[Dragaera] Blood of the Horse^H witch, goddess, etc.

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Thu, 10/16/08, Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> >> Sure, that's correct.  But it does introduce
> the extra
> >> complexity of explaining what a vampire is and why
> blood
> >> drinking is significant. [...]
> >> Then one needs to find out why Sethra is a vampire
> and not
> >> just run-of-the-mill undead.  Then one needs to
> determine
> >> what the implications are for whatever's
> special about
> >> blood and whatever's special about vampirism
> for Sethra.
> >
> > There's a difference.  I do want to understand the
> > characters' dialogue, but none of your questions
> above ever 
> > occurred to me, and I'm not really interested in
> > them unless the answer makes a good story.
> 
> Well, if there are no vampires, then the exchange you
> pointed
> to shows us a good deal about Vlad - how subtle and quick
> he is,

That sure would qualify as subtle and quick.  Maybe
the third "m" in "Hmmm" was to give himself time to
think.

> and how good with children.  Otherwise it just carries the
> plot forward a bit but not in any essential way.
> 
> And we do care just from a plot perspective about the above
> issues,
> I think - consider the end of _Taltos_, and its echo in
> _Dzur_.

We've also seen blood used in witchcraft.  I can't
remember when, but he cuts his palm and says Noish-pa
told him never to kill anyone to get blood for that
purpose; another time Morrolan asks him whose blood
to use for some kind of spell.

I hadn't connected those with vampires' (if they exist)
need for blood.  But I don't see the importance to the
plot.  As far as the plot of /Taltos/ is concerned, the
vial of blood is simply what Vlad needs to get hold of,
and blood is a colorful and convincing choice.  Further
connections might be fun, but I don't feel a need for
them.

Jerry Friedman

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