William Irwin & George A. Dunn 
True Blood and Philosophy 
We Wanna Think Bad Things with You

TRUEBLOOD and Philosophy

Does God hate fangs?

Is Sam still Sam when he turns into a collie?

Is coming out of the coffin the same as coming out of the closet?

Are all vampires created evil?

Vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, fairies, telepaths–True Blood has it all. In a world where supernatural creatures coexist with human beings, Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton wrestle with powerful desires while facing complex issues concerning sex, romance, bigotry, violence, death, and immortality. Now, True Blood and Philosophy calls on the minds of some of history’s great thinkers to perform some philosophical bloodletting on this thought-provoking series. From the metaphysics of mind reading to Maryann Forrester’s cult of Dionysus, from vampire politics to the nature of personal identity, and from contemporary feminism to the rights of nonhuman species, True Blood and Philosophy mines the thinking of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Rawls to enlighten us on the intriguing themes that surround this supernatural world. You’ll find no shortage of juicy metaphysical morsels to sink your teeth into!

To learn more about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, visit www.andphilosophy.com

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments: For the ‚Supes‘ We Just Can’t Live Without ix

Introduction: ‚If a Tree Falls in the Woods, It’s Still a Tree–Ain’t It?‘ 1

Part One ‚I Used to Hate Vampires, Until I Got To Know One‘: Vampire-human Ethics

1 To Turn or Not to Turn: The Ethics of Making Vampires 7
Christopher Robichaud

2 Dressing Up and Playing Human: Vampire Assimilation in the Human Playground 19
Jennifer Culver

3 Pets, Cattle, and Higher Life Forms on True Blood 33
Ariadne Blayde and George A. Dunn

Part Two ‚life-challenged Individuals‘: The Politics of Being Dead

4 Signed in Blood: Rights and the Vampire-Human Social Contract 51
Joseph J. Foy

5 ‚Honey, If We Can’t Kill People, What’s the Point of Being a Vampire?‘: Can Vampires Be Good Citizens? 65
William M. Curtis

6 Un-True Blood: The Politics of Artificiality 79
Bruce A. Mc Clelland

Part Three ‚their Very Blood Is Seductive‘: Eros, Sexuality, and Gender

7 Coming Out of the Coffin and Coming Out of the Closet 93
Patricia Brace and Robert Arp

8 ‚I Am Sookie, Hear Me Roar!‘: Sookie Stackhouse and Feminist Ambivalence 109
Lillian E. Craton and Kathryn E. Jonell

9 Sookie, Sigmund, and the Edible Complex 123
Ron Hirschbein

Part Four ‚i Am Actually Older Than Your Jesus‘: Natural, Supernatural, and Divine

10 Let the Bon Temps Roll: Sacrifice, Scapegoats, and Good Times 139
Kevin J. Corn and George A. Dunn

11 Are Vampires Unnatural? 157
Andrew Terjesen and Jenny Terjesen

12 Does God Hate Fangs? 175
Adam Barkman

Part Five ‚our Existence Is Insanity‘: the Metaphysics of Supernatural Beings

13 A Vampire’s Heart Has Its Reasons That Scientific Naturalism Can’t Understand 187
Susan Peppers-Bates and Joshua Rust

14 Keeping Secrets from Sookie 203
Fred Curry

15 Vampires, Werewolves, and Shapeshifters: The More They Change, the More They Stay the Same 215
Sarah Grubb

Contributors: ‚I Don’t Know Who You Think You Are, but Before the Night Is Through .‘ 229

Index: Sookie’s Words of the Day 237

Über den Autor

GEORGE A. DUNN is a lecturer at the University of Indianapolis and Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, China. He contributed to Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy, X-Men and Philosophy, Terminator and Philosophy, Twilight and Philosophy, Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy, Iron Man and Philosophy, and Mad Men and Philosophy.

REBECCA HOUSEL, a former professor of writing and popular culture, is now an author and editor serving on editorial advisory boards for the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of American Culture. She coedited Twilight and Philosophy and X-Men and Philosophy.

WILLIAM IRWIN is a professor of philosophy at King’s College. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles, including Batman and Philosophy, House and Philosophy, and Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy.