Dead until Dark

CHARLAINE HARRIS
Southern Vampire Series

 Cross-genre hybrid; horror, romance, fantasy, mystery

 Urban fantasy,
 mystery,
 romance,
 horror series about a telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse
 Sookie’s adventures

 Supernatural creatures:
 vampires,
 Shapeshifters
 werewolves, and
 other supernatural creatures

 Adapted into the TV series True Blood

Setting

 American South

 Fictional town of Bons Temps, Louisiana

 alternate contemporary society

 Vampires “have come out of the coffin”

Sookie Stackhouse

 1st person narrator

 25 years old
 Blonde bombshell
 5’7”, busty
 waitress

 “disability” – telepathy
 Adversely affects her life
 School
 Relationships
 Family life
 Job opportunities
Bill Compton

 Vampire, 150 years old

 Originally from Bon Temps

 Reclaims inheritance after vampires legalised

 Desires to “mainstream”
Harris’ vampire lore

 The older the vampire, the less blood needed

 Eric Northman needs only a drop
 Facilitates mainstreaming
 The older the vampire, the more powerful he is
 Seen in the deference of Bill and others to Eric
 Tourist and hospitality industry catering to needs to vampires
 Blood in the Quarter
 Fangtasia at Shreveport
 Are dead from dawn to dark
 Resting place – best kept secret

 Not necessarily heterosexual

 Malcolm, Liam and Diane

 Sino-Aids
 Deadly virus for vampires
 Vengeance (Jerry) cf. onset of AIDS virus in 1980s
“Coming out of the coffin”

 Legislature enabling vampires to be assimilated into society

 insight into the vampire world, government and society

 Politically correct version: Virus

 Allergy to sun, garlic, silver etc.
 Accounts for paleness
 Accounts for need to replenish blood supply
 Tru Blood
 Japanese invention
 Artificial substitute

 Draining
 Vampire blood as drug of choice – “V”
 Humans abusing vampires for profit (Rattrays)
Mainstreaming

 The rules:
 Pretend to be human to be accepted by humans
 Play the game of being human
 Play the game of being a vampire
 Know the rules (boundaries, the appropriate behaviour),
 Permission to enter
 Gradual acceptance which can be used to one’s advantage
 Eric plays when it suits him

 Not everyone wishes to play (Diane, Liam and Malcolm)

 Enhance their difference (cf. homosexuals)
Prejudice in the American South

 Human prejudice against vampires is linked to

 the history of slavery,
 sexism,
 racism, and
 homophobia in the American South
Exploding stereotypes and myths

 Southern hospitality
 Sookie’s desire to meet a vampire fulfilled
 Gran is open-minded
 Individual females/males as “fang-bangers”
 Seeking novel experiences (sexual experimentation)
 Rest of society is wary of accepting vampires

 Civil War
 not a hero quest
 But an all out war – American against American
Otherness

 “you are different, what are you?”

 quest for identity

 Sense of normality in relationship with Bill
 Enables her sexual awakening

 Sookie’s personal growth and change:

 she becomes free, powerful, more aggressive,
 enhances and focuses her telepathy,
 develops confidence in herself
Sam Merlotte

 Sookie’s boss

 Shapeshifter
 Can assume any shape
 Forced to change at full moon
 Prefers the collie

 His existence makes Sookie aware that the PC vampire version is a myth
 If shapeshifters exist then so do DEAD vampires
Romance

 Sookie & Bill

 She initially saves him from the Rattrays
 Asks nothing in return
 He then saves her from the Rattrays
 Blood given to her – repaying life debt
 Her inability to hear his thoughts renders him more attractive
 Her unmalleability renders her attractive to him
 Is not susceptible to hypnosis/glamour
 Parallels between fang penetration and intercourse
 Contains all elements of romance genre

 Even contains the false suitor

 Sam Merlotte
Mystery

 4 murders in Bon Temps:

 Maudette Pickens
 Gran (Adele Stackhouse)
 Dawn Green
 Amy Burley
 Common denominators:
 Jason Stackhouse
 Lady’s man – womaniser
 Bill Compton
 fang punctures
 But not mode of death
 Sookie – plays detective
 Convinced grandmother’s death was collateral damage
 She intended victim
 She catches the murderer
 Rene Lenier
 Friend’s ex-husband
 Brother’s best friend
 Also guilty of lynching Malcolm, Diane and Liam and murder of human female
 First victim – sister Cindy
 Keeps up pretence of visiting her
 Kills her and then rapes the corpse
 Incest
 Not one off
 Uncle Bartlett
 Sookie and aunt Linda

 Only grandmother believed Sookie

 His death at the hands of Bill

Horror or Fantasy???

 Horror elements?

 Is the presence of vampires sufficient to classify a novel as horror?

 Why? / why not?