Reading Response

Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 Disturbing psychology of what makes a vampire a vampire. The novel presents as a case file of Dr. Philip Outerbridge. Dr Philip is terrified by the case of George and hopes to present his findings to the colonel who wants to know what made George so angry that he hit his commanding officer. The possibilities explored are tremendous.Some of your blood is a vampire psychological novel that examines the matriculation of evil from birth to the age of twenty three.
Theodore Sturgeon does a great job looking at developmental physiologically and especially keen observation o the Havelock Ellis Principal. The Havelock Ellis principle states:"That any mutual act - any one, providing only that it was not forced by one upon the other, and was an expression of love is moral." Sturgeon yields a command of psychology as a tool.
From the tool he asks the following terrorizing questions: Is it possible to create a vampire by defining social norms which would reward the blood sucking event? What would happen if love was connected to the harm of the giver? George learns to seek the comfort of blood because his mother sacrifices herself.
Sturgeon further examines: What if the social conditioning and the pain from punishment came with crimes or no crime committed, would this create a psychopath? What is role of punishment? What should punishment's role be in society? How do the first two years socially construct an individual? Is an individual beyond the ability to be reconditioned from a traumatic childhood? How much are we products of our parents and the environment we are born into?
The book was terrifying . The middle section, George's story, might get a reader bogged down, but blast through that part and you will find a blood red orange.
This was my first book by Theodore Sturgeon I have read, and am interested in reading more by the author.


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Novel Reivews:

Review-Stephen King's 11.22.63

 

 11/22/63 by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As Stephen King said repeatedly in 11.22.63, “The past harmonizes”....and so does this book.  11.22.63 shows King traveling in the time streams between 2011 and 1958 United States.  I agree with Time Magazine when they said that this book is a great travelogue back to the 1950’s American Landscape.   However, this book is much more than just a mere nostalgic kick down Route 66.
 
The main character, Jack Epping, thinks he must go back in time and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald.  He, like many, feels that if just John F. Kennedy was not shot then the world would be a much better place.  But we find that changing the strings of time is never for the better no matter the intentions.  And you can’t stop God’s hand in our storied time; there is no legislation to do away with earthquakes, or tornadoes.

This book was tremendously researched, and because of this one comes away with a sense that this really could be true.   King used his historical research and connected the strands into one epic masterfully.  He is a master at pinpointing the zeitgeist for our age; he understands the times and the people better than the talking heads over at C.N.N. and Fox News. I might even say that Stephen King is our current United State's Charles Dickens.

Be careful for time traveling with King has the possibility of creating jet leg without stepping across a time zone.  The end of the book is a stunner.

Readers who liked this book can also check out Jack Finney’s Time and Again and From Time to Time.
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Story: Ventures into Unknown Territory 51:70

Beneath the Cellars of Our Town by Steven Millhauser _1998_

Summary Non Spoiler

Length:15 pages
Genre: Fantasy-Milieu
Summary: This story describes the subterranean homesick blues.  I am not sure if this story takes place in an actual place, or it takes place in the back country of our mind.   Millhauser does not make this clear. The author focuses the story not on action or conflict resolution, but on describing a milieu (the physical or social setting in which something occurs or develops.)


It would be far truer to say that they bear no relation whatever to any period of history, but rather exist as a place apart-a place from which to contemplate the town coolly, or even to forget the town altogether.


I am searching within the back-steps of my mind, stumbling down the stairs, leading to my filthy cellar, because my mind is attempting to find conflict within my subterranean blues. For I discover that I am, just like the author, a pale amphibian.