Dead Until Dark and Sookie

I think it is interesting how each of the books we read about vampires had slightly different ways they played around with the original story of Dracula or conventional vampire folklore. For Dead Until Dark, I thought it was interesting how they applied vampires to a modern society and what would happen if they were really a part of it. It makes sense that if vampire blood did have such qualities that it does in Dead Until Dark, some cruel people would probably do what they could to profit from it. This is morbid, but it probably would happen, as other similar things happen in society. This idea that the vampire blood had these qualities is different from the other books we read. Though, Fledgling does have vampire saliva having these kind of qualities (but it isn't the blood).

As for the main character, Sookie, I'd have to say I think I am a bit disappointed. I feel like her look of: long blond hair, blue eyes, thin waist, nice legs, they even say she has large breasts, is kind of annoying. First of all, this description is stereotypical of a good looking woman in America. It makes me wish the author would have chosen her to look a little more average, or to have explained what she looked like differently. Even Sookie's personality can be seen as a bit ditsy, like the typical blond stereotype. Perhaps the author was trying to prove a point in trying to say something about the 'male gaze.' She could be trying to say that she thinks it's ridiculous what America finds 'attractive' and that she might be poking fun at it. But, somehow I don't think this is the case. Though, I can't really know. I think if the author would have pushed her to just be a bit more average, it would seem more creative to me.

Graphic Novels of Anita Blake

I have to say I really like Anita as a character. She is a strong female heroine with a tough personality. Though, at the same time, she is hard to figure out. Sometimes she is tough, and will tell the toughest vampire she's ever encountered to bug off, while other times she is scared and appears weak. I'm not sure if this is how she is portrayed in the novels as well, but as far as the comics, this is how I see her. I think maybe the author is trying to show her faults, as every hero/heroine is supposed to have. Though, sometimes I don't think it always works. In some situations she would be right at a vampire's throat with a knife, and other times she would give in and call them her 'master.' Perhaps, it was her intellect helping her through a situation, but still I didn't like it. As mentioned in class, she has this thing for penguins. I think this might be the author's way of showing her humanity, but I think it ruins the mood of the character. I think that maybe it would be okay to show the penguins while she slept, to display her weaknesses that she shared with no one. However, whens she wears the penguin outfit and goes out in the public with it, it seems to show her weaknesses to everyone and that seems to show more inconsistencies.

Another thing I could criticize about Anita Blake is that there were a lot of things that were not explained and it was sometimes unclear what was going on. There were many instances were there was a lot of dialogue, but you couldn't tell what action was going on while they were speaking. The movements might try to be shown, but still it was hard to figure out. Also, there was a lot of things Anita would mention in her dialogue boxes that just wasn't explained. For instance, I still am not quite sure what a 'gris-gris' is. I don't believe it was ever explained. A lot of times I think the author assumed that the readers knew what all these vampire/zombie-lore terms were.

My Opinion of Fledgling

I have to say I enjoyed reading Fledgling. It was a great vampire story not just about the fantasy of vampires, but something more. It was about accepting differences in race, gender, and sexuality. However, there were some things that I could criticize about the story:

First off, I thought it was an unusual image of a little ten year old girl (who was actually a 53 year old woman), dictating to older adult humans what they were to do. Although this was part of their relationship with each other, I thought the image of a small child coming up with all these elaborate plans for all these adults to follow was hard to imagine. It's almost as if you had to imagine her as a older woman for it to really make sense. The book seemed to emphasize how Shori did not like to rule over humans too much, but still in the end she was bossing them around and they went along with exactly what she said. This just kind of made me feel bothered to read about, but perhaps this was how the author wanted me to feel. And of course, the fact that Shori had sexual relationships with these adults was also really hard to understand, but somehow when I read enough about it, it somehow fell into place and worked. But, as for the bossing around of humans, that part just didn't work for me.

Another part of the book I have to criticize would be the ending. The part where they explain The Council of Judgement seemed to go on for just too long. It was a case of good and evil and it was obvious that the good was going to win and the evil was going to lose. I understand that the author wanted to explain how justice was found in an Ina society, but this seemed to take up too much of the book and to me, was a dull ending. Also, to go with The Council of Judgement, there were so many characters involved that it got to be confusing and kind of annoying. There was so many people to keep track of, that after a while, I stopped fully paying attention to every single name and just simply moved on because otherwise, my head would of hurt in confusion. I don't believe it was truly necessary to explain every single character, it seemed to make the ending that much more dull in my opinion. Especially when each of the thirteen characters deciding the fate of the Silk family was supposed to speak their mind about their decision. That to me was just too much.

Another thing that I have to mention (which is, I admit, is kind of nit-picky) was her over explanation of food items. There were so many instances where the author took several sentences to describe the exact meal that each of her symbionts was eating, up to the detail of the flavor of muffins. It seemed to be unnecessary. Mostly I thought it to be unnecessary because the main character, Shori, was an Ina who did not even eat the food described, so why describe the food in such detail? That was just too much.

Besides those criticisms, Fledgling really wasn't that bad. It was an interesting twist on vampire mythology that really made for a great story.

Writing Exercise

Quotes from the reading:

1. Unfortunately, moral codes and legal demarcations complicate rather than regulate desire. And judgments like "right" and "wrong" only build barriers between people and encourage shame within individuals.

