The beginning description of Claire sounds almost textbook to me. "Smart and small and average-looking wasn't exactly winning the life litter; you had to fight for it, whatever it was… What normal girl loved physics? Abnormal ones. Ones who were not ever going to be hot." On the other hand, we hear about Monica's perfection and confidence, albeit to Claire's annoyance and despair.
How do all the beginning character introductions set us up for the rest of the story? What were your original expectations of where the story was going to go, and where did you actually end up? (Rohaina H)
Glass Houses is different from most of other vampire novels; it does not have typical vampire romance love. Instead, this book has a pretty fast pace with some actions and excitements: more likely focused on hazing. Hence, I think all the characters are strongly related one another.
If you were Claire’s parents and helped, or at least cared, Claire from being bullied, how would the story be different? What would you have done if you were Claire’s parents?
How did Claire’s roommates, Eve, Shane and Michael, change her before she went to the Glass House? (Sang H.)
The hierarchy of vampires is very different in Glass Houses than in the other novels we've read so far. Not only are the humans of Morganville aware of vampires, they're in a submissive role towards them. How is this different from say Hakan serving Eli? What about Mina's relationship with Dracula? How do you think the control over such a large area is beneficial to the vampires? Clair, Shane, and Eve all seem to be incredibly human and anti-vampire, how is this different from what we've seen so far? Or are they similar to say Steve and Ghost, who tried to fight the vampires in Lost Souls? Are the vampires in this book sympathetic, like Eli, or monstrous, like the undead in I Am Legend or Dracula? (Madeline)
In this book, we get a different sense of how vampires could interact with humans. These vampires are not alone, but work together in groups with a hierarchy in place to run the town. Do you think this makes the existence of vampires worse than say in Dracula, where the vampire is mostly isolated and working on his own? Do the human "victims" in the novel have to deal with the vampires in a different way now? How are their dealings similar?
(Kim K)
Similar to the readings we’ve had for this class, “isolation” is arguably a reoccurring theme found in Rachel Caine’s “Glass Houses.” For instance, as Michael attempts to explain of his identity/history to Claire (upon Claire having seen Michael “vanish” in the morning like a ghost), the theme of isolation is exhibited through Michael:
Claire: Why did you let us move in? After – what happened to you?
Michael: I got lonely. And since I can’t leave the house, there’s too much I can’t do. I needed somebody to help with groceries and stuff. And…being a ghost doesn’t exactly pay the bills. Shane – Shane was looking for a place to stay, and he said he’d pitch in for rent. It was perfect. Then Eve…we were friends back in high school…(88)
As exhibited in this quote and throughout the novel, how does isolation affect Michael’s characterization? Also, how does the theme of isolation allow characters in “Glass Houses” resemble and/or contrast to that of other characters from various books we’ve read in class (i.e., Polidori from “The Vampyre”, Neville from “I am Legend”)? Lastly, how does the theme of isolation affect our view on Michael, a non-human ghost and vampire (i.e., do we feel sympathetic towards Michael)? (Jenny L)
In Glass Houses, the plot of being overrun by a town full of vampires is not a new concept to the vampire genre. The same theme of being outnumbered, confined, and detained in a small place full of adversaries is seen in other vampire genres, like with Robert Neville in I Am Legend. How does this particular plot help to establish a sense of urgency in the vampire genre? (Musa M)
Glass Houses is the only novel we've read that seems to consistently follow the perspective of a female character, Claire. There seemed to be some similarities between the ending of Glass Housesand Dracula when Shane's dad and his "biker buddies" attack Michael and Claire seems to be kept out of the fight (even though we don't get to see the end result). How do you think the fight will end? Do you think that there is a connection between the way Claire is treated throughout the novel and the way Mina was treated in Dracula or that there might be some similarities between Claire's character and Mina's? (Micaela M.)
