all fangy and "rrr", takes the mystery out

Feeling very vampiric just at the moment, since I've been marking my batch of third-year essays on vampires and the erotic. Couple of good analyses of Let the Right One In, which seems to do interesting things with androgyny, and some lovely Buffy work, including a truly accomplished essay on Drusilla as a shifting, liminal female figure, slipping disturbingly between vulnerable/dependant/damaged and devouring/evil. Among the inevitable ranks of discursions on Interview and Bram Stoker's Dracula were the usual nod to From Dusk Till Dawn, a bit of an inevitability this year since the essay required focus on a female vampire figure, even if Santanico Pandemonium is all text and no subtext. I suckered at least one student into The Hunger, heh, and mercifully there was only one Twilight. All in all, not a bad batch.

I have scored both Let the Right One In and the True Blood TV series from students, thus necessitating both junky TV-watching and piracy in the name of work, well damn. I'm enjoying True Blood, surprisingly: it's a refreshingly up-front play with the vampires=sexy trope, and the moving of vampires into mainstream society reminds me a bit of Sunshine, although with more dodgy sex and really bad Southern accents. The jury is still out on Sookie herself, I have a sad suspicion she may be Too Dumb To Live. Also, who ever heard of a vampire called Bill? Honestly, are there no standards any more?

Now I go to invigilate my students, which entails peering over their shoulders while they write dodgy things about sex-blogs and fan fiction. Perverse maternal instinct ftw.