Bloodsucking Fiends - Response
Please respond here for the second part of your test:
The Namesake Analysis/Discussion Chp. 1 & 2; How It Feels To Be Colored Me
Let's go back to examining The Namesake , Chapter 1 this morning to continue examining the writing style going on here. Take a closer look at these passages: Pg. 3 (1st full paragraph) to 4 (end of 1st full paragraph): How is Ashima's character compared/contrasted with the American women in the hospital? What do you notice about the sentence structure of this paragraph? What does the use of dialogue in this paragraph provide for the reader? What literary devices do you notice? Can you find figurative language/metaphor/alliteration or other elements of imagery? How are the sentences similar to a contraction (the action in the scene)? Pg. 10-12: how is Ashoke's character presented? How does his story parallel or contrast with his wife's? How is Ashoke different from the other American men in the waiting room? What details do we learn about him? Pg. 13-14: Nickolai Gogol and the short story "The Overcoat" is alluded to here. Just notice it for now. This al...
Comments
-Keyla Hernandez
He also gives the advice that “Each scene should accomplish something.” This I do not think he followed very well. At a lot of points in the books I found myself coming to the end of a chapter totally and utterly confused. A lot of these moments were found, especially, with The Emperor’s chapters. Every time we see him he’s going after the vampire and talking about this great battle he’s going to have and it doesn’t even happen until the very end of the book. Throughout so many of his sections I just kept wondering if what I was reading was totally necessary to the story, and I don’t believe all of it was.
I think Bloodsucking Fiends is a very good modern take on the whole Dracula and vampire idea. You could see similarities in the fact that Jody as a vampire never eats or drinks or uses the bathroom and, of course, that she will live forever. Also, she has super human strength and heightened senses and still acts upon emotions, as does the vampire in Dracula. Some differences were that Jody was not alive during the day and could be burned by the sunlight while in Dracula the vampire is always up and about. You can definitely see the influence of Dracula and other vampire novels, especially in the part where Tommy is conducting all these experiments on what is and is not true of vampire’s from vampire literature.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I liked how Moore has made being a vampire into something more lady like and not as grotesque as turning into some kind of savage beast and sucking the blood out of everyone it sees. I thought the ending was sort of bizarre and crazy, but overall it was an interesting light read. I would definitely recommend it to others as well.
-Cassie Pavone
"Lust is a plot device, love is a story," Christopher Moore said fairly recently in an interview. When he said this, he was talking about Bloodsucking Fiends. Moore has a point and follows this throughout his story. Just as Bram Stoker's Dracula had love so did Bloodsucking Fiends. The only difference was that Jody was not manipulating Tommy's mind. Tommy loved her without some freaky mind control or the addition of being the reincarnation of a dead past lover. That is why he incased her in bronze when she told him she had to leave.
"You can write about staking-out vampires all day, about gunfights and space ships and pirates and bank robbers and most of your readers will have absolutely nothing, but other fiction to compare with your portrayals, but when you write sex, they know" (Moore). Christopher knows what he is talking about in this quote. A novel, a story no matter how funkadelic, needs something that the audience can relate to. Whether heterosexual, homosexual or necrophilia the audience understands sex. Sex is a common link that people have. "He finally got the message and returned her kiss and tried to match her urgency, then didn't have to try it all" (103). The thing that is good about Moore's sex scenes is that they are not over the top with too much information. However there is also not too little information.
There are several other similarities that Christopher Moore's novel had with Dracula. Just like in the typical Vampire legend, Jody can turn into mist like Dracula could. It took her until the end of the novel to figure it out, but she could none the less. "Vapor was streaming out of the ear holes in the brass and swirling into a cloud in the middle of the room," (299).
Jody also could not eat. In Dracula, Dracula just watched others eat like Jody does with Tommy at the restaurant.
"'I can't eat,' she said.
'Not at all?'
'Not as far as I know. I can't even keep a glass of water down,'" (112).
Jody also shares the similarities with Dracula that she can't go out during sunrise and can't get up until sundown. Jody also represents the original Vampire folklore when her arm gets burned from the sunlight. She also heals quickly, just like a "typical?" vampire.
Also just like in a “typical” vampire book or movie, there are vampire hunters. Usually Van Helsing shows up, but this time it was a hobo named the Emperor with his faithful companions. The vampire hunters, the Animals, are a little out of the ordinary in Moore’s novel however. It is a delightful change however.
The differences are wide and varied. Dracula could basically do anything a vampire was ever told to be able to do. Therefore there is much room for difference.
"She stepped back from the mirror and tried to fight the self-criticism-tried to look at herself objectively" (54). Jody could see herself in the mirror. Vampires in folklore could not seen themselves in the mirror. This was a classic symbol to tell if one was a vampire or not.
