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Popular Culture Review
ideals of the upper class. Dracula’s healthy fear of religious iconography
helped to keep the power of the church in place and alleviated people’s
fears that he had ultimate control; in this case, God and the Church still
had power over vampires through the wielding of religious artifacts
(noteworthy is the fact that faith in these objects is not needed. The
objects themselves hold power). As a recognizable symbol to those
readers, it was accepted that Dracula represented a clear danger to
humans and to the Judeo-Christian religion.
For today’s readers, a vampire who represents an unknown and
feared Other who will take over and conquer this world is no longer a
needed, nor recognized, symbol. With globalization and increased
multicultural awareness and political correctness, as well as the
abolishment of the class system and government-mandated religion,
these symbols of vampires are no longer necessary, nor recognizable to a
twenty-first century Western audience. In fact, current Western
audiences are now made up of a mix of ethnicities, particularly in North
America.
Explorations of ethnicity and what it means to be true to one’s
roots have become important to readers. These struggles to determine
“what does it mean to be me in the twenty-first century?’’ are addressed
by authors such as Faith Hunter in her Jane Yellowrock series, and in the
Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Both feature Native
American characters who search for what it means to hold a cultural
heritage of a lost civilization. Both series feature skin-walker female
protagonists who introduce Native American culture and history to the
reader through their own search for what it means to grow up in this
country as an ethnic minority. Characters who are blessed or cursed with
new abilities also explore this idea of what it means to be paranormal in a
human world. This resonates with readers who also desire to find their
place in this world or to explore their cultural roots, be they Native
American or otherwise.
Additionally, the struggle of good against evil is still a
recognizable and needed one. “...[TJhere’s an appeal post-9/11 of good
triumphing in a dark and dangerous world” (Dyer 21). In this sense,
where religion has also failed to comfort, paranormal characters take on
this role. Like the comie book figures of the last eentury, paranormal
characters have also become a symbol of human protection and social
justice against unknown evils. With few remaining tangible enemies in
the Western world now that the Cold War is a distant memory to many
readers and the Iraq War’s fallout is winding down, aside from the