Vampires Equal Death?

A commentor, PNN member cereals,  in a previous post wanted to know what I thought of a recent scene in True Blood. The symbolism of the scene was different for her than it was for me. As I stated in my reply, one of the fascinating aspects of this is that these impressions can be like Rorschach Tests. Particularly because we're dealing in fantasy, there is no right or wrong. I'll write about my take on the symbolism of the scene, but wholeheartedly suggest that you see how it strikes you for yourself. Please feel free to suggest different interpretations in the comments.

Sookie has lost her grandmother and now, it seems, Bill. The loss and shock are overwhelming. There had been an incident at the bar the night before and Sookie knew that men were out to destroy the vampire group that Bill was to spend the evening with. (A choice he made to get the vamps away from the people they were threatening.) She tries all evening to call and warn Bill. However, that morning, the house occupied by the vampires is found burnt to the ground. The crew on the scene pull out four coffins and discover the gooey, cringe-worthy remains inside. Four coffins. Three for the new vamps on the scene and one for Bill? Sookie is devastated as she realizes that Bill is dead, well, um, gone.

In her grief Sookie heads out to the cemetary that night and encounters the headstone that was put there when Bill's human family memorialized their loss of him during the Civil War. This is a quiet scene. No one else is around and Sookie is left with immense feelings to process on her own. In the silence, she begins walking home when suddenly a hand explodes out of the earth and grabs her ankle. She screams and struggles to get away, but the grip is too strong. An entire, dirt-covered body is rising from the ground and Sookie is fighting for her life. Until we hear Bill's voice say, "Sookie..."

We learn that Bill did get her messages. He slept in the ground because it was the safest place to be. Not the most comfortable, but the safest. So, here is this naked man covered from head to toe in dirt, twigs and leaf matter. Still, the emotions are high and frantic love-making ensues.

What is this startling imagery of him emerging from the earth? For cereals, it was like a coffin. I can see that. It is like death jumping out and grabbing her to bring her down. Certainly, her life has been filled with death. Her parents died when she was young and now there have been several deaths around her. She gets involved with a "dead" person and he ends up "dying" on her, too.

Vampires are an imagery created for us to fear. The first stories of vampires were offered to us from religious leaders. If we committed their version of sins, we would live in the state of death eternally. Our souls would not move on to eternal life. Yet, death is also part of the cycle of life. The life here on earth. We are all part of the physical matter that comprises the entire eco-system of Earth. Beings live for a while, then their bodies are returned to the earth and the matter breaks down and is re-integrated into a new life form.

I saw Bill's emergence as a symbolic birth. Vampires represent our feral selves and they have feral births rising up out of the earth. They are everything that we have tried to keep under wraps in order to be "civilized" and to earn our soul's way into an ethereal non-earthly afterlife. All of this is a construct that we have created with our minds. We think therefore we imagine. We imagine a lot of esoteric stuff that really has nothing to do with surviving as a biological unit and experiencing the sensuality that is life. Vampires are the extreme opposite. They feel therefore they desire. Uninhibited by all these thoughts that we generate about gods and souls and afterlifes. They have experienced the communion of blood (the symbol for passion) and are reborn into a purely physical life. With no thoughts, they don't dream. They sleep the sleep of death and are re-born every day. Re-born with a predatorial desire to experience life eternally.

For Sookie, who has spent a lifetime assaulted by the thought-realm of human beings, it is a whole new universe to be with someone whose thoughts she can't hear. She has to navigate the relationship based on feelings. She's free to explore the sensual without the thought-stream interrupting her pleasure. Being with Bill is her re-birth. This born-again experience, though, is about earthly desire, not heavenly salvation. It's not about fearing death. It's about living life.