Another difference was the bite marks. In Dracula when a person was bite, the bite marks were still visible afterwards. When Jody bit Kurt, the bite marks disappeared. “There were no marks on his neck where she had bitten him” (25). In Dracula Lucy’s bite marks were very noticeable to Van Helsing when he looked for them. The bite mark was evidence of vampires. The bite marks not being shown helps the vampires to not be found. That is why the police had such a problem trying to figure out why there were people drained of blood with no wounds.
One final example of difference was the vampires in the city feeding on the sick. The AIDS epidemic was approached in this novel, obviously unlike Bram Stoker’s Dracula considering that when the novel was written AIDS wasn’t around yet. Christopher Moore played with the idea of this blood born disease. Moore way of using Tommy helped the reader understand the city more. The fact of Jody being able to see the dying, helped express this view also. “In my vampire book, Bloodsucking Fiends, it was important that my protagonist, Tommy came from a small town in the Mid-West because the book is set in San Francisco and I wanted to portray the city through new eyes.”
This book was an enjoyable read (I finished it in less than a week) that I would recommend.
In the novel, "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore, the image of vampires has taken some similarities to the original creation. However in Moore’s novel, the vampires seem to be somewhat more fascinating to me than the image in "Dracula." Although they share some similar traits such as not being able to go into direct sunlight, being immortal, and the obvious sucking blood, Moore has made his vampire characters more realistic by setting specific times that the vampires are able to roam during the night and also bringing in a love story between a mortal and an immortal.
I believe that Moore did follow his advice about writing when he wrote this book. He definitely follows the guideline of "The Art of Fiction" in order to construct his novel and uses many literary devices that contribute to it. I enjoyed reading the novel and I think that Moore was very clever in his depiction of a modern-day vampire.
The archetype for many films, literary pieces and opinions for most vampire fiction have been based off of the famous, Dracula written by Bram Stoker, which, although is not the first of its kind, seems to have left the stereotyped impression of vampirism on society. We associate a vampire being dark, mysterious, and sexy, yet untouchable. We know vampires are representation of evil-doing and are casted as breakers of social mores, which include not only killing others, but sucking their blood and specifically choosing their prey before attacks. All of these associations and opinions have been accepted through this film and made their way through time. Vampires and their doings became a common interest centuries ago, when which they were begun to be written of, and their influence have persisted into modern times. Vampirism behavior as we know it, has evolved from folklore and made its way into pop culture- into a universally interesting theme of mystery, suspense, and horror used frequently.
Bloodsucking Fiends, written by Christopher Moore is a novel written with traditional values of vampirism based off its folklore roots, but placed in modern time as pop culture. With the influence of Dracula apparent throughout its text and characters, this book is a modern interpretation of vampirism and its tradition. Jody, the main character, who is a vampire in Bloodsucking Fiends, has many similar characteristics as Dracula himself. Jody, not unlike Dracula have similar characteristics of vampires: are both sensitive and may be killed by the sunlight, come out only during the night, possess fangs in which they suck humans’ blood, are portrayed as mysteriously sexy and handsome creatures, and prey on human being’s livelihood. Jody and Dracula not only possess similar characteristics, but, also, both are struggling with a similar theme. Both vampires are casted in the dark of society, and are seeking a way to fit in and relate to normal human beings in their lives. They both desire to involve themselves romantically with other characters: In Dracula, Mina, and in Bloodsucking Fiends, Tommy, but struggle enormously since they are very different creatures to their lovers, and have drastically different lifestyles than them. Moore’s depiction of vampirism is under different circumstances than that of the original Dracula, but both pieces agree upon the characteristics of these creatures, and are based on similar themes and struggles for the main characters.
Moore’s writing and tone throughout his novel, Bloodsucking Fiends, is rather matter-of-fact, frank, and to the point. His writing style does, indeed coincide with his website advice. In agreement with his advice, he writes in third person omniscient, uses dialogue realistically and as a key factor in his book, writes his chapters like scenes, and uses description directly, without being excessive. Like his tone on the website, his novel is interesting, entertaining and, humorous. Like he states on the website, Bloodsucking Fiends seems to be researched and well thought out. It alludes to many aspects in Dracula, and this six month period of which he states he researches his theme before actually writing the book is obviously true. Christopher Moore’s interview responses and advice to readers very much agrees with his novel. This book is seriously entertaining and a very interesting take widespread theme of vampirism in modern culture terms.
Similarities between Bloodsucking Fiends and Dracula are obvious. Like Dracula, Jody can also drink blood by biting on the neck of the victim with their fangs such as what had happened on page 103 when Jody and Tommy first moved in together.
Like Dracula Jody can only come out during the night and can not go out during the sunlight. A last example of how Dracula and Jody are alike is when Jody is on the ceiling as on page 104 where Jody hangs on the ceiling to prove to Tommy that she is a vampire.
Differences between Bloodsucking Fiends and Dracula are as obvious as the similarities. In Bloodsucking Fiends Jody can not grow wings as shown on page 143 when Tommy was putting Jody through experiments. She didn’t have to carry dirt with her where ever she went unlike Dracula.