In the 1978 horror movie "Martin," writer/director George A. Romero presented us with a young man who enjoys killing people and drinking their blood, but who may or may not be a so-called "vampire"; the film is wonderfully ambiguous all the way down the line on that score. Seventeen years before Martin skulked through the dreary suburbs of Pittsburgh, however, another unconventional vampire was given to the world, in the pages of Theodore Sturgeon's "Some of Your Blood." (Actually, an apology may be in order right now, as that last is a bit of a spoiler; the sanguinary habits of the central character of Sturgeon's novel are only revealed toward the story's conclusion. However, seeing that the back cover of the book's current incarnation, the one from Millipede Press, gives away even more spoiler details than this, perhaps I may be excused here.) Theodore Sturgeon, of course, is a writer perhaps more well known for his sci-fi and fantasy work; I know it surprised me to find an article lauding this book in the excellent overview volume "Horror: Another 100 Best Books," in which writer Peter Atkins calls "SOYB" "an almost unacknowledged masterpiece of unflinchingly dark vision." But having read and been a fan of Sturgeon's sci-fi classics "More Than Human" and "Venus Plus X," and been blown away by his shockingly clever short story "The Perfect Host," perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised at how fine a book "SOYB" has turned out to be. Like that most famous of vampire novels, Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), Sturgeon's novel is an epistolary affair; not solely taken up with letters and diary entries, it also includes medical transcripts, notes between two Army psychiatrists and, most fascinatingly, a third-person account by our blood luster himself. Self-given the pseudonym of George Smith (it is revealed at one point that his actual name is, uh, Bela), he has been in an Army psychiatric hospital for three months, following a seemingly unwarranted attack on a superior officer. George, in the book's most compelling section, tells us the story of his life, all 23 years of it, in his barely passable English. He'd lived with a sickly mother and brutal, drunken father in a backwoods Kentucky cabin; a hillbilly, I suppose you might call him. Following a terrible childhood, George had gone on to reform school and service overseas in the Army, until an intercepted letter that he'd written to his girl back home precipitated that brawl and his subsequent incarceration. Now, as the two psychiatrists send each other memos and George undergoes hypnotherapy, perhaps his inner secrets will soon be revealed.... "SOYB" is ultimately a very sad book, with George almost coming off like a Norman Bates type, but with a mania of a different sort. His blood lust is explained with a convincing rationale, and some of the events that he is said to have perpetrated ARE fairly horrific. George is not a vampire in any conventional sense; just a kid who, because of his regrettable upbringing, developed an occasional taste for the red stuff. Sturgeon tells his tale wonderfully, employing different voices (lunkheaded for George, wisecracking and clinical for the two shrinks) and revealing his central character's secrets slowly, like the gradual peeling of a very sick onion. George is a very realistic creation, a most credible bloodsucker, which almost makes him a scarier proposition than the more fanciful vampire of myth. As Atkins tells us, "the book recasts an ancient bogeyman as a terrifyingly and truthfully rendered contemporary monster." It is not a perfect book, however. At one point, we are told that George's father's sister has a farm in Virginia; a little later, we are told that it belongs to the mother's sister. But actually, whether this is a slip on the part of Sturgeon or on the part of George, it is impossible to say. The book is a very compact affair, less than 150 pages long, but tells a memorably chilling tale within that short compass. And, oh...you should just love reading that letter of George to his girlfriend; the one that set off all the ruckus! The previously mentioned Millipede Press edition of this book is a very good deal for the reader, too. Featuring not only the short novel, this volume also provides a most amusing introduction by horror writer Steve Rasnic Tem, as well as a short story by Sturgeon, on a similar theme, entitled "Bright Segment." This tale originally appeared in the July 1960 issue of "Shock" ("The Magazine of Terrifying Tales"), and deals not with another hemoglobin guzzler, but rather, with another big-boned, social misfit/lunkhead. In this memorable story, a simpleminded man--his boss refers to him as an "orangutan," and we never do learn his actual name--takes in a grievously injured young woman who he finds lying in the gutter. He operates on her and nurses her back to health, her bedridden, silent presence being the so-called "bright segment" of his lonely life. But problems arise when the woman is well enough to leave, leading to a memorably grisly conclusion. Here, we again have a psychologically damaged man, a simpleton, really, whose ill treatment in previous years has resulted in a decidedly oddball, social outcast. It is a wonderful piece from Mr. Sturgeon, at once touching and shocking, and serves as a nice coda for this most fascinating volume.
