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North Americas influence on the world

In Sweden we have a saying “when America sneezes, Sweden gets a cold”. And that is a very true saying. The US is a very influential country and whatever the Americans do or say, whether it is right or wrong, the rest of the world will follow. Now you would think that I will write a paper on the great US, the land of opportunities, but I won´t. Being here for a couple of month I now understand that The US isn’t all it claims to be. The land of opportunities isn’t the right expression for this country, but it sells. People all over want to come here to work and to live, but it is only a tiny part of those of everyone coming here who’ll be able to make a living here. And it is tragic that the Americans themselves aren´t all able to take care of themselves and their families. What America has is a great way of convincing the rest of the world about their greatness and how and why they are right. My paper will cover something that is honest, something that is American and something the whole world loves. It will cover American authors, movies and TV-shows with one thing in common, one thing that the world obsesses about right now.

What do Ann Rice, LJ Smith, Charlaine Harris and Stephanie Meyer all have in common? Except for all of them being females, they are all successful, award winning authors; their great books have been transformed into movies or TV-shows with one common ingredient; Vampires. Right now the world is pining for more of these mythical creatures. In this paper you will learn about the vampires, you’ll learn some history but most of all you will get introduced to the vampires of the 20^th and 21^st century.

Everyone knows what a vampire is. You’ve heard the stories since you where little. They are now more popular than ever. It is a mythological creature of the night. They are the living dead. They are forever young. They can’t appear during the day, because the sun will burn them, they don’t like garlic or holy water. Crucifixes frighten them and they can only survive by feeding on blood. The literary historian Brian Frost says that “the belief in vampires and bloodsucking demons is as old as man himself”. But the term vampire didn’t appear until the early 18^th century in Europe, where the term was frequently used. All of the vampire stories actually led to a hysteria which resulted in people staking corpses in belief that they were vampires. This is a part of the European history that can be compared to the US Salem witch trials where people were arrested and imprisoned accused of performing witchcraft. It all took place in the 1690’s and some of these “witches” were executed.

In 1819 the first book about the vampires was published. It was the work of the British author John Palodori titled “The Vampyre”. It was a great success and an inspiration for other authors. One of the authors influenced by Palodori was Bram Stocker who wrote the book about Dracula, the most famous vampire in the world at that time. It was in Bram Stokers book that we also got introduced to the vampire enemy, the werewolf’s as well. But the vampires didn’t just exist in Europe. There are stories from all over the world telling us about different creatures of the night. Inspired by Dracula, the word of the vampires spread in the US as well, especially in Rhode Island and Connecticut were it has been documented that families have removed their dead family members heart in belief that a vampire was responsible for killing them. The most famous documented story takes place in Rhode Island in 1892.

This is the most recent documented story about a vampire in The US history, but it is only folklore. It all started in 1883 when the mother of the Brown family passed away from consumption. A couple of months later the oldest sister died from the same disease, the brother Edwin came down with the above disease and was sent to Colorado to get better. But he returned when the disease progressed. Mercy got the disease. Consumption is normally a very tedious disease and it takes your life and energy away from you, but Mercy’s case was a lot shorter than her mother´s, sister´s and her brother´s and she died only a few months after being diagnosed. After Mercy was buried Edwin’s condition got worse. The father of the Brown family had now lost his wife and two of his daughters and now he was about to lose his only son too. George Brown started to look for an answer to all of his losses. Science didn’t give him any answers and neither did medicine. The only answer he got was from folklore. He now got in touch with the vampires, and in all of his grief he was determined that the Brown family was under vampire attacks. But who did the vampire attacks? Was it the mother, the older sister or Mercy herself? That’s when he decided to dig up the corps of Mercy Brown, because signs where telling him that she was the one. They cut her heart out and burned it to ashes. Folklore told them that that was the way to kill a vampire, and to cure a person influenced by a vampire he had to feed on the ashes of its burned heart.  You can only guess who was fed the ashes of Mercy’s heart in this story. But did it work? Edwin Brown died two month later.

In modern history there are still stories and belief that vampires exist; during the 70s there were stories of a vampire who haunted a cemetery in London. In the early -00s apparently Malawi was under vampire attacks when people were attacked for their blood. Villagers left their homes in fear of the attacks. One person was killed by the villagers, who took the law in their own hands and three others were badly injured all due to the facts that the residents thought they were vampires.  In 2005 there were stories being told about a victim being bitten by numerous vampires. This story was ruled as an urban legend by the London police. Today more than ever before, the vampires are a hot subject. Whenever you turn on the TV there you´ll see commercials about The Vampire Diaries, the Twilight Saga and HBO´s hit series, True Blood. Wherever you go and whoever you meet, someone will bring up the topic of vampires. The vampires have been a real hype since the TV-series “True Blood” first aired and the movie “The Twilight” was released, both in 2008. 

