At the moment I have a totally healthy obsession with the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries by Charlaine Harris, the novels that have become the HBO phenomenon known as “True Blood.” I say my obsession is healthy because it’s my staple obsession, going back to childhood: My absolute and utter fascination and love of the supernatural. Monsters, vampires, werewolves, Spirits, witches, fairies…you name the creature, I have a thing for it. Magic and all things related to the magical realm of life are my constant and consistent sources of inspiration. I simply cannot get enough of them.
My current obsession with Sookie Stackhouse’s world is the almost banality of supernatural creatures’ existences. Unlike the adaptation, which thrives on the “otherness” of magical creatures, the books very matter-of-factly introduce supernatural character after magical character, without even pause for a, “Say what?!”
The normalness of supernatural creatures’ presences in Sookie’s Bon Temps is my favorite thing about these stories so far, probably because for me the supernatural side of life was never very “super”-natural, it just seemed natural-natural. Living in Prague, and especially in the winter, we see vampires pretty much every day. The occasional werewolf appears in Chateau, and not to mention the intense hauntedness of this city: Every corner has its own ghosts, some good and some wicked evil, but here nonetheless. Witches are pretty much a staple anywhere in the world.
Prague has a long history of torture and death, and the city was built over itself so many times it’s hard to avoid that intense energy. The Metro is a place in town I never, never go because of how it affects me. I get sick to my stomach, dizzy, disoriented, and more than any of those uncomfortable side effects, every cell in my body screams for me to get out of there immediately. The other day I was renewing my tram pass and noticed a blind man whose seeing-eye-dog was refusing to enter the Metro. He kept screaming at the dog to go inside, but the moment the dog reached the doorway he would balk, shiver and put his tail between his legs, then getting up and trying to lead the man away. Oh yeah, that dog totally knew something was not right. Always trust dogs when it comes to the supernatural, man.
For me, life wouldn’t be complete without a touch of the supernatural. So what about you, Dear Reader? Do you have a similar supernatural fetish? What experiences have you had that begged a magical explanation? I’d love to hear!
nice post, thanks. as for me, i do not have any fetishes and i am glad of it. i think that person should not have anyhing to bow blindly to. i m a great dan of horror and thriller stories as you can see frommy blog. there are many supernatural things and fetishes can be found in these films and shows. but you know, i do not follow this.
YES!, I feel the same way about Sookie’s community…there is something in the telling of the oddities that people just say..shhhh don’t talk about that. I’m in New Mexico…we live by all of those above and beyond…as children we were told them…and yes…we still believe them!! “don’t go by any ditches around sunset!” etc. I love them!! In my family we always had some sense of feeling the feelings of things that happened in places. EX: coming from NM going to Venice 16yrs…went to the “Palace of Doge”…and was on a tour…as we went down stairs…I started getting a bad feeling…reach the “basement” of the old building where they kept prisoners and tortured them…literary felt like I couldn’t breathe…glanced to a room where there was a torture table…and swear I saw a man laying on that table turn and look at me! That was is for me! I made them get me out of there! yes!! it is out there!!! Love your writing!!! In my world its always been nature!!!
Oh I agree. Tis a great post, too. I just don’t like how it went from books to movies to TV shows all at once lol. You know what I mean 😉 (and frankly, if I’m honest, Robert Pattinson does NOTHING for me. Now Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as vampires? I can get behind *that* idea. Sigh. Maybe I’m just getting old lol.)
And yes, that is, indeed, the magical feeling I was referring to. Yay! 😀
Shandiin! Thank you for reading and commenting! Yes, this is another reason why we are sisters, and I know exactly how you felt in Venice. I had the same thing happen to me in Montreaux, just outside Geneva. My friend and I went to the castle there and I was so ill the whole time we were there. My stomach was churning, my skin crawled, I had goosebumps the whole time and just the worst feeling. We asked somebody what had happened at the castle after the walk and it turned out for years it was where they tortured “witches” and then burned them in the courtyard. It was horrible. Pretty much the moment we left the place I felt better, but then my spirit hurt from having walked around all that murder and pain. Isn’t it amazing how, hundreds of years later, that energy remains? I’m so glad that I’m not the only one.
Hmm. Well I was into the vampire thing back in the Anne Rice era, but I’m over them now. They’ve been…well…done to death 😛
I definitely believe in magic, though. I get more proof of it every day, from wonderfully unexpected sources 😉
“Twilight” and everyone connected with it can kiss my patootie. That is the only creation to which my Supernatural Fetish is totally immune. 🙂 Other creations, yikes, I cannot stop myself. It’s like a box of chocolates when no one else is around.
Ah, Magic! How I love Thy presence in our lives. Keep it up, won’t you please?