Who Wants To Live Forever?

I've read a lot of books, quite a few of them featuring characters with blood-sucking, night-walking, never-aging immortal tendencies. Currently I am reading the fourth book in the “Mortal Instruments” series by Cassandra Clare. One of the characters is a teenage boy who has been turned into a Vampire, then, through drinking the blood of a remarkable personage, now has the ability to walk in the sun. They call him "daylighter" because of it. He can only live on blood now but isn't the homicidal type, so he's sneaking animal blood to get by. He's in denial, trying to live his life as much like a normal teenager as possible, including living with his mom who has no clue what’s going on with him, except the maternal instinct that keeps nagging at her that something ain't right with her baby boy. No, I'm not doing a book review. I just wanted to talk about this because as I was reading it, I started thinking of all the Vampires I've read about over the years.

Vampires have been portrayed a variety of ways in books and film. From Nosferatu (creepy as all get out, not sexy at all) to Victorian Vampire Lestat (sexy, in a refined kind of way) to Twilight's Edward Cullen (brooding, teenage, glittering, stalker’ish dream boat) to True Blood's Eric Northam (sexy, hunky, dark, dangerous and hilarious). By the way the last one is my favorite Vampire of all time! Partially because i love the character from the books and how they brought him to life on the TV show, and because the actor (Alexander Skarsgard) reminds me of my husband. Anyhow, in all these stories, Vampires--whether sexy or creepy--have held some kind of allure for the readers/viewers. When I was reading this book earlier I suddenly thought "Why? Why are we drawn to this mythical creature? What is the allure?" 

So I want to pose the question to you, my readers, "Who wants to live forever?" Really let’s think about it. "What are the pros and cons of being a Vampire?" Here's a few I came up with:


Pro:                                                                  Cons:
Immortality                                                        Everyone you know will die long before you.
Eternal Youth (they're not the same thing)           The not aging thing will freak people out!
Strength,                                                            Not knowing your own strength could be hazardous.
Agility                                                                Not so perfect sight, smell and hearing helps you zone out!
Heightened senses                                              Special powers can be more a nuisance than a gift.
Special powers (in some cases)                          Living eternally at night could get boring after a while.
"Sexy Vampire Mojo" (quote from the book :)    Being sexy all the time just seems like to much work!

Personally, I don't think living alone forever on the blood of others sounds like a whole lot of fun, it sounds downright depressing! I'd much rather be a Fairy. Give me some awesome wings, sprite-like powers, and mythical enchanting beauty; that's all I need. But I want to hear what you all think. So let’s hear you sound off below. To be a Vampire… Yay or Nay?

Well, I'm off to write more of "The Offspring" book two of the "Children of Cain" series. In case you didn't know, book one "The Forsaken" is now available in print and Kindle form at www.rjcraddock.com

You can also find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Below I've added a video of the song "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Princes of the Universe" by Queen. Yes, I know they were both on the soundtrack for "The Highlander" film, which does involve immortals, but who are not Vampires. Now go forth and enjoy the video, enjoy my book, or just enjoy your life!

R.J. Craddock