Word: modernizing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Gold, that barbarous relic, is having a thoroughly modern moment in the spotlight. Its price in dollars ($1,170 per ounce when last I checked) is setting a new record every few days. Cash4Gold and its competitors have been flooding the airwaves with ads exhorting you to fork over your gold jewelry for dollars. And for the first time since 1971, when U.S. President Richard Nixon unilaterally yanked the world off the gold standard, gold is also attracting interest from a crowd that usually doesn't pay it much heed: the world's central bankers...
...installment, “New Moon,” but also the second season of the popular HBO television series “True Blood” and the premiere of the more PG-rated “Vampire Diaries” on the CW channel. Of course, these modern vampire hunks bear little resemblance to Count Dracula—there’s none of that cape-wearing, sleeping-in-a-coffin nonsense...
...easy solutions like these allow modern vampire franchises to completely gloss over some of the darker—and more interesting—questions that the vampire myth raises. For one thing, the modern construction of the vampire no longer involves the idea that immortality comes with a price. Our society is no longer one in which eternal damnation is a huge concern, but the question of whether one must give up one’s soul in order to live forever remains compelling. Without some kind of sacrifice, like losing one’s humanity or having to prey...
Instead of grappling with their monstrous natures, modern vampire characters are instead kept busy with relationship problems (Edward must explain to Bella that they can’t have sex because he’ll break her bones) or civil-rights issues (“True Blood” vampires demand the right to enter the same bars as humans). Despite their undead status, they can be charming gentlemen and lead fulfilling lives complete with loving girlfriends to boot...
Through this technique of making their pale creations not only handsome and alluring objects of fascination, but also romantic and compassionate protagonists, the creators of modern vampire characters have succeeded in turning the genre on its head. However, they fail to mine the potentially rich soil of darker issues—the pain of being aware of one’s own death, the anguish of being transformed into a killer. In short, they ignore all the things that might make vampire characters actually interesting to anyone who isn’t a complete sucker for chiseled cheekbones or cheesy...