h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Interesting you should barely touch upon the other great influence who redefined vampires for the 20th century (Anne Rice). going back from the film to the original book if "Interview with the Vampire" and its sequels, we discover that Anne R's vampires are subtly different from those of Bram Stoker and folk legend.

We discover:-

Drive a wooden stake through their heart. - barely stops Rice's vampires, who are capable of ripping the stake out and speed-healing the wound;
Decapitate them. - is a critical injury and one which can not easily be healed; (Marius attempts to swap the head of the child-vampire Claudia onto the shoulders of an older female, so that she can know maturity and not be permanently seven years old. He creates a shambling monster instead)
Attack them with holy water. - no discernible effect at all, as with garlic.
Forcibly expose them to sunlight. the surefire way of slaying an Anne Rice vamp in its younger immature state. But a vampire of 500 years old or older may develop a degree of immunity to sunshine and actinic light - Lestat dares the sun to do its worst, nearly dies in exposing himself to it, but develops permanent immunity - he becomes a vampire who can go out in daylight.


Interestingly, the "cannon fodder" of the not very intelligent vampires also appear in Rice: she calls them "revenants", just shambling animal like things who for whatever reason are to vampires what great apes like baboons are to human beings.

Nice article, btw, although am I a revenant for preferrnig the movie version with Kirsty Swanson as Buffy?

In the Anne Rice world:

Vampires need to feed on blood. - Vampires may only feed on blood. (must be a monotonous diet for all eternity?)

Vampires do not have a reflection. - Vampires are physical objects subject to most physical laws and posess refelctions and shadows.

Vampires may not enter a home or building unless they are invited. Vampires go where they like, RSVP not required

Vampires must stay out of direct sunlight. True for younger specimens under 500 years old.

Vampires are allergic to garlic. - Louis is shown a clove of garlic; he sniffs and tastes it and pronounces it fine for flavouring meat.

Vampires cannot enter holy grounds and fear crosses - both louis and Lestat enter and pray in churches and cathedrals while trying to answer the conundrum of whether they are good, evil, or just another part of Creation. Louis handles crosses without fear of physical damage.

In traditional vampire lore, a vampire is a corpse that goes around sucking blood and/or life force, depeding on which legends you believe. A revenant is a spirit that hangs around graves and sucks out life force. Some occultists in recent years have argued that a vampire is actually a corpse possessed by a revenant.

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In the book *Vampyre,* by Michael Scott, there are also two types of vampire. The sith were around before humanity, and assisted in the evolution of apes to humans. They believe that, if they were not persecuted by warm-bloods, then we would have colonised the solar system by now. Sith consider the odd drink of blood to be a fair trade, no different to the way humans eat the flesh of animals. Humans, however, disagree.

The sith in the book mentions undead blood-suckers in one of her monologues, but none ever appear. They apparenty are not true sith, but humans consder them one and the same.

*Firelord,* also by Scott, invloves the last generation of Atlanteans fighting to save their home from a vampire army. Here, the vampir as they are called are all under the psychic control of a sith. As for the rules...

Vampires need to feed on blood. - Sith always drink blood. Any blood is acceptable, but regular human blood is necessary. Vampir drink blood when told.

Vampires do not have a reflection. - I think they do, but it's never stated.

Vampires may not enter a home or building unless they are invited. - Never came up, but they probably can

Vampires must stay out of direct sunlight. - Sith can walk in sunlight with impunity. Vampir can stay in the sun indefinitely, but they weaken and eventually go blind.

Vampires are allergic to garlic. - Never comes up

Vampires cannot enter holy grounds and fear crosses - Never comes up. When the sith in *Vampyre* wakes up inside a church, she doesn't seem to frazzled.

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A lot of recent vampire fiction has tended to pick and choose what aspects of vampirism to include, and the vampires then make a point of ridiculing those the author does not include as silly superstitions.

All very interesting points about Rice, but the idea was to show the differences that Joss Whedon bought to the table. Although some additions could be made to the entry to show your points and sent via the update forum.

As for the movie version. A sore subject amoung fans of the TV series and Joss Whedon, as he walked away from the movie before completion.

Also, rather than getting into the myth of the reality, I was trying to touch on the myth as portrayed in movies and television. I know I mention on the modern day 'real vampires', but that is only because they have (generally) portrayed themselves on the vampires they have seen in movies.

Thanks all for the comments though.

Actually, it seems that daylight--both direct & indirect sunlight (ie shade)--kills young Anne Rice vampires. They sleep in coffins or underground mainly to protect themselves from daylight. In contrast vampires on Buffy can survive--at least for a while--in the shade during the day (so they'd be OK over here in England during winter, unlike sunny California).

Another difference is Anne Rice vampires--including Lestat (at least up to "Tale of the Body Thief")--become rendered unconscious between sunrise & sunset, making them vulnerable: although they instinctually strangle intruders.

Buffy & other vampire hunters would find it almost impossible to fight Anne Rice vampires since they can travel faster than human sight, and only fire or possibly being chopped into lots of small bits seems to kill them for sure (although if they're young there's the daylight advantage).