Over the century plenty of books about vampires have been written, and it is those books that have set the modern standard for what a vampire is and what a vampire can and can’t do. They can’t be in sunlight because their skin burst into flames and their teeth changes while feeding. My first introduction to the vampires was in the movie Buffy the Vampire slayer, Joss Whedons flick from 1992 about a girl being the chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness as the popular TV-show, based on the movie, says. You’ll get introduced to Buffy a typical teenage girl with a mission; to kill vampires and demons of the dark. In the seven seasons the show aired, you saw Buffy and her friends kill vampires in the typical ways that you’ve seen and heard of before; a stake through the heart, being brought into sunlight and burst into fire. You’ll also get introduced to the stereotypical vampires, they feed on human life, they dread the sunlight and they live in cemeteries. They will kill you without any remorse because of their lack of soul. But you also meet a vampire who has a soul, whose life now consist in trying to make amends for all the people he wronged in the past. This is a common theme in the new vampire movies and TV-shows of the 21th century. Vampires trying to be good, who doesn’t want to kill human for a living and who hunts animals, to feed on their blood instead. 

In the late 20^th century the vampires got portrayed as tragic heroes rather than the traditional portrays of a vampire. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles is one example of how the modern vampires are portrayed. Her characters are not affected by garlic and crosses. They can’t be killed with the traditional wooden stake. They don’t age but they do need blood as a source of energy. The blood doesn’t have to be human, but it is preferred. Her vampires aren’t able to turn into a bat as the traditional vampires are, but they do have the ability to read human thoughts. In addition they can move very fast, they have an incredible strength and their senses are highly developed. Her characters are not the vicious and soulless creatures you’ve heard of before. They are very emotional and passionate. They have all the vampire features but are also able to feel love, just like us humans. When it comes to their physical appearance they have the same features as humans but their eyes changes when hungry, they have white pale skin and their skin is described as glass.

In the extremely popular “The Twilight Saga”, Meyer portrays her vampires very similar to Rice´s. They don´t mind garlic and crosses, they feed on the blood of animals and they don’t age. Some of the vampires have special abilities such as reading minds, seeing in to the future and bringing pain upon people using only their minds. In The Twilight Saga the vampires are able to walk around during the days, but when the sun is shining they are showing their true essence; they are sparkling. Just like the characters from “The Vampire Chronicle” the vampires from “Twilight” move very fast, have ice cold and pale skin and they are able to feel love and other human emotions. The first book in the saga; Twilight was published in 2005 and the success was a fact. People all over the world loved the book and Stephanie Meyer has won different awards for the book series; most notably British Book Awards “Children’s Book of the Year” in 2009. The books are especially popular among teenage girls, but since they were made into movies the audience has changed from primarily young adults to include people of all ages, men and woman, boys and girls. Since its first release, the book has been sold in millions of copies and has been translated into 38 languages. Three movies have been made since 2008 and they have all broken box office records when premiering at the cinemas. Two of the movies have been released on DVD and topped the movie charts in the US and in the rest of the world. Hadn’t it been for Stephanie Meyers extremely popular books and the movies made from those books, the world wouldn’t be as crazy about vampires as it is today. Wherever you go you see Twilight T-shirts, mugs and posters. When you meet a new person you are guaranteed to be asked the question whether you are on team Edward or Team Jacob. Most of the people I know are on team Edward, because who doesn’t want a boyfriend who will protect you with his life and who will love you forever?  But why do people love this book/movie series? I think it is because the book is written in such a way that it could easily be about you. There is a hot love triangle between the vampire Edward, the werewolf Jacob and the human girl Bella. Who wouldn´t want two guys fighting over your love. In the four books that have been published you get in contact with endless love, heart wrenching break-ups and strong friendships. If it hadn´t been for the vampire vs. werewolf this movie would be your typical high school movie, filled with thrills and action.

Since late 2009 there is a new contest bubbling, about whether you are on team Stefan or team Damon. These vampires are characters from LJ Smits book series The Vampire Diaries. In the book you follow Stefan a 17 year old vampire who gets his energy from the blood of animals and tries to live as human as possible. You also meet his brother Damon a vampire who will kill whatever comes in his way. Similar to Stephanie Meyer this book also has a love triangle. This love triangle includes Stefan and Damon and the human girl Elena. In many ways the book series differs from the TV-series. The writers of the TV-show have changed the characters so they will appeal to the TV audience. And the audience loves it. The TV-shows pilot episode got the highest rating in The CWs history and has been a success in the making. The vampire characters in this series are similar to the both authors above, but these vampires can control your mind too and the only reason why they can walk in daylight is thanks to a ring with magical blessings. As you can see The Vampire Diaries and the Twilight saga are similar to each other. They both have two mystical creatures fighting over a beautiful human girls love. There have been discussions among the fans whether or not the Vampire Diaries is a rip-off of the Twilight Saga. So who came up with the idea first? LJ Smith or Stephanie Meyer? Due to facts LJ Smith published her book series long before Stephanie Meyer ever did, but the Twilight Saga movies are most definitely a huge inspiration for the screenwriters on The Vampire Diaries. 