2. Sex can look like love if you don't know what love looks like. It gives you someone to hold on to when you can't feel yourself. It is heat on your body when the coldness is inside of you. It is trying out trusting and being trusted.

3. What happens when we are not allowed to know our own bodies, when we cannot safely respond to and explore our own desire?

4. The question is rather, what do young women need to make sex a dynamic, affirming, safe and pleasurable part of our lives? How do we build the bridge between sex and sexuality, between the isolated act and the powerful element that, when honed, can be an important tool for self-actualization?

5. We need to learn that bodily pleasure belongs to us; it is our birthright.


My response to the quotes:

1. I think that in our society, we usually make choices on what to be based on what it seen as “right” and “wrong.”
And I agree with the author that, it can “build barriers between people.”

2. I like this quote. It is poetic and says a lot about what sex is viewed as. I especially like the last line, “It is trying out trusting and being trusted.” Sex has a lot to do with trust, and I think that what she says holds true.

3. In my opinion, I think our society makes certain ‘private parts’ of our bodies seem so wrong that it seems wrong to even know about our own body. I like her quote because of that, it bring attention to this idea.

4. I like these questions. Her questions are really something to think about, but they can never really truly be answered.

5. I like this idea, that pleasure is something we have a right to. And it is.



In relation to Fledgling:

The essay begins with the author telling readers that she had sex at eleven years old. This is about how old Shori, the main character of Fledgling looks to be. This just goes to show that although it seems weird to imagine a ten or eleven year old having sex, it does happen and you can see an example of it right in this essay. I think her views on sex can relate to the book because she says how we always dictate our lives on what society thinks is “right” and “wrong.” The book often points out how Shori’s lover, Wright, feels awkward at first about his sexual relations with her. In society, if Shori was actually as young as she looked to be, it would be extremely wrong of what they were doing. However, there was more to it than that, and they were in love. I think this can go back to one of the quotes I pointed out: “We need to learn that bodily pleasure belongs to us; it is our birthright.” It is their right to have pleasure with each other, regardless of what others think.

My Thoughts on Twilight

At first, I really wasn't sure how I felt about having to read Twilight. I had heard a lot of bad things from my friends about the book, though I did hear some good things from other people. Most of the bad things I have heard came from my friends who read a lot and seem pretty knowledgeable about what is good writing, while the ones I heard good things from just seemed to be obsessed fan girls with no real reasons why they liked it, except for saying Robert Pattinson is awesome. Perhaps maybe I didn't ask them to go in detail, or that was their reasoning. I don't know.

When I finally started to read the book, I realized that my friends who said the book was not so great, were right. There a lot of reasons why I think this and I will go over them. First off, I think that what was most frustrating is that the book really isn't about vampires at all. It's simply a love story with vampires conveniently making Bella's love interest more than just that great guy she's in love with, to something more. I notice that just when you think something really cool and fantasy like is going to happen, they direct the action to something a lot less interesting. Just when you think it might be neat to see what happens when Edward goes out hunting animals, he tells Bella he doesn't want her to go, and then there is the boring story of her day at school. Because of this, I'm having a hard time figuring out why people are so obsessed with vampires due to Twilight. The books are hardly about vampires at all. Its more about Bella's boring dating life and high school relationships. Another thing is that Bella has a tendency to ramble on and on about how awesome Edward is. It makes me wish it was done in a different way, or at least that she would describe different parts of him each time. That way, we could get a more detailed picture of what he looked like as the book went on, opposed to getting a detailed picture of what the color of his eyes look like. To go with that, a lot the book is describing something, and not enough action. A lot of the chapters were just conversations between Bella and Edward along with some vaguely intimate moments. Most of the conversations entailed how much they loved each other, but it was forbidden, but it still needed to continue. That part just didn't seem to make sense. It seemed so contradictory. To sum up my thoughts, I thought the book was really cheesy and didn't make sense. There was so much they just seemed way too convenient, the conversations were really sappy, and there wasn't enough that really happened in each chapter except boring high school drama that I no longer relate to.

About Me

Hello, I am Jen Hadorn and I'm majoring in Visual Communication with Interactive Multimedia and Media Arts and Studies with Digital Media: Special Effects, Games, and Animation. It's basically a long title meaning, I'm studying Web Development and Game Development. I'm mostly interested in the art and design aspects to websites and games, opposed to the technical sides. Something I'm particularly interested in is designing characters for games. Besides art done on the computer, I like to draw with pencil and paper, paint, craft, and other artsy things like that. Along with learning how to develop games, I also really enjoy playing games. I've always been a big Nintendo fan, but I recently got an Xbox 360, so I'm starting to really like those games as well. I'd have to say that games are something I am really passionate about and I always love to talk about them with friends.

As far as this English class goes, honestly, I am pretty nervous. I was never very good at English and taking a college level English course makes me a bit uneasy. I'm not exactly the fastest reader, so I'm hoping I can get all the readings done when I need to. I don't feel like I have the best writing skills as well. I'm going to try to do what I can, and I just hope that it is what is needed. Though, one thing that I am interested in is that the class is about vampires. I really like reading about fantasy and fictional creatures like vampires, so I think that might make things less nerve wracking for me.