Well, the sense of urgency comes from being alone in a big way. it's not just because of the impossible odds, it's human nature. We're social creatures that thrive in groups, which means that someone who is alone, without contact, is a character that is all kinds of easy to identify with. People are all terrified of literally being that alone, much less fighting to survive in a hostile environment with no friends or help to fall back on.
ReplyDeleteIt's also an easy way to heighten suspense and stack odds against the character in his/her struggle.
In answer to Kim K’s question, I think the vampire world establishing their own hierarchy and community within the frame of the novel creates a different type of horror than with Dracula. Typically in vampire novels, the vampire is seen as the “other” and given separate characteristics than those associated with humankind. Though this is true within Glass Houses in dealing with their appearance (fangs, pallor, etc.) and inability to withstand direct sunlight, the reader is also shown an intrinsically human mindset and set of behaviors. As mentioned above, the vampires have set up a network of order complete with taxes, guidelines, and punishments that are extremely similar (though more extreme) in nature to those established by nations/cities/states today. Along with this, Caine’s multiple references to humans being considered as cattle or pets to the vampire make their mindset even more relatable to our own in a way.
ReplyDeleteWith this being said, I think that it is far more terrifying when characters that are sadistic and typically “othered” actually showcase what could be considered the extreme side of humanity with an underlying sensibility, organization, history, and depth. The establishment of an entire network working against you therefore makes the vampires within Glass Houses much worse than Dracula. Furthermore, knowing this network exists and the feeling of constant vulnerability that this knowledge creates within the humans of Morganville seems worse than being ignorant of the facts. It could actually be said that within the frame of Dracula knowledge equaled power, whereas within Glass Houses knowledge was more likely to be a death sentence.
Sarah S.
I definitely believe that the vampire hierarchy makes the existence of vampires a lot scarier than the isolated vampires like Count Dracula. There is something about groups that is extremely intimidating and scary. Also, thus far the only other vampire group we have been introduced to was extremely vicious and malevolent to their victims (Zillah, Malachi & Twig). Although Dracula was equally as dangerous as any one of the vampires in Lost Souls, he is less intimidating because he is only one as opposed to a group of vampires. The vampires in this novel seem to have a controlling presence over the humans due to their supernatural powers. The whole vampire hierarchy makes the vampire/human dynamic much more interesting and different than other stories we’ve read before. Human “victims” in this novel such as Claire, have to be especially careful and have vampire connections in order to have a sense of security. Claire thankfully meets Michael, Eve, and Shane, who are able to guide her and try and keep her from danger. Since humans are “second rate” citizens, she definitely has a target on her back. Things are similar in the sense that humans still need to be cautious at nighttime to try and avoid the vampires. All in all, there is a very interesting twist in hierarchy that allows Glass Houses to have a fresh perspective on vampire novels.
ReplyDeleteI think the vampire hierarchy in this novel does make the vampires worse than those who worked alone, or at least somewhat discreetly, as in Dracula and other works throughout the semester. In other books, when the concept of a real vampire was introduced to the human characters, they were able to find support from other humans in disbelief and fear similar to what they are all feeling. In this work, however, the fact that the vampires are in cahoots with the majority of the town makes them all the more powerful. They not only have others like them to back them up, but they also have humans to cover their tracks. I think this is scarier than the vampires' existence being known by a select few because the characters (who are not vampires and are not helping the vampires), like Claire, have almost no where to run that's safe and no one to trust that's reliable. The people around Claire are either vampires, those helping the vampires, or those who are neither and just too afraid to draw attention to themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe plot provides a decent level of anxiety for the reader. It puts the reader in the characters' lifestyles, which would be quite terrifying. This idea of being overrun, like I Am Legend, heightens the isolation humans feel. It makes it even more intense that some humans are privy to the vampires and help them out occasionally. In this respect, any human against vampires, would be also against some of the humans helping them.
