Who’s Bitten You?

I’m really not a vampire aficionado, but I’ve really gotten into True Blood this past season. There’s something about the HBO platform that makes a storyline including vampires, telepaths, shapeshifters, and a maenad somehow *not* read as “trashy (or maybe I mean genre-bound) sci-fi/fantasy.” (As my mom put it, True Blood)

The biggest draw for me, though, is definitely the social commentary and (more than) dabbling in questions of ultimate meaning (in my reading, the theological). It manages to be clear (very simple symbols, sometimes explicated by dialogue), funny (Jason and Andy are a perfect pair!), and critical about issues of sex(uality), religion, death, identity, agency, etc., without interrupting the narrative flow. Reminds me of a book series we talk about sometimes here…

And Godric. What a scene-stealer…for a mere two or three episodes, his storyline dominated my thoughts about the show. Such a beautiful portrait of nonviolent, redemptive suffering and self-sacrifice…a suffering in the end not alone, but beside and with another (Sookie).

Vampire loves? revgeorge, it’s like you were calling my name!

Oh my goodness… True Blood! Cannot say how much I love this show. Season 2 got a little weird, but it made me love Eric. Now, by far, he is my favorite modern vampire. My friend and I started sorting some of the characters on TB, and Eric is certainly a Slytherin! This probably explains in part why I love vampires– they’re baddies. They’re not created to be “big fluffy puppies with bad teeth” (oh Spike…), so you have people who fulfill the classic evil villain role. On top of that, there’s a whole race of people “meant” to be evil. But then there are the few vamps, whether by gypsy curse, true remorse, or an optimistic view on the “human” condition, who try to rise above their lot in (after)life and aspire to be good.

Hermione Luna, I’m having a little trouble getting into Vampire Diaries. The vampiric elements and the back story of Stefan & Damon don’t make much sense to me. What are your (or anybody else out there who’s watched!) thoughts? Did you read the novels?

Gwen, I don’t know the TV Sookie. But as I said, I’m in love with the book Sookie. How do I love her, let me list the ways:

1) Her honesty, both with herself and with others. Whenever she has a mean thought, she acknowledges it, and deals with it.

2) Her fatalistic and yet optimistic view of life.

3) She does not whine. No self-pity for Sookie.

4) She is no man’s (or vampire’s) door mat. The scene where she rescinds her invitation to enter her house to both Bill and Eric is laugh-out-loud funny.

5) She is brave warrior and a faithful friend.

6) She loves expensive clothes (when she can get them) and make-up but can stake a vampire or wade through an alligator infested swamp if she has to.

7) She is real. She worries about the bills, and where the money for a load of gravel for her driveway will come from.

Her sadness from which, like that of the girl in the Sprinsteen song, no man can keep her safe.

9) She has a heart as large as the Mississipi delta.

10) Her gift of telepathy is half-gift, half-curse. And Harris does a pretty good job of showing both halves.

I have to say my vampires are limited to tv and movies. I have enjoyed Béla Lugosi (yes, I am that old – ok, maybe not *quite* that old, but that re-run old), Barnabas Collins and, most recently, Mitchell on Being Human. Vampires have never held a particular interest – to the point where I would seek them out. But, when I have come across them… hmmm, I can not deny that there is an appeal in the angst. Edward? Not so much. I like Edward (more than Jake anyway) – but, possibly because he is being marketed to my DAUGHTER, I am more critical of the messages that he and the Twilight series are sending.

Joivre, they send a message that stalking is a compliment as long as the guy doing it is attractive. And that vampires don’t have fangs.

RR, either the book-to-screen translation is off, or I just don’t like Anna Paquin much. Book Sookie (heh!) sounds great. Sookie in S1 I really liked because she stood up to Vampire Bill. Maybe S2 just threw me off. I’m all about Eric and Jessica.

My favorite vampires? The only ones I really like! Although the more I think about it—and I just finished trip #5 through all four books–the more convinced I am that the Twilight Saga hardly counts as vampire fiction. I love it, but it doesn’t have much in common with Dracula. (Thank goodness. Dracula gave me a wake-up-at-three-in-the-morning-believing-we’re-having-a-vampire-attack experience.)

