[Dragaera] *slaps head about Tukko* *AGYAR SPOILERS*

[Philip Hart]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2008, Jerry Friedman wrote:

> I hadn't considered that you might mean not only that
> "vampire" was a popular word, but that it also carried
> erroneous implications.

Why yes, I am in fact a usage elitist.  Hence the contrast
with "technical".


> Given your scenario, Vlad's behavior seems very strange.
> He finds out that Savn believes the undead are "vampires",
> meaning some kind of blood-drinker.  The point he needs
> to make is that Savn should accept that Loraan is
> undead even though the region isn't littered with
> exsanguinated corpses.  So why does he bring up the
> idea at all?

Vlad says Loraan is u; Savn says, Loraan is v?  Vlad says
to himself, Oops, better humor the kid - plus here's a
nice chance to poke some cheap fun at Sethra.

> Why not just say, "Could be, but there
> are other sorts of undead"?  And then go straight into
> the bit about Sethra not needing much blood.

The claim is that V is working to gain S's confidence, and 
instead of saying, "Everything you think is ignorant and you 
should just accept what I say", V treats the question like a 
valid one.  Maybe there are some false rumors, or perhaps there 
are bat or whatever drainings around that V can use to strengthen 
the case, but that's just gravy. I'm probably not being very clear - 
imagine talking to a child about a break-in, and trying  not to get 
too deep into a There's no Santa discussion.  Anyway, I didn't 
intend to argue this to death.


> simple story.  Sethra was alive, and ten or twenty
> thousand years ago she died and returned as an
> undead blood-drinker.  It's not stated clearly
> enough to hold Steve to (there's no such thing),
> but it makes sense of everything.

Sure, that's correct.  But it does introduce the extra
complexity of explaining what a vampire is and why blood
drinking is significant.  Michael Swanwick does so in
_In The Drift_ but in a scientific context; Ann Rice fails
to in _The Vampire Lestat_; the Buffyverse has a consistent
take but not one that bears too much thought ("Blood is life").
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.