True Blood and Philosophy: We Wanna Think Bad Things with You

Introduction: "If a Tree Falls in the Woods, It's Still a Tree—Ain't It?"

PART ONE: "I USED TO HATE VAMPIRES, UNTIL I GOT TO KNOW ONE": VAMPIRE-HUMAN ETHICS.

1 To Turn or Not to Turn: The Ethics of Making Vampires (Christopher Robichaud).

2 Dressing Up and Playing Human: Vampire Assimilation in the Human Playground (Jennifer Culver).

3 Pets, Cattle, and Higher Life Forms on True Blood (Ariadne Blayde and George A. Dunn).

PART TWO: "LIFE-CHALLENGED INDIVIDUALS": THE POLITICS OF BEING DEAD.

4 Signed in Blood: Rights and the Vampire-Human Social Contract (Joseph J. Foy).

5 "Honey, If We Can't Kill People, What's the Point of Being a Vampire?": Can Vampires Be Good Citizens? (William M. Curtis).

6 Un-True Blood: The Politics of Artificiality (Bruce A. McClelland).

PART THREE: "THEIR VERY BLOOD IS SEDUCTIVE": EROS, SEXUALITY, AND GENDER.

7 Coming Out of the Coffin and Coming Out of the Closet (Patricia Brace and Robert Arp).

8 "I Am Sookie, Hear Me Roar!": Sookie Stackhouse and Feminist Ambivalence (Lillian E. Craton and Kathryn E. Jonell).

9 Sookie, Sigmund, and the Edible Complex (Ron Hirschbein).

PART FOUR: "I AM ACTUALLY OLDER THAN YOUR JESUS": NATURAL, SUPERNATURAL, AND DIVINE.

10 Let the Bon Temps Roll: Sacrifice, Scapegoats, and Good Times (Kevin J. Corn and George A. Dunn).

11 Are Vampires Unnatural? (Andrew Terjesen and Jenny Terjesen).

12 Does God Hate Fangs? (Adam Barkman).

PART FIVE: "OUR EXISTENCE IS INSANITY": THE METAPHYSICS OF SUPERNATURAL BEINGS.

13 A Vampire's Heart Has Its Reasons That Scientifi c Naturalism Can’t Understand (Susan Peppers-Bates and Joshua Rust).

14 Keeping Secrets from Sookie (Fred Curry).

15 Vampires, Werewolves, and Shapeshifters: The More They Change, the More They Stay the Same (Sarah Grubb).

CONTRIBUTORS: "I Don't Know Who You Think You Are, but Before the Night Is Through . . .."

INDEX: Sookie's Words of the Day.