Splash News via Teen.com
Disclaimer: I’m not big on either vampires or death-matches, for personal reasons. I’m not judging you if you are, but this post isn’t the rantings of an encamped fanboy. I think that both mythologies are representative of the culture in which they gain popularity, and that’s what I’d like to spend a few minutes thinking about now.
Why are vampire stories a passing fad and post-apocalypses coming in strong? And what’s going to follow them? Keep reading to find out.
Vampires
Vampires are the fantasy of a society in control. They’re private, with their secretive, nocturnal natures moving unobserved. They break the rules of convention but they don’t disturb the status quo. The vampire myth is a private power and freedom fantasy in a society that’s viewed as functioning but restrictive. It’s fundamentally a myth of the Present.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written at the end of the Victorian era. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight was written seven years ago, before the recession occurred and comfortably after September 11th. Both take the reader to a private place of freedom, physically and emotionally — which makes sense, because if things seem generally good around you, but you’re wondering what more is out there to love or fear, a vampire is a decent myth to bite into.
Post-apocalypses
Post-apocalypses, which include zombies (The Walking Dead), road-warrior scenarios (The Book of Eli), and dystopias (The Hunger Games), are the fantasies of a society losing control, and collectively anxious about its future. The name of the genre — post-apocalypse — tells the story. “Let’s say the worst has happened, and the world has come to an end. What then?” It’s fundamentally a myth of the Future.
Post-apocalypses are a way of personifying our anxiety about the future, and realizing how, should everything collapse, we could go on. The genre arose under the threat of nuclear devastation in the Cold War, and has roared back into popularity as our nation faces a financial crisis that has at times threatened to destroy all our plans for the future.
These end-of-the-world stories have been popular among young adults for years, possibly because teens teeter on the edge of responsibility and fear by the nature of their in-between societal state. But as everyone from fifteen to sixty-five wonders what the next few years will hold, the post-apocalypse has become a powerful way for us, collectively, to imagine life going on, for better or for worse, after what we fear has come to pass.
What’s Next: Escape
Because of the rate of cultural change, the natural question is, what’s the next expression of the cultural mood? We’ve already begun to see it. We’re told that we’re in a Recovery, and many of us feel that the anxiety and high prices that surround us aren’t going away soon, that they’re the new normal. The result is a longing for a better time, or nostalgic/escapist myth, especially as expressed through fairy tales and time travel.
Escape is the fantasy of a society without control. When you feel like you don’t have any options and you’re living in your own post-apocalypse, on whatever scale, neither the private fantasy of the vampire nor the societal reshaping of the post-apocalypse hold the same shine (or sparkle, as the case may be). You neither want to move through society nor imagine it in a new form; you want a different, better society that once was, back before the-thing-that-made-your-life-worse. What you want is fundamentally the myth of the Past.
Once you start looking for the trend, you see it everywhere, from the one two three simultaneous Snow White adaptions in production now to the ascending popularity of time-traveling teen romances like Hourglass. Although we’re still in post-apocalyptic heyday at the moment, with Hunger Games having a monstrously enormous opening weekend and still going strong, keep your eye on Snow White and the Huntsman and other escapist stories to only get bigger, while the market for sulking superbeings and final survivors diminishes.
As for what comes after escapism, that’s still up for grabs. It largely depends on what occurs in the political and economic landscape over the next two to five years. If things get better, we can expect to see more realism, history, and heroism. If things get worse, the escapist trend is likely to intensify, and could quite possibly yield breakout forms of artistic expression such as literary ARGs or independent gems like Dr. Horrible.
For now, though, settle in for a few years rich in fairy tales first, followed by time-travel (or both at the same time). Also keep an eye out for imaginative Americana (like Cowboys & Aliens or Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), which combines elements of both. Get comfortable with escapist entertainment — we’ll be here for a little while.
[Update: Just after posting this, I read on Vulture that Zooey Deschanel is in talks for a time-travel love story. Sooo…]