Not to preempt a response from Delma, but Joivre, the primary drive of the Twilight books is the way to eternal familial happiness through peaceful self-control (notably chastity). What most people get from them, however, is a rather sensual romance with a powerful tension between lust and restraint.

‘a rather sensual romance with a powerful tension between lust and restraint’ covered in a whole lotta blah, blah ! And indeed self-pity on Bella’s part.

I am well known here to love Twilight and defend it, but I have to say having a few days off and finally caving to pressure to read and watch Sookie, I am now hooked (as I knew would happen and that’s why I defied) and very happy to agree that Sookie is not whiny and there is no self-pity and absorption. Makes for a nice contrast

I’m only into the first book and series, finding TV Sookie a bit too doe-eyed at times, but enjoying it immensely at the moment.

My all time favourites (the ones Meyer and Harris cannot think to compare to imho) have already been mentioned; Dracula by Stoker and Kostova’s The Histotrian. Especially the last is the work of genius, immensely underrated and the quality I strive to (but must humbly say will never reach).

Anne Rice was really big when I was in jr. high and after that I got pretty burnt out on the vampire genre, and I never really “got” the vampire romance genre, I find vampires way more interesting as seductive monsters as originally intended, not so big on the vampires having existential crises and wishing they were human thing. I mean to check out True Blood since I keep hearing about it, I am way behind on tv-I actually just watched the last season BTVS like a week ago. I liked pretty much everything about that show except the boring Angel/Buffy romance of the first few seasons, but I actually really liked Angel when he got his own show go figure. The first season is pretty hard to watch imo though, I only really started enjoy it by the end of the second season(still haven’t seen 4 and 5.)

Korg – whenever you find you are being attacked here is something to defend yourself with (I found it in a new-agey article online).

This is like Staring at Goats.

“Protection Techniques.
Fortunately, highly effective strategies are now available to prevent a psychic vampire attack, or once it’s underway, to promptly end it. These laboratory tested strategies can also promote healing and repair damage to the energy system resulting from long-term vampire assaults. They can even be used effectively by psychic vampires provided they are motivated to overcome their energy addiction.

One of the most effective protection procedures known is the Finger Interlock Technique. Developed in our labs, this technique is easy to implement, and its effects are instant. To begin this technique, simply bring together the tips of your thumb and middle finger of each hand to form two circles. Then, bring your hands together to form interlocking circles while envisioning your body enveloped in a bright sphere of impenetrable energy. Finally, relax your hands and simply affirm, “I am now energized and fully protected.” This simple, inconspicuous technique requires only seconds and can be used almost any time or place. With practice, you can use the finger interlock gesture alone as a cue to instantly activate the effects of the full procedure.”

Oh crap I forgot about Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter-not really any memorable vamps there, but it’s just one of those movies.

Nosferatu freaked me out as a child. And like Korg Lifeforce freaked me out as a young man for totally different reasons.

Spike in Buffy is my all-time favourite vampire.

I also loved Val Lewton’s Isle of the Dead which I think is an adaptation of The Horla revgeorge, complete with Boris Karloff, my favourite actor of all time. And you can give me a Val Lewton movie anytime. Great stuff.

George Hamilton in Love at First Bite was great: ‘Children of the night; shut up!’

aerisflowers, I think that for the most part we’ve been discussing vampire fiction. The term literature might be a bit of a stretch in this context.

I loved Spike so much but I thought they immasculated him way too much by season 5 of Btvs-he was taking way too much crap from everybody at that point, it killed a lot of what made him such an interesting guy for me. Didn’t stop me from watching, though(and I still don’t know what happened on Angel, or in the comics.)

Whenever I hear Nosferatu, I can’t help but think of one of the “spooky” episodes of Spongebob Squarepants where at the end, they’re trying to figure out who kept flicking the lights on and off. The next clip is everyone saying (as if to a 4-year old), “Nosferatu!” and him flipping the lights.

*puts on geek hat*

Yes, I am secretly 5 years old. Thanks.