Mommy, What's a Vampire?

It would seem as though the definition of a vampire has changed over the last hundred or so years and I would like to find out why that is. In Nina Auerbach's book Our Vampires, Ourselves she discusses the vampire as a means to which society in general can deal with problems that they are having and, in essence, making it a metaphor. This perspective on the famous blood-suckers allows for a society to use this creature as a means to look into their problems for a way to fix them. Throughout this blog we will look into the nature of the beast and the twists and turns that it has been put through just so that it can serve as means for people like you and me to deal with whatever issues that we are having. If you think about it, the vampire is a very self-sacrificing creature.