Book Discussion Barbara Hort, Unholy Hungers

[Xenophon]

Has anyone read this? It came to me highly recommended, and in the early going seemed worth the effort. But Holt's take on Dracula strikes me as perverse: everyone in the tale, save maybe Mina, is a psychic vampire. This includes Renfield the mental patient and Dr. Seward. (Apparently asking Lucy to marry him was vampirism. Go figger.) Sure, everyone in the world plays power games to some degree. I'm not sure of the intellectual insight reaped by calling this "vampirism." Rhetorically, sure: it's a helluva stroke against one's opponents. But then, that just goes to show the degree to which oneself is---gasp---a vampire. (A step Holt never takes and pretty well papers over with her impassioned defense of pan-victimhood.)

What am I missing by pulling the plug at the end of her discussion of Dracula? (The male vampires section)?

 

[Wintruz]

What am I missing by pulling the plug at the end of her discussion of Dracula? (The male vampires section)?

Absolutely nothing. Yes, I've read it and, had I known you wanted to, I'd have sent you my copy.

In its defence, it is an usual book and seeing vampirism in stories like Snow White and Dorian Gray confirms long-held speculations of my own. However, it succumbs to the serious downsides of Webb's recommendations. One, he tends to side with "pan-victimhood" politically (to expiate his earlier Ayn Rand leanings perhaps - more likely because he thinks women, who are the final arbiters for him, are more inclined to this way of thinking). Two, he thinks what's been meaningful for him, will be for others. Difficult balance with that one, but he doesn't strive as hard as he should. I write after trawling though innumerable recommendations of his in other places. I approach with caution (hence, my own book list for that curriculum).

Greene's The Art of Seduction succumbs to the same thing as Unholy Hungers but with a more mischievous attitude: anecdotal stories can give pointers, illustrations and entertainment but they are bound by circumstances which won't be repeated. The thing to develop which underlies those anecdotes is the ability to think fast and employ certain kinds of social codes and a bit of stage magic. In other words, this is largely terrain without a map and progress comes via trial and error. It can't really be learnt from a book. Whether it constitutes "vampirism" is perhaps in the eye of the beholder. Like magic proper, developing a sense of virtue early on makes us able to look at ourselves in the mirror and know we're not a lowlife. Yet there are Puritanical types who would say any use of psychology to make our life easier or, even, bring wonder to our interlocutor, is beyond the pale.

 

[Xenophon]

Absolutely nothing. Yes, I've read it and, had I known you wanted to, I'd have sent you my copy.

In its defence, it is an usual book and seeing vampirism in stories like Snow White and Dorian Gray confirms long-held speculations of my own. However, it succumbs to the serious downsides of Webb's recommendations. One, he tends to side with "pan-victimhood" politically (to expiate his earlier Ayn Rand leanings perhaps - more likely because he thinks women, who are the final arbiters for him, are more inclined to this way of thinking). Two, he thinks what's been meaningful for him, will be for others. Difficult balance with that one, but he doesn't strive as hard as he should. I write after trawling though innumerable recommendations of his in other places. I approach with caution (hence, my own book list for that curriculum).

Greene's The Art of Seduction succumbs to the same thing as Unholy Hungers but with a more mischievous attitude: anecdotal stories can give pointers, illustrations and entertainment but they are bound by circumstances which won't be repeated. The thing to develop which underlies those anecdotes is the ability to think fast and employ certain kinds of social codes and a bit of stage magic. In other words, this is largely terrain without a map and progress comes via trial and error. It can't really be learnt from a book. Whether it constitutes "vampirism" is perhaps in the eye of the beholder. Like magic proper, developing a sense of virtue early on makes us able to look at ourselves in the mirror and know we're not a lowlife. Yet there are Puritanical types who would say any use of psychology to make our life easier or, even, bring wonder to our interlocutor, is beyond the pale.

Actually, to be fair, Unholy Hungers did afford me at least one useful reminder. Holt notes that a dangerous vampire need not be another person. That one's inner assemblage of persons and demi-persons can include what amount to psychic vampires.