Musings on Vampire/Werewolf Fiction
I’m currently reading (and enjoying) The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group. It’s a largely-disconnected sequel to The Reformed Vampire Support Group, which I have not read. I notice that fans of the first book generally don’t seem to like it. I think a lot of this is because RVSG is a deconstruction/parody (vampires have all the weaknesses but none of the strengths, so it’s basically immortality with a debilitating illness) while AWRG is more of a straightforward werewolf story.
When I stopped to think about it, though, I wonder if the author, Catherine Jinks, intended a similar thing for AWRG. The werewolves in this setting can’t choose when they transform (it’s only on the full moon), lose control of themselves and don’t remember what happened in wolf form. They don’t really have any powers to compensate, except for quicker reflexes and a heightened sense of smell that the protagonist finds more annoying than helpful.
But the thing is, aside from the fact that these werewolves are frequently kidnapped for dog fighting rings, that’s fairly normal. RVSG is unique because it portrays vampirism as something that legitimately sucks, but trying the same thing with werewolves comes off as “generic,” like the author just couldn’t think of cool powers to give them.
I find this interesting. Fiction has a lot of brooding vampires, whose angst may or may not come off as justified, but the character almost always has an assortment of cool powers that makes the condition somewhat attractive to the reader. Dracula is the archetypal vampire, not only immortal but also able to change his shape, control people’s minds, etc. In contrast, the modern view of werewolves is formed by The Wolfman, where lycanthropy has no benefits―it’s just a curse, and one which destroys the protagonist’s life.
I wonder if part of this is because, while vampires have been sympathetic since Varney, truly heroic ones are a newer invention; a good villain needs to be threatening, after all, but vampires kept their powers even as people started making them into good guys. Even in folklore you find werewolf protagonists (Bisclavret, for example), and since protagonists have to struggle, it makes since for lycanthropy to be more negative. (We have to fight Dracula, but Larry Talbot has to fight himself.) Cool powers aren’t unheard of in older stories, but they’re not always present and idea seems to have died out until recently.
Anyway, just some food for thought.