ReplyDeleteThe dynamics of the vampires are much different in this novel than in "Dracula" or "I Am Legend". In "Dracula", there is Dracula who works on his own even though he has the three female vampires in his castle; he leaves them there while he travels to London for his own plans. And in "I Am Legend", the vampires that plague Neville are somewhat devoid of a conscious and act based on instinct and some traits of their former selves. While in "Glass Houses", there is a set order of how things work and there is a politics of the whole vampire society. We see two distinct factions in Morganville, the more chaotic and ill-willed group lead by Oliver and the more secretive and more refined group lead by Amelie. So unlike the novels we have read so far, we have two groups of vampires that are actively against each other in an almost stalemate with the balance of power between the two. The groups fighting among themselves almost seems worse than a singular vampire hunting because it leaves the humans in Morganville in the crossfire. None of the vampires seem entirely concerned for the well-being of their human subjects. While the humans can live in some fashion, they are duty-bound to their vampire hosts. The relationship between a vampire and any human is quite volatile in this novel, we see the vampires very much like trading and making deals, but it seems that the humans in Morganville have not much to offer the vampires besides their lives. So the humans in Morganville either have to very strictly follow the rules of their vampire hosts or the "deal" they have is negated and they can very easily be vamped by any of the vampires in the town. So instead of just the fear of being vamped, they have to be paranoid about every step of their lives so they don't upset their vampire host; while in "Dracula", the posse is free to go and hunt for Dracula. While the posse in "Dracula" are fighting for their lives against the vampire threat, the citizens of Morganville are declined to practically be slaves to the vampires.
ReplyDelete~Anthony J.
I think the interaction between vampires and humans in Glass Houses is much more frightening than in Dracula, where there is only one villan. In Glass Houses, the vampires run the town, so everyone lives in fear. Anything they do could get them killed. In Dracula, the feud is much more evenly matched. It is much easier to protect yourself from or defeat one vampire, but in Glass Houses the humans are controlled by the vampires. This is similar to I Am Legend, where Neville is alone facing a large amount of vampires. He constantly lives in fear of his life and his daily activities are controlled by the vampires' lifestyles. I think the interactions between humans and vampires are very different in each type of novel - the humans live in fear constantly when the vampires greatly outnumber the human and therefore try to avoid them, but when there is only one vampire to deal with there is less avoidance, but more confrontations and trying to outsmart the vampire.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of being overrun, outnumbered, confined, and detained isn’t just a device used for vampire novels but horror in general. I think it creates a sense of urgency because those are all things that are working against somebody. What we’ve consistently seen in all these novels is individuals attempting and doing what they must in order to survive. With all this working against somebody in their goal of surviving, you create fear because of what must be done in order to succeed. Urgency results from this fear as you have to escape and overcome these various obstacles. Naturally if there are tons of vampires against a single individual like in that of I Am Legend, there is going to be some urgency there as Neville has to be cautious and wary of all opposition. One we lose that one, there really isn’t anything left but the majority. I think the urgency just comes from one party being in a place of power, because even in Dracula there was a sense of urgency as they didn’t want Dracula to do anymore damage, or figure them out before they could stop him. When individuals are at a disadvantage, there is an added urgency to everything they do, and it creates for an exciting journey for the readers following everything through that perspective.
ReplyDeleteAs we moved on to the vampire novels written in more of a contemporary era, the theme of coexistence with vampires and human seem to be reoccuring. Compare to the novels we read earlier in the course, the last two books, Let the Right One In and Glass Houses focus more on vampires that live among us and affect our lives, as many times, friends. The focus is now no longer how to defeat vampires but rather how to harmoniously live together with the vampires. In both novels, the main character gets help from the vampires to defeat humans who are bullying. From an enemy, vampires have become allies whom we could trust to help us out from dangers. It is a very interesting theme-shift we can observe from the books.
