• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Forbes exercised her funny bone in 1994, appearing in the black comedy Swimming with the Sharks (with Kevin Spacey) and in a guest role on Seinfeld,

The Pleasure and Pain of Alternative Lifestyles

Vampires have been with us for so long in mainstream media that it seems they’ve lost much of their eerie mystique. While they may not be to everyone’s taste, vampires as metaphor are as common as the girl next door archetype. They’re everywhere. But some readers will still be surprised to learn that there are real people who identify with vampires, or aspects of the vampire lifestyle, to the point of calling themselves one.

What we consider alternative begins first with how we define traditional. Not every person sees, or participates, in the world in the same way. Some practices are played out in full view via a particular taste in clothing or music, and displayed at social events (like concerts or other gatherings) that cater to like-minded people. Other practices, deeply intimate, are conducted in private between consenting partners away from the public gaze.

True Blood pushes boundaries, breaking the mold of what many of us consider typical by exploring a variety of lifestyles. The series doesn’t attempt to explain or apologize, and as a result over the course of each episode we’re introduced to the many shades of each character as complex, rich, and utterly unique. Yet of all the lifestyles, only one is a pure fictionalization: the existence of vampires as undead creatures. The rest are very much alive. So, let’s explore some of these subcultures in an effort to demystify them.

When two people love each other very, very much . . . kidding! This won’t be The Talk.

We’ve already established that “vampyre” is a term often used to describe people who identify with the, for lack of a better word, theatrics of vampiretainment. Some go by “Goth,” white faces, red lips, black hair, and eyeliner being some of their identifiable markings. If you’re of a certain age, you probably had a few as good friends in high school, if you weren’t one yourself. I’d like to put myself in that category, but, alas, my claim to fame was being the only kid not to get frisked at a Skinny Puppy concert. Vampyres may also go by the term “lifestylers.”

Rebecca Summers runs the United Kingdom’s leading vampyre society, the London Vampyre Group (lvg). Her interest in vampires began with a love of fairy tales. “Sleeping Beauty was one of my favorite stories,” she recalls. “I remember being fascinated by her death and following resurrection. She was beautiful too — pale skin, black hair, and red lips. As I grew older I saw connections between that character and vampires in terms of death and seemingly coming back to life.”

Summers says that many members of the lvg see dressing up as a natural part of their day-to-day lives, and don’t consider it a costume. The group does, however, organize themed parties that allow the members to, as Summers says, “dress up over and above our usual gothic/vampyric uniform, and in some ways become another character.”

Nancy Schumann is the editor of The Chronicles, a fanzine dedicated to promoting interest and discussion about all aspects of the Gothic, pagan, fetish, and vampyre genres. The zine’s articles cover cinema, literature, music, art, and style, as well as essays and opinion pieces covering a wide range of topics such as Lilith, the Brides of Dracula, the origins of corsetry, paganism, burlesque, and book and dvd reviews, just to start. The zine boasts a diverse set of contributors: academics, cartoonists, reviewers, and performers. “What brings the lvg members together in the first place,” Schumann says, “is a common interest in vampires, and everybody has their own story, their own particular interest in the subject, which helps to fill the magazine with many interesting things that are very diverse in nature but all relate to the main topic.” She does note one major distinction between The Chronicles and mainstream fare. “Vampire-featuring