Monday, July 25, 2011

Nova Sparks Stops By and Talks Vampires


VAMPIRES: the bad guys for Love

I was riding the train one day in my home city of New York, reading "How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire" by Kerreyln Sparks for the hundredth time, when a question dawned on me. Why do I like this book so much? It was just another Vampire book in my opinion. There wasn't anything special about it at all. There wasn't any new twist on the story of Vampires involved. It was just a plain ol' book about vampires. I couldn't figure it out. Then I wondered, is there a big reason why so many people are in LOVE with Vampire stories? It can't just be because Vampires are what's in right now. That doesn't explain why Vampires are the cool thing, it just suggests that they are. I wanted to know why Vampires are so freaking loveable. Then it sort of came to me in a way. People, or more so, women, love the bad guys. That simple. And women love bad guys that change their nature for the one that they love. In real life, most women would ignore the good guy (the one who would naturally worship the ground you walk on and never hurt your feelings) for the bad guy (the one who pisses you off and breaks your heart every chance they get). It's the idea of the bad guy that women love and the fact that for the past few years Vampires have been the new race of bad guys makes no difference. Vampires are known for ripping out throats, never being able to feel any real emotions, killing people and moving constantly through time and place. When there is a Vampire who embodies everything that makes him a vampire, yet still finds it in him to call a human his mate, it drives us crazy! 

A bad guy that is willing to suppress his bad side for someone else, really shows how much he cares about that someone. That's why good guys always finish last. If you are naturally a good person, and naturally treat people with respect and try your best not to hurt someone else, it doesn't really mean much if you are doing all those things to your significant other. That's the way you've always been. The good guy rarely changes himself for his significant other. The bad guy, to show how much he loves you, will make changes for you and his changes will be obvious. You'll get that feeling of swift validation. 

We love True Blood so much, not because of the action and the twisted story line, but because of Bill and Sookie (and maybe now even Eric and Sookie). It's the idea of a sweet home town girl having such an effect on evil bloodsucking vampires who would easily kill anyone else but would NEVER hurt her.

We love Twilight not because of the story line, but because of Bella and Edward. The idea of a "not-so-bad" Vampire who is willing to give everything up for a human girl when he never wanted to be with anyone before because of who he is.

In simpler terms:

A bad guy who changes for you = "Oh my God! He really loves me!"

A good guy who's good to you = "He's a really sweet guy, but I'm not sure if this is going anywhere."

Women don't do this consciously it just happens for most of us. I even fall a little guilty of this in my book series the DOME trilogy. The interaction between my lead character Emma and an alien bad ass Ked, felt all too natural to not make it happen.  

In literature and films, love seems more real when it involves a bad guy. Don't believe me? Re-watch as many romantic comedies you can think of and record how many involved the good guy getting the girl. 

There are a few, but trust me...it doesn't have the same effect on the audience as when the bad guy turns over a new leaf for the girl of his dreams.


Nova Sparks Author of the DOME (the DOME trilogy #1)
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

4 comments:

Thanks for stopping by. I love hearing what you think!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)