While I would love to end all wars, we must start somewhere, and I am proposing that we start by ending the war between Gothic Vampire stories and Twilight.

I’m 59 years old. I grew up enjoying the gothic horror stories by Bram Stokker. If you are willing to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy them, their version of why a vampire avoids sunlight is plausible. However, with the same amount of effort to suspend disbelief, there is one other thing that is true.

SO IS THE EXPLANATION OF VAMPIRE BEHAVIOR DESCRIBED BY Stephenie Meyer!

Bram Stokker suggested that vampires avoid sunlight because they will be killed by it. It burns their flesh, and doesn’t stop until they are consumed to ash. That idea continued to prevail even into the recent video games such as BloodRayne, which was made into a movie franchise by Uwe Boll. Stephenie Meyer suggested that fire still consumes a vampire to ash, but that they avoid being seen in sunlight because it would instantly reveal the physical difference between a human and a vampire.

That isn’t a great reach. Either suggestion is as plausible as the other. Stokker wrote his during a time when Christianity ruled most of the civilized world, and sunlight represented purity. Meyer wrote her stories much later, during a time when many conventions of society were being called into question, including the traditions of Christianity being questioned by people who follow them.

Both authors wrote fiction. Why should any fan of vampire fiction accept one version more than another? IMHO, they should not. If we can agree that they are both fiction, their fantasy ideas should not be seen as if they are opposed to each other. If we embrace them both, that is one less division between US/Them in our society.