this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Vampires

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"Few creatures of the night have captured our imagination like vampires.
What explains our enduring fascination with vampires? Is it the overtones of sexual lust, power, control? Or is it a fascination with the immortality of the undead?"

Feel free to post any vampire-related content here. I'll be posting various vampire media I enjoy just as a way of kickstarting this community but don't let that stop you from posting something else. I just wanted a place to discuss vampire movies, books, games, etc.
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What's the appeal of George R R Martin's Fevre Dream? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I was reading some discussions online about recommendations for vampire novels and a bunch of people recommended GRRM's Fevre Dream. I'd never heard of it so I read the description and it sounds... pretty bland? It's about a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River in the 1850s who gets hired by an aristocratic vampire. While I'm sure the description is avoiding spoilers, that all sounds very boring to me. Yet the amazon page proclaims it "A THRILLING REINVENTION OF THE VAMPIRE NOVEL" so I must be missing something.

I'm guessing this is one of those dramatic period pieces with thought-provoking conversations between well-defined characters. And maybe I'm just a simple-minded idiot who prefers action movies like Underworld, Blade, and Van Helsing and this novel simply isn't for me. That's fair. Or maybe that description is leaving out too much and it's actually an action-packed thrill-ride. I have no idea.

So If you've read Fevre Dream before, what's the appeal? What's so great about this novel? It seems highly regarded but that doesn't mean it's for me. I'm sure there are other people here who might enjoy it though, so definitely check it out if you're curious. Obviously the novel does something right, I just don't know what that is.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I've started it and it was like every other book by this author - extremely boring, dunno why his books are so popular.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Martin is a master of deep characters and world building, and letting the world tell the story rather than focusing on Hollywood style character driven narratives.

It's fine if you prefer simpler, less invovled styles of writing but to dismiss his work as inherently "boring" makes you look really ignorant.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I've forced myself to read his two or three of "song of ice and fire" books there weren't any 'deep' characters, world is a caricature of our own, extremely long passages focusing on nothing but food or some shit like how everyone is clothed, and of course realistic politiking lol, I mean yeah I was forced to read genius Tolstoy in school he had the same style. The superhero series starts as semi-good with somewhat interesting premise, then goes to readable. It's not insulting to say that Martins books are boring, they just are. They aren't complex stories, so your remark about me reading simpler stories makes you look like a fan who can't take critique.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I genuinely can't tell if this is parody.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, everyone who disagrees with you is actually trolling there is no possible world where people can dislike a book author with controversial writing style. /s

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I dunno what to tell you man, if you think Tolstoy is a bad writer maybe you need to reassess your standards.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Sincerely I believe his novels to be torturous and think of him as graphomaniac, there is weird cult around classic authors, like they were some kind of unbelievable geniuses. They weren't. Some were good, most were bad, same as today. Their popularity is due to being either part of the nobility and/or being one of the few authors at the time.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Like I've said multiple times now, it's fine if you prefer simpler writing but to completely dismiss writers like Tolstoy just because you're bored by them is just the height of ignorance.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's you, not me, just accept that they aren't universally great. Again, your hubris is staggering, they aren't complex literature, they just old.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm curious what you consider to be great literature.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, it's fair to say you don't like Tolstoy. Every generation re-evaluates who they think of as geniuses and what the classics are. Every individual is free to say whether they agree with that or not. Personally I was forced to read Anna Karenina for school and I was kind of bored. Then I read War and Peace for fun and thought it was great, one of the best books I ever read.

But it's undeniable that Tolstoy was very influential both within Russia and in the general European intellectual community. Possibly you're right that this is because he was nobility and one of the few authors at that time. But having at least a familiarity with Tolstoy's writing is important for understanding European classical literature in general.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe they just don't prefer that style?

I see no need to throw insults.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They were essentially insulting people that enjoy Martin's books. Like I said in my comment, if they'd said his writing isn't for them I'd have no issue with that, but that's not what they said.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Fair enough

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I'm glad I asked then, thanks!

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

To try and take this thread in a different direction, what are some vampire books you would recommend over this one?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I really liked "with teeth" very short, but vampires there are very primal and predatory. I've tried to read "let the right one in", disturbing and tbh movie is better, but novel isn't bad, just not for everyone.

"out of the dark" has lol wtf vampires, but not bad in general.