Nasya Post 3

This week's readings have become increasingly strange. Although strange I feel the chapters are helping the reader develop more or better opinions on the characters and the events that occur. In chapter 3 when the men on horseback approached Gilda we read that Gilda killed one of the men and almost killed the other. In class the topic of whether Gilda acted on instinct or not was discussed. I believed that it was based on instinct 1. because she was human before she became a vampire and self defense was how she responded (since of of the men grabbed her by the hair) 2. because she's been in this predicament before and naturally she would respond as before. From this scene though we see that Gilda isn't what we could consider "bad" or "evil" because after the run-in with the men she was "sickened by her anger." She doesn't want killing to become something pleasurable or a common day thing as it had been with Eleanor. Although it could be argued that she knew she was stronger than the men because of her super human strength and took advantage of the situation; I believe that she doesn't abuse that power-- she's not out seeking humans to overpower.

In chapters 4 and 5 we've read some "racy" scenes which sparked discussion in class. In chapter 4 we read a scene between Gilda and Bird in which they drank each others blood. The scene however was described more as a sexual encounter which in class the idea was thrown out there that drinking blood from one another was their sex as opposed to "human sex." I agree with that idea because the vampires don't need each others blood to survive they drink the blood of humans therefore there isn't a necessity but it's rather just a desirable act. At the same time the scene is described as a mother-child encounter. For example, Gilda "felt the love almost as motherly affection, yet there was more" (pg 139). The encounter was also described as a birth, again as a mother and child would have. The scene also is viewed as a physical bond between Gilda and Bird. The two women were already bonded together emotionally but this physical interaction was "cementing their family bond" (pg 139). In chapter 5 when Gilda was going to make Julius into a vampire there's a "sexual" encounter between the two of them as well. She fulfills the dream he was having of Gilda she cuts him and drinks his blood. This isn't to be confused with the need for blood, in this case it was to make him into a vampire. Even so this blood drinking scene was described sensually as well. Then again, a mother-child reference was made: the way Gilda was standing over Julius "looking down at him" as a mother would do "it was easy to see what a child he was" (pg 178). Strange as it is I feel that what seems strange to us, as a reader, as a human is just because we're on the outside looking in to what would be considered a normal life for vampires.