Vampires are not as bad as you think.

The first book in the Southern Vampire series, Dead Until Dark, it is most obvious that vampires are symbolic of the minority populations in contemporary society. As a result of being represented as minorities, vampires are discriminated in the novel. The US has come a long way since the civil rights movement, almost 40 years before the novel was even written, yet many descriptions of segregation are apparent between vampires and people.

              Vampires in this world stand for groups that the majority of the population fears and hates for no justifiable reason – not only from the standpoint of skin color or sexual orientation, but from being undead. The first page of the novel in fact describes Sookie’s excitement of meeting a vampire by saying “Ever since vampires had come out of the coffin two years ago, I’d hoped one would come to Bon Temps. We had all the other minorities in our little town—why not the newest, the legally recognized undead?”(pg. 1).

Many vampires in the novel try to eliminate the prejudices against them. Bill tries to “mainstream” by surviving off of synthetic blood and interact normally with humans. He speaks at Gran’s meeting called Descendants of the Glorious Dead to recall his experiences to the crowd and hopefully create an accepting image with the fellow townspeople. Another vampire, Eric, also mainstreams by opening a bar for fang-bangers, or “men and women that hang around with vampires and enjoy being bitten” (pg. 22). These are few of the examples of vampires who desire to fit in and live the same rights are humans do.

But what’s a story when there are no bad guys. Not every vampire in the novel is about mainstreaming and that’s where the main conflict of the novel comes from. Some vampires unwillingly take blood from their human victims since it is more fulfilling than synthetic blood. They possess powers such as intimidation, which makes their victim forget the incident entirely, and superhuman speed and strength. These vampires believe that they can be superior to humans by their immortality, similar to the vampires that Bill lives with. And just how group stereotyping happens, the negative actions of one vampire can speak for the entire population of vampires.

As a result, the novel mainly portrays actions that are done to discriminate or inflict harm against vampires. The Rattrays would have drained Bill’s blood to make money off it had it not been for Sookie. Some citizens of the Bon Temp area, where the novel setting is, torches a house ablaze, killing 4 vampires in it. Rene Lenier is a prime example of vampire hatred, as he kills women linked to vampires due to his bad history with them.

In fact, there were times when vampires showed altruistic behavior towards people. Bill’s actions save Sookie’s life when she was about to die from the Rattray’s attack but she drinks his blood to stay alive. There have been times when Bill committed violent attacks such as killing the Rattrays, but his acts are justifiable to protect Sookie or future vampires that would fall victim to them.

Dead Until Dark emphasizes that humans and vampires alike can be evil and do evil things. But in terms when it comes down to who feels superior to the other, each side has their own views. Although vampires are oppressed by the greater population of people, they do attempt to reconcile with them by setting aside their differences and assimilate to their culture.

Summing Up The Monsters

Throughout this course, we have covered different types of monsters. We have looked at Grendel and his mother, Dracula and his vampiresses, and the Dead Until Dark vampires from various pieces of literature. All of these monsters can fall under the categories of either being "overt" or being "subtle" monsters. Overt monsters are clearly monstrous in their actions, personality, appearance, or any combination of the three. Zombies, ogres, wyverns, cockatrices, and griffins are typical examples of overt monsters as the treat they pose is direct and confrontational. Subtle monsters have their true nature hidden by some mechanism such as a charismatic nature or supernatural ability. Creatures like vampires, hone-onna, werewolves, sirens, and changelings are all subtle monsters because their modus operandi or their powers have them remain hidden from humans. The monsters we have looked at in our class all fall under one or both of these categories.

From Beowulf, we have Grendel and Grendel's mother. Grendel is very clearly an overt monster. He invades Heirot multiple times without much regard to stealth and kills many of the inhabitants of Hrothgar's lands. He additionally lacks any ability to change what the humans perception of him is, therefore making him unqualified for being a subtle monster. His mother differs from him in this regard, as she displays the qualities of both overt and subtle monsters. She is capable of nearly overpowering Beowulf and does not use any sort of supernatural ability to combat him, qualifying her for being an overt monster. However, she utilizes stealth in order to infiltrate Heirot, so she also can be considered a subtle monster. This dual-nature she has can also be seen in the vampires we read about.

Vampires, while primarily subtle, can be simultaneously considered as overt monsters depending on the individual. Dracula, for instance, is both overt and subtle as he is capable of feats of superhuman strength and physically attack the Van Helsing group while also suddenly disappearing and reappearing through various means and influencing the minds of humans. These abilities also are shown by the other vampires in the novel. Dracula himself displays an interesting shift throughout the titular novel as he starts out being an overt monster and then shifts into a mix of an over and a subtle monster when he arrives in England, which is followed by him becoming a subtle monster as he is fleeing back to his castle only to revert into being a mix during his final hours. In contrast, the vampires of the Dead Until Dark universe are primarily subtle, as their "glamour" ability allows them to manipulate the minds of people and that they are virtually physically indistinguishable from humans. There are instances were these vampires are overt, as seen with various instances of superhuman feats from characters like Bill, but these instances are only situational.

