Okay, the Vampires Can Stick Around

This piece by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, about the social conditions that produced the vampire myth, and how it has evolved to meet our current, protean needs, is phenomenal. I need to write a piece at some point about why cultural criticism matters to our understanding of the world around us, but some days I feel like there's precisely no need to do it when you can go read stuff like this:

Through awe, we once again regain spiritual humility. The current vampire pandemic serves to remind us that we have no true jurisdiction over our bodies, our climate or our very souls. Monsters will always provide the possibility of mystery in our mundane “reality show” lives, hinting at a larger spiritual world; for if there are demons in our midst, there surely must be angels lurking nearby as well. In the vampire we find Eros and Thanatos fused together in archetypal embrace, spiraling through the ages, undying. Forever.