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

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Wed, 10/15/08, Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
...

> > 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.

Okay, I won't argue any more.  I'm groaning too hard
at Majikjon's /Hamlet/ find.

> > 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.

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.  (If vampires
were real, I'd be much more curious. And possibly
scared.)

Jerry Friedman