Theoria

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 whom, when and under what conditions;

3. These questions could only be posed with the advent of ‘true blood,’ the synthetic blood, which is to human blood as tofu is to animal flesh;

4. Accordingly, “True Blood” is not about vampires, but about what the viewers of “True Blood” choose (should they take the show seriously) to eat;

5. As such, “True Blood” is most certainly not an “allegory for gay rights”;

6. It is only with the intervention of ‘true blood’ that vampires can become fully moral beings and thus responsible for their consumption;

7. Being moral means eating the right sort of food at the appropriate time;

8. The major characters, human and supernatural, of “True Blood” dramatize the possibilities of consumption:

• Bill’s “mainstreaming” is, in effect, a form of veganism;
• Russell’s “speciesism” is, in effect, the inverse of present-day “carnism” and it is only through Russell’s partner, Talbot, that “carnism” enters the realm of cuisine;
• Sophie-Anne’s “Michael Pollanism” is, in effect, about the absolute moral vacuousness of “paying more for better meat”; Jessica presents an interesting counter-point to this insofar as she tends to “glam” her victims, thus ensuring that they do not experience pain during consumption; the significance of both characters being female remains indeterminate;
• Eric  is the average American consumer: he neither “eats too much” nor does he “eat too little” and he gives little thought to the blood he consumes; he is as prone to eat “fast food” as he is to eat higher quality meals;
• Maryanne represents the limit-point of consumption: consuming humans is not about their blood, but about their hearts, but this at the same time reveals how the consumption of flesh, despite species, is always a form of cannibalism;

9. Food, regardless of what it is, has physiological and moral effects upon the consumer (e.g., Bill’s greater strength since returning to human blood);

10. The show cannot state its own moral position until one of the above listed characters kills another (with the exception of Eric killing Russell, because such a killing is a matter of justice for Eric and not a matter of morality)