ReplyDeleteAs Musa has pointed out, the plot in which the protagonist(s) live in a town full of vampires is certainly not a new concept/plot structure in vampire genre. For instance, in both I am Legend and Glass Houses, the protagonists live in a surrounding in which vampires are highly populated and at times “superior” compared to the human beings. Such reoccurring theme and plot in vampire novels – in which 1) the vampires outnumber/overpower the humans, and 2) the protagonists are confined and detained in a small place full of adversaries – serve in 1) heightening suspense to the story, and 2) guiding readers to feel sympathy towards the protagonists who attempt to survive by fighting against the non-human race. For instance, from having read the description of Morganville as a town run by vampires (with people getting “Protection” from vampires) requiring human beings to coexist with them (and abide to the rules of vampires), readers sense the “red flag”, thus viewing protagonists (i.e., Eve, Claire, Michael, and Shane) at risk; furthermore, readers end up “feeling for” the protagonists as we feel sympathy towards these inferior – by both race and power - human beings. In other words, such reoccurring theme and plot structure helps readers to fully engage in the reading by feeling sympathy towards the “minors”/”inferiors” by population size and power. Upon noting this reoccurring theme/plot as contributors in allowing readers not only acquire a sense of suspense but also sympathy, such theme/plot appears vital in vampire novels as exhibited in Glass Houses.
ReplyDeleteI saw Haken serving Eli more because he wanted to, not because he was being forced. While Eli did have power over him, Haken also seemed to be obsessed with doing whatever was asked of him in the name of his “love”. Mina on the other hand seemed to do Dracula’s bidding more because of Dracula’s powers over her. I do not think a larger area would be beneficial to a vampires. Especially since a lot of of their powers seem to stem from the history and therefore power they have. If the area they are controlling get too spread out it is more difficult to keep people afraid. I think this is what has happened with Clair, Shane, and Eve, as they do not seem to be as obsessed with keeping the vampires happy. This is a big change to some of the other novels where either the humans get obsessed with the vampires (such as in Lost Souls) or they are at least afraid enough of them to follow orders. While I would not necessarily say that they are trying to fight off the vampires, they are at least more weary of completely following what the vampires expect them to do. I think the vampires in this novel are similar to both Eli and the creatures in I Am Legend. They seem to be sympathetic enough to let some of the humans have safety, but that is only if they follow what they are told to do.
ReplyDeleteIn this novel, it brings reader different kind of horror than other vampire novels. I believe this is because of the vampire hierarchy which other novels do not have usually. And, this vampire hierarchy concept is worse than the isolated vampires because “second rate” citizens, or human, are more open to dangerous situations and live in fear when they have the vampire hierarchy society. In this novel, humans are in control of vampires while humans from other novels can have some sort of protections for themselves. Hence, people are trying to avoid them in order to be safe from vampires.
ReplyDeleteSang K. Hwang
A setting where the protagonists are outnumbered and confined plays on innate human fears, which pertain to another recurring concept, isolation. We already see characters explicitly fear isolation, whether it be through Michael or Robert Neville, so it isn’t unreasonable to conclude that for some intrinsic reason we dislike being indulged with the idea. Outnumbering, confinement, and their collective affects on feeling isolated alone give the reader a sense of urgency, but we can analyze their role in creating this urgent sense in other ways. With being outnumbered, as in the case of Robert Neville where he was on his own amidst a world of vampires, a sense of helplessness emerges which allowed us to see his fate potentially at bay with every turn of the page. I think that is the creation of suspense in its purest form, and we get that feeling in the setting of Glass Houses as well. The humans’ lives are entirely in the hands of the vampires, and it is at the vampire’s discretion to take it as they please if they feel the “deal” has been broken. Humans have a fear of the unknown, and the uncertainty revolving around the fate of our novels’ characters entices us to continue to read to find out more while maintaining an almost anxious, but urgent sense.
