polidori's story was that his leading man -- a suave, English aristocrat -- is actually a vampire.
<25CF> Bram Stoker took it a step further with the publication of "Dracula" in 1897. The vampire was no longer just a hideous, animated corpse with an unquenchable blood-lust; he also had manners.
"Dracula is incredibly cool and in control, but at heart he is still an animal," McCuskey said. "But it's still about sexual and violent urges, anng else is sort of a veneer."
Dracula, along with other literary incarnations of the vampire, had their weaknesses, including an aversion to garlic, sunlight, crucifixes and silver. They had to be invited into their victim's abodes, and many didn't cast reflections in a mirror, another sure giveaway to unsuspecting mortals.
"They are vulnerable," McCuskey said. "They have these Achilles' heels."
<25CF> Over the course of the 20th century, the vampire began to shift and diverge. The romantic, Byronic vampire began to become more human. Barnabas Collins, the tortured vampire in the 1960s soap opera "Dark Shadows," is an early example of the more sympathetic vampire.
<25CF> Anne Rice sent vampires into the superhero stratosphere with her 1972 book "Interview With the Vampire" and the numerous books of "The Vampire Chronicles" that followed.
But the monstrous vampire didn't disappear. The corpse-like fiend lived on in the 1922 film "Nosferatu," the television miniseries of Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" and more n the blood-soaked thriller "30 Days of Night."
While those sorts of animalistic vampires had just one thing on their minds -- gorging on blood -- their counterparts were showing their softer sides.
"They are becoming more human and want to go on 'Oprah' and talk about how hard it is to be a vampire," McCuskey said. "They are more tortured, agonized figures, and of course, even more seductive and lovable."
As the vampires are humanized, McCuskey said, many of the folkoric rules begin to fall away
"As long as they are psychologically and emotionally invulnerable, they have to have physical vulnerabilities," McCuskey said. "But as soon as you make them as emotionally and psychologically vulnerable as humans, then you don't need to have so many ways to kill them because they are going to start controlling themselves."
Which is exactly what Edward Cullen does in "Twilight." Although he is dangerously drawn to the scent of Bella's blood, he resists the urge to take a bite out of her. When Edward is around, Bella is safe and loved.
"As vampires learn self-discipline, you don't need to worry about how much garlic you've got around," McCuskey said.
Add Your Comment
Edward is HOTTTT....
Please read our posting guidelines before reporting a comment.