Vampires take a bite out of pop culture
Dr. Garza, TX Language Director, explains Twilight
AUSTIN (KXAN) - Pre-teens, teens, and adults into their 40’s are sinking their teeth into anything and everything Twilight - and fans in Austin are going beyond Hollywood to feed their insatiable needs.
Twilight-inspired cooking lessons and party planning are just a few of the activities by members of the group, Austin Twilighters, a fan meet-up for Twilight fanatics.
Along with Austin Twilighters , four other meet-up groups are also active.
One of them, Camarilla , is a more expansive social gathering, incorporating vampires and werewolves with role-playing video games or RPG, or "role-playing games."
It doesn’t stop there. In 2009, Isabella and Jacob - two main characters in the Twilight series - were the most popular names given to newborn babies , according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.
Earlier this month, New York Daily News reported a story on how teenagers are starting to give each other “ love bites ,” where there is an exchange of blood between two people, as a demonstration of passion, commitment and bond.
Although the obsession over vampire-related material has hit its peak with Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga , interest in vampires has existed for 2,300 years, starting in China and working its way to Europe.
The wild interest in vampires as well as any other horror, gothic or sci-fi literature or film appears in “periodic rises and falls, especially visible during times of economic, political and societal stress and offers a means for release,” explains Dr. Thomas Garza, Director of the Texas Language Center , who also teaches a class titled The Vampire in Slavic Culture at UT.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula , was written during the financial panic of 1893 along with wage reductions, unemployment and labor discontent throughout the decade. Ann Rice’sInterview with the Vampire was published a few years after the Watergate Scandal which created a disillusionment of the government. Her other books in The Vampire Chronicles continued in the 80’s, which was a decade beginning with double digit inflation and unemployment rates as well as the introduction of AIDS.
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