The fourth author and book series I am going to tell you about is the Southern Vampire Mysteries or as it is called on TV, True Blood. The books are written by bestseller Charlaine Harris and the first book in the series was published in 2001. The book is about a girl from Louisiana who works as a waitress in a restaurant and who falls in love with a vampire. But it is not only about vampires and humans; here you get introduced to werewolves, fairies and other mythological creatures. Different from the other books is that in this series the vampires are known to the world since a few years back. The reason why vampires came out to the world that they existed was because of a Japanese scientist who developed synthetic blood. The vampires in this book series follow the same pattern as the other author’s vampires.

All the vampire books are inspired by one another. Anne Rice’s first book in the Vampire chronicles was released in 1976. It was the first book in the series; Interview with a vampire that in 1994 was made into a movie starring big actors like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst. When the movie came out it became number one on the US box offices and gained ca 35 million dollars on the opening weekend and a total of ca 200 million dollars, this is not bad amounts for a 60 million dollars production. In 2002 the movie Queen of the Damned hit the theaters starring Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend. The script for the movie was from two other books in the series: The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned.

LJ Smiths books were first published in the early -90’s as four novels; The Awakening; The Struggle; The Fury and Dark reunion. Now during the 21^st century she has made three new books to the series; the return Nightfall; The Return Shadow fall and The Return Midnight. The TV-show premiered in 2009 and is one of the most popular shows in the US and the world today. I have talked about teams earlier and with this new TV-show and the Twilight series there are polls all over the internet whether you are on Team Edward- the popular vampire from the Twilight Saga or if you are on team Demon- the sexy, troubled vampire from The Vampire Diaries. In a recent poll for Entertainment Weekly Team Damon won over team Edward.

Charlaine Harris first book was published in 2001 and the popular TV-show started airing in 2008. She had a contract to write 10 books in the series, but since the TV-show got so popular she got a new contract writing three more books. The TV-show as well as the books have won a lot of awards such as an Anthony Award for best paperback mystery and Golden Globes and Emmy awards for the TV-show.

The Twilight Saga series is by far the most popular book series and movie series of all of the above. The book was first released in 2005 and the movie adaption hit the theaters in 2008. The four books The Twilight Saga: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn have all been made into movies and right now they are filming Breaking Dawn that is being turned in to two movies. Stephanie Meyer was originally planning on writing another book in the series; The Twilight Saga; Midnight Sun which has the same plot as  the first book Twilight but from Edwards perspective, but when parts of the book was leaked on the Internet she decided to stop the writing. But she did release the part she already had written on the internet for all of the devoted fans to read. Right before the third movie Eclipse was released Stephanie Meyer published the novel The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. The novel is a spin off from the book Eclipse and tells the story of a young newborn vampire who appears in the book Eclipse.

So are the books above really that good or is it just the phenomenon of vampires that lures us humans to read them? And how come the movies and TV-shows based on these books are more popular then the actual books? It could be that the generation who loves these books and movies are lazy. They prefer to see the movie and get the visual served to them rather than reading the books and use their imagination for the visual. And why is it that the Americans are so influential? They just are. The North America is a great country of influencing the rest of the world, but America isn’t all that great, they are just great salesmen. The Americans are brought up loving their country; they are brought up with the idea that they are bigger and better than everyone else. And when you have that upbringing you can sell anything! But one thing is for sure; the late -00s have been the years of the vampires and I don’t think this vampire hype would have existed if it wasn’t for the great European vampires of the 18^th century. So once again The US takes credits for something that isn’t theirs. They have done it before and they will do it again. There is a saying that “behind every successful man stands a woman” and that can be changed to “behind every great American hype is the idea from another country”. Let’s keep the pop cultural topic and look at the Backstreet Boys, sure they are good and solid American guys, but if it weren’t for their foreign producer they wouldn’t be the phenomenon they were in the 90’s and early 00’s. The same thing counts for Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, without their foreign producer, they would be nothing. The next big hype will be something American produced but influenced from other parts of the world. And the rest of the world is stupid enough to just follow what “big brother” USA does.  But that is what great salesmen do; they fool you blind. And that is what the world is; blind. They are blind to the “Americans greatness” and they are weak not to believe in their own strength and follow their own beliefs. But I am glad that the world follows some of these things, because the world would sure be a boring place without all of these fascinating vampires!