A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Five-Hundred-And-Ten

As part of researching my piece on the anti-Semitic aspects of vampire fiction, I have been watching (and rewatching) a lot of movies and television shows.  Many have aspects that feel quite striking when considered within this framework.  For example, I recently watched the first (and thus far only) season of the Netflix show, First Kill.  In the series, monsters are known about by society but are exiled.  The first episode includes one of the main characters who is a vampire discussing hiding her real identity and I could not help but feel that the description was very evocative of the words used by Jews hiding from the Nazis during WWII.  Of course, such a comparison might be considered inevitable in the context, and I am sure that many others who heard the same emotions being expressed would draw a connection to other groups who have been through similar ordeals.  Many communities have been forced into hiding because their identities were deemed undesirable and forbidden.  I am not unaware of this reality, but I am also aware that so many of the beliefs which motivated Nazi hatred of Jews also underpin the vampire genre.  I can't help but recognize that connection, and that certainly colors how I consider these elements of the series and the show as a whole.

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