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Monthly Archives: August 2010

2010-2011 Course Outlines

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

This year I am teaching three courses: FYSM 1506 Topics in the Study of Societies: “Power and Violence” [pdf]–this course will focus, in the semester, on social and political theories of violence and its relation to society and, in the second semester, on a variety of “substantive” topics, drawing upon movies, fiction, and television. LAWS [...]

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OSPCA vs. THS (yet again)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Today, the Crown announced it was dropping all charges against THS staff and directors citing constitutional reasons, apparently related to media involvement and the search warrants. Predictably, the OSPCA is outraged–outraged!!!–at this development and will, as one has to come expect of the OSPCA, be holding a press conference in a really expensive hotel. In [...]

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An Eleventh Thesis on “True Blood”

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The hardest aspect of the show to understand is the role of blood, both real and synthetic. The previous two episodes point to its powers: it is already known that vampire blood has effects on humans and supernaturals who consume it, but the powers of supernatural blood on vampires has not been explored. It is [...]

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Ten Theses on “True Blood”

Monday, August 2, 2010

1. Traditionally, vampires have been about death (e.g., premature burial) and seduction (e.g., aristocrats preying upon the women of lower social orders); while blood has been important to traditional vampires, they were never “about” blood; 2. The vampires of “True Blood” pose the question of consumption and are thus actually about blood: who should eat [...]

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