There was something so dark and introspective about gothic literature that we haven’t been able to channel since the Romantic period in quite the same manner. Perhaps some fiction will come our way like this after a year without a ‘summer’ as most people understand a summer. I agree that vampires were never scary, but intriguing and made us question our goals as human animals. Excellent discussion on this classic!

I like your closing comment, kind of sums up vampiric lore in a nutshell !

A long while back, I read that sexual desire / acts in dark ages England (?) were sometimes claimed to be the result of seduction by incubus or succubus. Do we reckon the vampire may have been a convenient fall guy for humans with purity hangups for a while longer than they've been sensationalized with the likes of the classically Byronic vampire?

thank you so much for this