While there are monsters that are explicitly in either the overt or subtle categories, there are also certain monsters and individuals that fall into both categories. This ambivalence reflects the duality of the monstrous characters we have viewed, as it follows the "There are two sides to every coin" idiom.

Dead Until Dark v. True Blood: Similar Yet Very Different

Dead Until Dark v. True Blood: Similar Yet Very Different

By: Isabella Hess

            

            Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark is a novel centered around vampires attempting to live in a human world with a struggle between some wanting to mainstream/integrate into society and others wanting to continue to live in their nests and avoid conformity. The book focuses on the relationships between vampires and humans, specifically romantic relationships as well as the hatred of vampires from humans. True Blood is an HBO television series based off the Charlaine Harris book with some adjustments to characters and story lines. Between the novel and the TV series there is a good amount of overlap, and the two closely relate to each other. Most of the relationships between characters and the plot are the same, but the show did make some creative choices that differed from the original text. The first notable difference between the book and the television series is the introduction of Sookie’s friend Tara. The book doesn’t mention or include anyone by the name of Tara, but the show decides to add her into the series. The shows creative liberty to add the young woman could be seen as a way to add another story arch to help the shows complexity or it could be that they were trying to fill their diversity quota, but I see Tara’s role as being just another woman whose main focus is on trying to get the attention of a man. In the show Tara is constantly pining after Jason Stackhouse and eventually sleeps with Sam Merlotte, but there isn’t much character development for her other than some backstory on her home life. It seems that Tara is there to only further any romantic plotlines the writers seem fit, as if there weren’t enough of them already. The second difference that stood out between the book and the TV series was the switch from Sino-AIDS to Hepatitis D. Charlaine Harris originally wrote that the disease that could infect vampires and make them weak enough to kill was called Sino-AIDS which becomes even more problematic with how closely Harris related vampires to individuals in the LGBT+ community. The choice to take AIDS and slightly change them to Sino-AIDS as if that makes it any different really speaks to Harris’ view of gay people and how much she projected homosexuality into the vampires in her novel. The show decided that Sino-AIDS was too closely related to the gay community and opted to change the disease to Hep D, which was a good move on their part. By taking the different form of AIDS out of the story, it helped to take some of the explicit homophobic views out of the series and lessen the obvious comparison between undead vampires and homosexual individuals. While the TV series does have mostly similarities, for better or for worse, the show does offer some important differences to make note of. Unlike Dead Until Dark, the character named Tara is not present and only seems important in furthering romantic plotlines within the show. The last important difference to take into account is the adjustment from Sino-AIDS in the book to Hep D in the TV show. This adjustment seemed to create less of a comparison between the LGBT+ community and the strongly disliked undead. However, the differences between the two are few, they are still important creative differences to note and understand their reasoning behind them.  

           

What Makes a "Good" Vampire?

According to Charlaine Harris in “Dead Until Dark” a good vampire appears to be white, heterosexual, dressed in basic clothing (shop at Dillards), live alone, are monogamous, date humans, drink synthetic blood, and hopefully have ties to the confederacy, at least during the Civil War (“‘You fought for the Confederacy,’ I said wonderingly. ‘If you still had your uniform and wore it to the club the ladies would faint with joy,’” (60)).

Typically vampires are displayed in two ways in the novel:

