Course Review

I have understood the depth of blood drinking and what it represents.  Before this class, I saw it as only a method for the vampires to continue to live.  A necessary evil.  After this class, I now see how it can be taken in a more sensual manner.  Another thing I learned is the fact that ‘normal’ humans react so strongly to them in novels because they are different.  They are seen as threatening and people seek to destroy them, even if they are not really evil.  (An example would be Louis.  He is not evil, as he feels guilt over every kill he has to perform). 

I have developed a deeper appreciation for novels.  After having to analyze novels for this class, it is kind of impossible not to.  I think from now on I will always look deeper than the surface when reading novels, and try to figure out the underlying themes of the books.  I have definitely evolved me as a reader because of this.   I think I have also evolved as a writer during this course because of the fact that everyone has access to read what I write, so that pushes me to write better than I otherwise might have.

The novel that had the greatest effect of me was Interview with the Vampire.  It showed a different side to vampires.  Instead of previous novels where vampires were observed by the narrator, this novel actually put you in the shoes of the vampire.  You see what they are actually feeling, and how guilty Louis feels about his whole situation.  It’s a different aspect that what you normally get from vampire novels.

I actually really enjoyed the blog form of this class.  I was iffy about it in the beginning, but I came to like having my own blog in a neat little website.  It’s preferable to me than having everyone’s posts all mixed together.  And I like that you can pick and choose which classmate you want to respond to. 

Some posters that stuck out to me are Emily and Andrew.  I felt their posts were always very well thought out and introduced new ideas to the reading that I had not previously thought of.  I enjoyed reading their posts because it made me think, instead of telling me something I already knew.

Let The Right One In; Part 2

Hakan can easily be perceived as the worst character in this novel.  He is a pedophile and he kills young boys.  In the novel, it states 

Someone who worked at the post office and who lived in the area had tipped off the other neighbors about what kind of mail, what kind of videos he received.  It took about a month before he was fired from his job at the school.  You couldn’t have someone like that working with children.  […] He hadn’t actually done anything at the school; he wasn’t that stupid.  […]  In his drunken stupor he became careless, fondled young boys, got beaten up, ended up at the police station.  Once he sat in jail for three days and puked his guts out. Was released. Kept drinking. (Page 214-215).

This portrayal of Hakan paints him as one of the worst types of people, a drunken man who steals a child’s innocence.  

However, he does have some redeemable qualities.  He does not kill anyone until after he meets Eli.  In this sense it seems like Eli is the one stealing his innocence, instead of the other way around.  He actually seems to be resistant to killing people, only doing it because it is what his beloved needs to survive.  In his mind, it seems love triumphs all, even morals.

 He doesn’t see Eli as an object to be used sexually (though he does want that), but instead someone to be cherished and loved.  He never made Eli do anything that she/he does not want to do.  He will take what he can get from her/him, even if it is just laying next to each other.

“Are you . . . hungry?”

Eli turned around again.

“Yes.”

“I’ll do it for you. But I want something in return.”

“What is it?”

“One night. All I want is one night.”

“OK.”

“Can I have that?”

“Yes.”

“Lie next to you? Touch you?”

“Yes.” (Page 110)

It is interesting that Hakan does not see Eli as he sees other children.  He almost looks to her to take care of him, because she got him out of the situation he was in previously; the drunkenness and being taken to the police station.  

One evening when Hakan was sitting on a bench next to a playground with a bottle of half-yeasted wine in a plastic bag, Eli came and sat down beside him.  In his drunkenness Hakan had almost immediately put a hand on Eli’s thigh.  Eli had let it stay there, taking Hakan’s head between her hands, turned it toward her, and said: “You are going to be with me.”

Hakan had mumbled something about how he couldn’t afford such a beauty right now but when his finances allowed . . .

Eli had moved his hand from her thigh, leaned down, and taken his wine bottle, poured it out and said: “You don’t understand. You’re going to stop drinking now. You are going to be with me. You are going to help me. I need you. And I’m going to help you.” Then Eli had held out her hand, Hakan had taken it, and they had walked away together. (Page 215)

It is almost sad to see this, as we know that Eli is manipulating Hakan using his love for her.  She/he knows that Hakan will do anything for her and anything to keep her alive, even if it means taking another person’s life.  It seems almost tragic because all he wants is for Eli to love him, yet she doesn’t.  She/he is everything he wants, yet he cannot fully have that, and it is apparent to him every day.  More so when Oskar enters the picture.  Is it really so hard to imagine that one would get jealous in this situation? If you take the ages away, you basically have unrequited love and using someone’s feelings to manipulate them. 

Let The Right One In

                To have a brand new city, means to rob it of any history.  Every city had to have a start at some point but it is still strange to think of a completely new area, in a place where nothing was previously.  Blackeberg is one such location. 

                The fact that it has no history to it makes it seem like a one dimensional place.  There is nothing for children to even learn about the area in which they live.  “At school, the children didn’t get to do any special projects on Blackeberg’s history because there wasn’t one.  That is to say, there was something about an old mill.  A tobacco king.  Some strange old buildings down by the water.  But that was a long time ago and without any connection to the present.” (Page 2).  The way the city is described is even one dimensional.  It seems like it could be any city, anywhere.  There is nothing that makes it special, or makes it stand out.  “There was a town center.  There were spacious playgrounds allotted to children.  Large green spaces around the corner.  There were many pedestrian only walking paths.” (Page 2).  The fact that there are no special features about this area makes it seem that it could really be anywhere.  And that the events that happened here could happen anywhere. 