ReplyDeleteTo respond to Musa’s question specifically and also address parts of other question, I do not think that in this particular book, the confined spaces the main protagonists are confined to necessarily establish a sense of urgency but rather one of suspense, restlessness and sometimes terror. Like in I Am Legend all of the characters are very restricted. At the very beginning Claire lives in fear of Monica and her friends and she is afraid to stay at the dorms for extended periods of time. Since she ends up getting very seriously injured she decides to move out hoping that this was going to solve the problem. Once she moves into the Glass House she feels safe again but this safety is only temporary as she finds out the whole town is being run by vampire and their human “clients” (those who have vampire patrons). The other characters are also restricted and exhibit these same sort of restless anxieties in different ways. Michael Glass is very physically trapped by the house he lives in. Eve seems to be very similar to Clair in that she does not quite fit in with the norms of the town, being disowned by her own family. Furthermore, Clair also feels stuck and on numerous occasions expresses a desire to leave town if she could. Out of all the main character Shane seems to be the least restricted in that he is in many ways a lot less vulnerable than the others because up until he met Claire he really did not have much to lose. However, he too is stuck and reverts to violent video games as an outlet for his anger. This idea of being stuck or helpless is in many ways similar to I Am Legend, and some of the other vampire novels we have read throughout this course, but I think it is a different sort of overall mood in the novel one that is more of suspense and mystery, in contrast to the impending sense of doom one gets from I Am Legend. The idea of a house as a safe haven in sort of a boogeyman environment also adds to the overall suspense and I think it really helps the author focus in on developing a few of the key characters. It seems like throughout the course of Class Houses there are very few characters that we are introduced to outside the core of the main protagonists. The minor characters that are introduced are either never really developed or they are pretty static and tend to characterize one overarching trait.
ReplyDelete(Alex I.)
When I first read this question I immediately thought that of course a group of vampires is more threatening and worse than one single vampire. Then I began to think of the differences in the novels and I realized that was not the case. Reason being, in Dracula the Count kills his victims and then he turns them into vampires as a result, I believe, of his isolated lifestyle. However, in Glass Houses the vampires do not do that; they do not create more vampires. They just feed and sometimes they kill. Michael points this fact out to Claire in chapter seven when he says "[m]ostly they just feed, and eventually they kill you if they feed hard enough. [s]ome of them like that kind of thing, not all of them." What Dracula does, which is essentially create more vampires to feed his isolation , produces a lot worse consequences to me than just feeding on humans. You are creating more of these supernatural forces that have the potential and probably will harm the human race, as opposed to just harming the human race with what you have already. I think the humans way of dealing with the vampirism is similar to that in Dracula. The same planning that was lead by Van Helsing in Dracula mirrors the planning that goes on in chapter nine by Eve, Claire, and Michael. However, I would argue that the characters of Glass Houses have it a little harder because as Michael reveals not all the "typical" methods of killing vampires can actually kill vampires in their special town.
ReplyDeleteAkanimoh E
While the numbers and organization of vampires has increased, the position of the average people is still more or less the same. The vampires rule by keeping the people isolated. They are unable to leave the town for help, and cannot even look to other families for help because they are bound to different vampires for protection. These shackles can even divide families such as Eve's. This arrangement is beneficial to the Vampires because it is a more steady source of food. Rather than an arrangement like Dracula, where he would hunt someone down every time he needed food, these vampires have a carefully controlled livestock of people that are rationed out every month.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Madeline I completely understand her view on the control that vampires have in these novels. In glass house you notice the relationship the vampires have with humans. The humans are fully aware of there existence and either submissive to them or there fair game to being attacked. Now this to me is some what the same as the relationship between hakan and Eli. Although, there is this larger sense of control. In glass house by it being a town the vampires have more control . When you look at the relationship between Mina and Dracula there is this underlying sense of control. This subliminal connection that Dracula has over people. Control over something is huge in vampire genre. I believe it's a huge deal because in there state of being vampire they feel above others. Immortality can make a person feel like a supreme being or feel like they can control people below there capabilities. I think that's why control is so important. I think in glass house the vampires would resemble to be more monstrous because of how much they try to run the town. Even the way Claire was treated before he was excepted by Shane and eve as friends. (Kirsa)
ReplyDelete