WHY HAVEN'T THEY TAKEN OVER THE WORLD? -- by Steve Nadis
I saw I AM LEGEND a couple of weeks ago with a friend, which led to speculation in these pages regarding the speed of zombies in the 21st century. Last night I saw SALEM'S LOT (the 1979 Tobe Hooper version, of course) with the same friend, and feel that for the sake of fairness I should grant equal time to vampires. I enjoyed the movie, save for a surprisingly week ending, but it left a few loose ends. My friend put this question to me which I cannot fully answer: "If vampire's live forever and are constantly feeding on other people, who then become vampires as well, what has kept vampires from taking over the world?" In other words, are there some kind of natural, ecological checks on the vampire population to keep that from happening? It makes sense because vampires seem to like fresh blood and if they turn the entire population into vampires, where they gonna go for sustenance? (Whole Foods?) So it seems to be in their interests not to turn everyone into vampires, yet exactly how their expanionist tendences are kept in check is not clear. At least to this observer. At the present time.