                It seems that Lindqvist is making a statement about how the modernity of a place is less than desirable.  It robs a place of character.  The fact that the events of this book happened here, instead of somewhere else, also makes a point on how a modern place is undesirable.  “It explains in part how unprepared they were.” (Page2).  It seems that the author is saying that because something is new, we as a society have a hard time believing that anything bad would happen there.  However, this is never the case, because bad things happen everywhere, indiscriminately.

It seems worthwhile to note that Eli also seems without a past.  She just appeared next door to Oskar one day, without even indication that she lived there.  “Five surnames neatly spelled out in plastic letters.  One live was empty.  The name that had stood there before, HELLBERG, had been there so long you could real it from the dark contours left against a sun-bleached background.  But no new letters, not even a note.” (Page 46).  It’s interesting that we have two things without a past.  The town, and Eli herself.  We even know some of the past of Hakan, or at least a hint of it.  “That was one of the things that had gone wrong in Norrkoping.  Someone had remembered the brand name on the bag, and then the police had found it in the garbage container where he had tossed it, not far from their apartment.” (Page 12).   However, instead of being one dimensional like the town, Eli is full of mystery.  We want to know where she is from, what happened to her, her past, etc.  The flat town seems a perfect setting for her character, as it makes her more mysterious than if it had been in a town rich with history.

Final Project Proposal

During this semester, we have explored many different forms of the Vampire.  However, through many of the novels that we have read, there contains a sexual connotation from drinking the blood of another. The exchange of fluids, if you will.  We see this in great amounts in Dracula and in Interview With The Vampire, so these will be the two novels that I will be focusing on.  This also goes along with popular culture and why we, as a society, find vampires so alluring and sensual.  For my final project, I'm going to write a critical paper exploring these things.

Interview with the Vampire.

In the Théâtre de Vampires, we as the reader (and also the audience) are placed in a voyeuristic position throughout the entire performance.  We are shown an actual death, though the audience besides Louis and Claudia think it is acting.  In general, we think death to be a private thing, ideally in a warm bed surrounded by everyone that we love.  However, in this theater they make it a public event.  We set our eyes on this act and know what is happening and that her fears and pleas for her life are real.  This knowledge of ours makes the act more personal, and much more horrifying than for the humans seated in the audience. 

Another way to look at this as not just death, but sexual defloweration.  In my posts about Dracula I mentioned how the Count taking the blood of Lucy and Mina could be seen as a sexual encounter; an exchange of fluids.  She is implied to be a virgin “The soil on her mean blouse and skirt was not stage paint, and nothing had touched her perfect face, which gazed into the light now, as beautiful and finely chiseled as the face of a marble Virgin, that hair her haloed veil.” (Page 217).  Even the first bit on her neck was written in a very sensual way.  “And now, turning her slowly to the side so that they could all see her serene face, he was lifting her, her back arching as her naked breasts touched his buttons, her pale arms enfolded his neck.  She stiffened, cried out as he sank his teeth, and her face was still as the dark theater reverberated with shared passion.  His white hand shone on her florid buttocks, her hair dusting it, stroking it.  He lifted her off the boards as he drank, he throat gleaming against his white cheek” (Page 222).

It’s interesting how we see her progress through several stages of dying throughout this short performance.  She starts with disbelief, stating “ ‘No,’ she protested in disbelief. ‘I have so many years, so many. . . .’ “ (Page 219).  Then she starts to bargain for her life.  Saying that she does not care that she will grow old and gray.  “ ‘Let me live, please,’ she begged, her face turning away from him. ‘I don’t care . . . I don’t care!’ “ (Page 220).  She then slides into an acceptance of her fate (even though the vampire dazed her). 

Online Artifact

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Women in I Am Legend

                In the beginning of this novel, women were viewed only as objects.  They were used to appeal to Robert’s lust, and to make him leave his house.  They did this by striking lewd poses when they knew he was looking out at them.  This worked to awaken his lust, but he did not go out to them.  This can be traced back to the racial themes of the book, in the fact that he did not want his blood to come into contact with the vampire’s blood because he felt that he would become contaminated by them.  The fact that he viewed the women as objects, and not people anymore made it easier for him to kill them, because he did not view them to be the same as he was.  This also can be traced to the racial themes of this book.

                Later in the novel, he performs experiments on the vampires.  However, all the vampires that he experiments on happen to be women.  They seem to be more like lab mice than anything.  Only good if they serve his purpose, otherwise he has no problems in killing them.  They’re just experiments, not people, or even living things to him.  He rationalizes killing them by telling himself that they would have killed him, given the chance.  

                Robert, however, does have a strong desire for a companion.  This is where Ruth comes in.  He is drawn to her because he believes her to be another human like him, and  chases her down.  The fact that he goes through such lengths to get to her shows us how desperate he is for someone, anyone else to talk to and to be with.  Though the idea of being with her frightens her and he tells himself it would be easier if she was one of them.  “But what if she were free of bacillus? In a way, that was a more nerve-racking possibility.  The other way he would merely go on as before, breaking neither schedule now standards.  But if she stayed, if they had to establish a relationship, perhaps become husband and wife, have children . . . Yes, that was more terrifying.” (Page 139)  

Later he thinks, “Shall I kill her now? Shall I not even investigate, but kill her and burn her?” (Page 140).  It’s interesting to be that he seems that he would rather keep viewing the women as he had been, as objects.  They are easy to dispose of because they don’t have any meaning to him.  He is scared of having responsibility again, and by making Ruth into one of them in his mind (and thus making her into and object that is okay to kill), he tries to rid himself of any responsibility that he might have if it turns out that she is not infected.