I read a lot. I have never consciously sat down to consider the numbers, but I can safely say: It's a friggin' lot. Even while I am working on my own fiction and reviewing for the peeps, I read. I try to keep the idiot box turned off as much as possible in order to get a good 1-2 hours of reading in every night. I think it keeps the brain sharp when it comes to abstract concepts. Reading requires visualization, which requires thinking. have been asked fairly often, "What do you read besides review books?" Well, I have a Goodreads page and an Amazon page where I review and rate traditionally published books, but I thought I might share some of that over here as well. We are all readers as much as we are writers, and discussing literary tecnique is one of the many things we do here at the peeps. At the moment, I am in between review books. I have a review that posted last Friday and another book to begin next week. In the between time, I am reading Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon. It's different and very disturbing. As of the initial writing of this post, I was about 30 pages in, and while the corn-pone dialect is bothersome for me, I liked where the story was going, so I decided to stick it out. Here is the Blurb:Theodore Sturgeon's dark and foreboding look at the vampire myth was an instant classic when originally published in 1956. When George Smith is arrested for assaulting a senior officer, a military psychiatrist is assigned to the case. The secret of George's past is unearthed, and a history of blood lust and murder. Innovatively told through letters, interviews, and traditional narrative, Some of Your Blood effectively portrays the tragic upbringing of George Smith to his attempts at a stable life and the great love of his life to his inevitable downfall. Millipede Press is proud to present this masterpiece of macabre literature in a brand new edition.Over the weekend, burdened with a particularly heinous bout of insomnia, I finished the book. The take on vampirism was indeed unique, one of the best I have read, but that wasn't what struck me most about the "story." This was as far from traditional storytelling as one can get, and would probably have lesser experienced literary critics up in arms. There is only one traditional scene to speak of and that doesn't appear until the very end of the book, which is only 143 pages in total. Dialog is practically non-existent for the exception of two interviews between patient and psychologist, and the remaining narrative is completely exposition. As far as character arc goes, well, don't look for growth here. The monster is created and subsequently remains a monster. There are a lot of different telling techniques used here to great effect. The book begins with a series of letters back and forth between a couple of Army psychologists who have initially conflicting views on a patient by the name of George Smith. Smith was thrown into lock-up for punching an officer who had become alarmed by a letter Smith had attempted to send home to his girlfriend. The book then flows into a third person narrative of George's life, written by George as instructed in the course of this therapy. Everything seems pretty standard fare for an abused backwoods undereducated -- possibly mentally retarded -- child. But ... nothing should be taken at face value here. Intuition plays a huge role in this story. The intuition of one psychologist who wouldn't give up digging until George's pathology, in all it's horror, is finally laid bare. We don't even know what the letter to his girlfriend said until the very end of the book. Every move each character makes is based on gut instinct. Everyone is speaking in code, hiding and yet revealing their intent at the same time. This is what gives the book its brilliance, not the gripping action, of which there is almost none, but the characterization. The style is very reminiscent of Stoker's Dracula, and George Smith was nothing less than Frankenstein. Put all your notions of storytelling aside and pick this one up. Its nature is entirely subliminal versus visceral, and it strikes to the core. Very frightening, and yet in the end, disgusted, our sense of humanity shattered, we can't help but feel for George.
What do You think about Some Of Your Blood (2006)?
I started and finished Some of Your Blood in less than a day. Granted it was a short novel, only 143 pages, but it drew me in from the first page and I couldn't put it down. And dark and intense story about vampirism and mental illness, the story is not gory or frightening as much as eerie and unsettling. The main character possesses an almost charming and childlike innocence while unfolding his erotic and violent behavior. Some of Your Blood also managed wry humor and wit to counterbalance the horrors within. I loved it!
—Chrysta
The book is written in fragments, semi-epistolary. I struggled through the first third because it was a narrative written by a semi-literate man. (the grammar was atrocious) I'm glad I did. Since I've started writing, I've scared myself with what my mind was able to conceive, but only on rare occasions. Horror fiction doesn't scare me as it did when I was a child--it doesn't make me look around and put the book down and hope everything is going to be okay. I felt that way again in a couple of places while reading Some of Your Blood. Without setting off too many spoilers, let me just say the end of the book struck me like no other since I Am Legend (the novella of course--not that joke of a movie); it was just that good. Some of Your Blood isn't for the casual horror fan. I understand why it isn't more widely read. The Freudian psychology used throughout is a bit dated. I'm not even sure some would consider it horror in the popular sense of the term. But if you like to think--if you like a book that makes you go back and reread some passages because of their sheer power, go for it. Be patient. This one avoids cheep scares for deeper, longer lasting discomfort. I promise that you'll think about it after you're done reading.
—Aaron Polson
This isn't the horror novel I thought it was going to be and it's not the "straight crime" novel that the blurb on the front claimed it to be. In fact I'm not really sure how to classify it but maybe I shouldn't worry about it. There were elements of horror, there's a kind of non supernatural notion of a vampire here, and there are crimes but this doesn't start with the crime and then try to work out who did it, rather it starts with the perpetrator and then tries to find out what it is he did (and why).The narrative is presented as a psychiatric case file on which you, the reader, are snooping on, with mail correspondence, interview transcripts and essays attached. Quite an interesting and somewhat different tale by an author known primarily for his science fiction.
—Simon