“Mainstreamers” like Bill	“Nesting” vampires
Drink synthetic blood	Drink blood from fangbangers or glamour humans to take blood when they want.	Drinking blood appears to very much be a sexual nature because Bill often drinks from Sookie after he has sex with her and the first time she really sees his fangs is when she first goes to the Compton house and meets the main nesting vampires. A man, Jerry, is offered to Bill and begins rubbing up against him. As Sookie notes, “The strain in my vampire’s face was terrible to see. His fangs slid out. I saw him fully extended for the first time. The synthetic blood was not answering all Bill’s needs alright,” (73).
Bill is far from openly sexual and is pretty careful about not being too forward with Sookie. His sexuality is in question because he does have sex with Sookie plenty, but that doesn’t mean he has no interest in men at all. When Jerry rubs against him (as mentioned earlier), he does fully extend his fangs. While he doesn’t explicitly show a sexual interest, the phrases “fangs slid out” and “fully extended” do imply a sexual innuendo.	Nesting vampires are repeatedly shown to be open about their sexuality, to the disgust of the main character, Sookie. “Malcolm pulled the human male to him and gave him a long kiss. I began to feel sick. That kind of stuff is private,” (72). “The male vampire with the tattoos put his arm around Janella and rubbed her breasts. I could feel the blood drain out of my face. I was disgusted. It got worse. Janella, as lost to decency as the vampire, put her hand on his crotch and massaged,” (72).	Speaking of sexual activities, nesting vampires appear to be far more open about their sexuality and sexual activities. When Sookie visits the Compton house for the first time and meets the main nesting vampires of the novels, she is disgusted with how openly the vampires do sexual things, especially if it is homosexual in nature.
Live on their own (“‘Vampires like me, who live alone, are a little better reminded of their former humanity,’”(78).)	Live in groups (“‘When vampires live in nests,’ he said suddenly, ‘they often become more cruel because they egg each other on. They see others like themselves constantly, and so they are reminded of how far from being human they are,’” (78).)	The argument is made that vampires should live alone because the solitude makes them better, makes them more human. Vampires that nest are described as losing their humanity because they spend so much time with other vampires and see how different they are from human beings.

Courtney Sellars

Monsters and Minorities: Are They the Same? By: Imran Blackall

            The Encyclopædia Brittanica defines minorities as a culturally, ethnically, or racially distinct group that coexists with but is subordinate to a more dominant group. An interpretation that can be made after reading Dracula and Dead Until Dark as well as watching True Blood is that vampires are classified as minorities. From the isolation that Dracula and Bill experience to the accusations and stereotyping by other characters, it seemed that vampires do not get all the luxuries of immortality; rather, their immortality is combined with the negative connotations of minorities that made their lives miserable. These negative connotations of minorities exist today and cause greater separation and hatred among all races.

            In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it was quite evident that Dracula was the odd one out. When the reader is introduced to Dracula, he lived in Transylvania in current day Romania and set up a plan to live in Great Britain. Compared to Dr. Van Helsing, Mina, and Dr. Seward, who all originated from Great Britain, Dracula was the minority because he coexisted with them, the majority group. The British people feared Dracula because they did not have much information about him; only speculations surmised. Similarly, Americans fear Mexicans because of the speculations that the media distributes and labels as news. The media has the tendency to give inaccurate if not bias information regarding minorities living in the United States to promote their agendas. Though it might help with their goals, it hinders the reputation of Mexicans and classifies them as bad people like Dracula. In addition, Dracula represents minorities for he lived in constant fear. Though he was quite strong during the night, the daytime was his kryptonite. Thus, Dracula shapeshifted as a coach driver when he first met Jonathan Harker as well as a dog when he was traveling to Great Britain by boat. He also isolated himself when he lived in both of his estates in Transylvania and Great Britain. This fear parallels with the fear that minorities experience living in America specifically African Americans in which they are constantly afraid and attempt to hide when they are confronted by police officers.

            In Dead Until Dark, Bill represented the minorities because he was classified with the new race of vampires existing with the living people. Living people constantly despised his existence especially when dining at Merlotte’s; no one wanted to sit, eat, or converse with him. During the mid to late 20^th century, African Americans also experienced that same but in a more aggressive manner where signs mentioned segregation. Though this extremism has decreased over time, the feeling of forced separation among races remains. It was also peculiar to see how extreme vampires (Diane, Liam, and Malcolm) despised Bill, who was attempting to mainstream into society. They hated the idea of submitting to the majority through mainstreaming and were constantly wreaking havoc in Bon Temps. ISIS is like the extreme vampires in which they hate Western culture. They also hate other Muslims who accept Western culture and modernization and will kill them to implement fear within Muslims.

            In True Blood, living beings represent the majority, and they dislike the minority vampires. Sam, the owner of Merlotte’s, discussed with Sookie that he wished vampires including Bill who was mainstreaming had their own bars and restaurants. This demonstrated that the idea of segregation still lingers today though it had been abolished in the United States for decades. Moreover, when Arlene talked to Sookie, she stated that she did not want to serve Bill. Many small family-owned restaurants can decide which customers they can serve; thus, refusing to serve minorities exists. Lastly, all the living people in Bon Temps believed Bill caused the deaths. They assume it was him because he was the most present vampire in Bon Temps. Similarly, when terrorist attacks happen across the globe, Muslims are the first to be accused because of previous attacks such as the attacks in Paris and New Zealand.

            Overall, I believe vampires represent today’s minorities who are constantly misjudged, ridiculed, and targeted. Violence, destruction, and pain can be avoided by avoiding these false accusations and further understanding the culture of minorities.