[Comments] THIRST by Marina Yuszczuk

[Fillyjonk]

Okay! I finished. Once they met I was back in it

 

I like the end very much… It feels untruthful, especially in regards to the son, and I don’t believe it, but I say yes to it and I’m choosing to read it through the lens of my optimism and the lens of fantasy. Things that maintained, my interest were the nastiness of the physicality… The darkness of the body. The flat banal acceptance of appetite. I liked it much better as a vampire story than as literary fiction… As a vampire story, I liked it very very much.

[AnotherDragoon]

I just picked it up again today after setting it down and forgetting, as I do. I'm like a page away from part 2 and still enraptured but, I do like to swim in melancholy and don't really need a particular reason.

I will say that I thoroughly enjoy how she handles some of the classic vampire tropes, or the lack of in some instances, particularly the Fascination and Charm. Very subtle yet powerful.

[bananabadger]

p. 75 "I was dragged into this story; my only freedom is to create."
love this line from a vampire

[bananabadger]

Finished

 

After reading reviews, I was expecting to be let down by the second part, but I thought it was very good. I thought the tie-in with Mario's ancestors was clever and that the themes of mortality, love, passion, the modernity of clinical care, and devotion were pulled together nicely through the stories of Alma's mother, son, and beloved vampire.

And yet, Alma going into the catacomb marriage at the end means that Alma would be third mother in the book to abandon her child, and while it seems we as readers are not asked to feel any pity or have greater expectations for the first two mothers in the story who did this, I somehow want to demand more of Alma. Perhaps some of her justification is found in the dentist story, which I took simply as an interesting interlude, but found myself thinking about it several times once I had finished. Our teeth, our mouths, are such fragile and vulnerable spots of us--the opposite of what gives the vampire strength (fangs and satiation)--that I can't help but think this incident with its stark contrast was placed into the book for a reason, perhaps to lead us to an explanation for how Alma could place herself into a different timeline with present demands and loyalties attenuated so thinly into a timeline of bloodlines that she could abandon her son to his transient joy of life and choose predatory immortality for herself.

[Fillyjonk]

 

I read that as kind of a weird, almost pressing refusal of genetic immortality- a flat no to the idea that we live on via our descendants. Which is a clinical and dark way of seeing our children to begin with and then she gets even more
Clinical and dark and just says, Nope.

[bananabadger]

 

I like that.

A "nope" to what though? The idea of living through bloodlines? Of inherited sin? Eugenics? Allowing your life to become consumed by caring for others?

It seems there's definitely some type of eugenic-bloodline thing going on in that dentist chair with her son's aversion to the cap (possibly silver?) and his extreme reaction to someone messing with his fangs.

Originally Posted by Fillyjonk

 

I read that as kind of a weird, almost pressing refusal of genetic immortality- a flat no to the idea that we live on via our descendants. Which is a clinical and dark way of seeing our children to begin with and then she gets even more
Clinical and dark and just says, Nope.

[Fillyjonk]

That is super interesting. I hadn't applied the word Eu******.

The book is due next week, but I may dip back into the second section (which I did not enjoy as much as you did) (and which I confess to skimming through)

Originally Posted by bananabadger

 

I like that.

A "nope" to what though? The idea of living through bloodlines? Of inherited sin? Eugenics? Allowing your life to become consumed by caring for others?

It seems there's definitely some type of eugenic-bloodline thing going on in that dentist chair with her son's aversion to the cap (possibly silver?) and his extreme reaction to someone messing with his fangs.

[Acathala]

I would still choose genetic immortality or death over actual immortality though. Immortality has always kind of horrified me.

[AnotherDragoon]

One of my favorite lines was, "Every horror has a moment when it glistens; after that, it's just sad."

 

That was in response to the dried blood across the street from Alma's apartment but could be applied throughout the story. The girl being given to the Original Vampire, her turning, the killing of her sisters, the yellow fever, the Vampire killing everyone she got close to until she locked herself away, the end of a relationship, the slow death of a loved one, medical procedures. So many horrors we endure throughout our lives, many necessary or just unavoidable, become a sadness that we all can relate to but don't always acknowledge.

Both Alma and her Vampire were selfish in their own ways, mostly with their grief, but we all can be. Grief is such a deeply personal thing, almost like that sleep paralysis creature that just lurks in the dark, taking up space. But, I think the dentist scene was Alma coming to terms with the fact that you can't always protect your loved ones from everything and how it would be damaging to try. Also, it eases us into understanding the choice she made with her mother and how torturous even modern medicine can be.

But these are the takes of a man prone to basking in cold blue melancholy who can also hide his own grief, so let there be an asterisk to show I'm a vampire sympathizer.

[Fillyjonk]

Goonie this is a beautiful, truthful, and respectful take.

 

I HATED and could not tolerate Dentist Stuff, but that is ---I can't get a cleaning without nitrous. I really appreciate you and BB coming in and contextualizing that scene for me.

The idea of Grief as a lurking, space-taking monster is insightful and correct. Grief is palpable and alive. And also--- a true immortal.

I AM ALSO A VAPMIRE SMYPETHIZER (as the gnomes say) and I love your take. Both you and BB have really opened my eyes to my NOPE OUT in section two, and I have come away liking that hard section of the book more from your keen observations.