This one goes straight to the Gracious Plenty Hall of Fame

Way back when, we had Sookie’s “quivering puppies waiting to be petted”.

Then, we had Eric as “deep inside as he could get without an operation”.

And now…NOW…we have this. Sookie’s latest hilarious attempt at worshipping the GP, which I hereby induct into Sookieverse canon as the most cringeworthy line in Book 10.

Are you ready? Here it comes.

“That looks painful. Do you want me to NURSE IT?”

FUCKING WHAT?

Sookie, my love. The Gracious Plenty is not a fucking disease. You don’t nurse it. You GET ON THAT pronto. Stop asking stupid questions.

Three years of hot vampire sex, and you still sound like a virgin on prom night.

Oh, Charlaine.

Ten books down, and your sex scenes are still like bad 70’s porn – I hear the music, I know what’s coming….and I still can’t tear myself away.

But I still love you. Both of you.

.
.
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And now I go back to trying to cut my review of DITF down to a length you guys can read without taking a day off work.

Sorry, I needed a distraction.

I Could Never Read The Shower Scene Aloud

No, Charlaine. Just NO.

You all know how much I love these books. You know that I do.

Love them as I may, sometimes Charlaine writes sentences that still make me cringe and giggle even though I have read them so many times I’ve lost count. If you’ve ever freaked out (and I know you have) at Charlaine likening Sookie’s breasts to quivering puppies, at the repeated offence of using the word “topography” in a sex scene, or at her disturbing fondness for bestowing pet names on Eric’s dick – then you might get a laugh out of this.

Bradeatspeeps is a big fan of the books, and True Blood. When True Blood is airing she posts weekly episode recaps on her LiveJournal. I read these at work with my office door closed, so that my howling can’t be heard in the hallway. I’ve been known to totally stalk her LJ – I just love her sense of humour and her take on the series and characters. It doesn’t hurt either that she shares my love for a certain tall, blonde swede.

You can read her recap of Timebomb – the second most awesome episode of True Blood ever – here.

Anyway, she has some “issues” with both Charlaine’s writing style and saying sexy words, so a friend dared her to read aloud this most revered piece of Sookie/Eric canon…filled with dirty words, cringe inducing sexual metaphors, and primal lust. This video is the result.

This is so hilarious to me because I just know that if I ever attempted to do this, I’d be squirming as badly as she is. I think I have a sick sense of humour.

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Loved by a Vampire – The Afterglow

For the last week or so we’ve been getting slightly hot and bothered around here as we explore Bill and Eric’s sexual behaviour and what it reveals about their character, their relationship with Sookie, and their role in the story generally.

In two previous posts we looked at how each vampire initiates lovemaking with Sookie, and also how they behave during the act itself.

Today it’s time to stifle those hormones, calm down a bit and snuggle up close. It’s time to bask in the afterglow.

THE AFTERGLOW – BILL

In putting together some Bill and Sookie afterglow material to explore, I was immediately struck by something I hadn’t even noticed as I read the books – there isn’t very much of it.

In comparison to the Eric love scenes which contain pages of action and dialogue, the Bill scenes are short, and they often miss bits. For example, Charlaine Harris will show us the initiation and the act, but leave out what happens after. Or she will just start the scene after the sex is over, with Bill and Sookie talking. Charlaine says she doesn’t include anything superfluous to the story – everything that is in the books is there because it’s relevant; and if it’s not there, it’s not important to the plot or Sookie’s story.

I find this little tidbit noteworthy, and you should bear it in mind as you read through this piece.

Surely, I thought, there must be lots of warm and glowy talk after Bill and Sookie’s first love scene, right? It was Sookie’s very first time after all. Even though I couldn’t immediately recall a monumental conversation, I was fairly confident that I must have just forgotten it.

After finding the scene in my copy of DUD, it turns out that Sookie’s first pillow talk is marked by a comparatively brief exchange during which Sookie confirms to Bill that he is her first, and Bill reassures her about her lack of experience, and confides that she is the first virgin he has been with since his wife.

DEAD UNTIL DARK

Finally Bill moved to lie beside me, propped on one elbow, and he put his hand over my stomach.
“I am the first.”
“Yes.”
“Oh Sookie,” He bent to kiss me, his lips tracing the line of my throat.
“You could tell I don’t know much,” I said shyly. “But was that alright for you? I mean, about on a par with other women at least? I’ll get better.”
“You can get more skilled Sookie, but you can’t get any better.” He kissed me on the cheek. “You’re wonderful.”

Sookie then suggests that Bill use some of his blood to heal her lady bits and Bill is pretty well up for that. It’s kind of hot, if you like that sort of thing. And brief – less than half a page. Bill is well behaved, which you would expect if he ever wants to get sex again. It’s all relatively normal. Well, as far as losing your virginity to a vampire can be considered “normal”.

There is no real afterwards conversation to speak of, but otherwise it was kind of sweet, right?

Let it never be said that I fail to give credit where it’s due.

Moving on, the next time Sookie and Bill make love we are at Bill’s house. We get the initiation – and nothing else. Oh c’mon Charlaine, that is just mean! Let’s try again.

Night three after Sookie gives it up. We miss the initiation, and we miss the act as well. We pick up the action with Bill and Sookie lying in bed afterwards, talking. The subject? Nasty Uncle Bartlett. Bill opens the conversation by asking Sookie if she has ever played “show me yours” with Jason, and shares an incident from his childhood when his brother and sister were caught doing this by their mother.

So far so good. Bill is sharing! The topic is…well, odd. But he is sharing.

Bill then begins to sense Sookie’s discomfort at the turn of the conversation, and manages to extract from her the story of her molestation as a five year old by Bartlett. Listening to Sookie tell the tale, it’s clear that he’s pissed as hell. But I can let that slide, since most any boyfriend would react from the gut in the same circumstances.

So the scene concludes, and I’m thinking “Hey! That was good for Sookie! She confided something deep and private and got things off her chest, and Bill listened attentively and acted like a nice caring boyfriend. These two might just have a shot.” Of course, this was early days – and I didn’t really know Bill.

Tell me, did it even occur to any of you that Bill would get on the phone and arrange a hit on the old fella as soon as Sookie fell asleep? Old Uncle B is drained dry by the time the sun comes up and I am picking my jaw up off the floor. The reality of what Sookie has invited into her life hit me full in the face.

Bill!?! What the FUCK?! In her newly sexed up hormonal fog, she trusted you with something huge. And you just ruined it all! RUINED IT. You really have no idea, do you?

Maybe things will improve in the next book?

Sookie tells Bill her deepest, darkest secret. Bill broods. Bill does something stupid. The End.

LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS

The frequency of Sookie and Bill’s sex really hits the downhill slide in LDID – perhaps because there is so much going on around them, or perhaps CH is deliberately setting up for Bill’s emotional withdrawal at the beginning of Club Dead. I suspect it’s a bit of both.

The first sex scene in LDID is interrupted by Eric before it really gets started (though Bill, true to form manages to get in some panty ripping to kick things off. This allows Eric to later find Sookie’s undies in pieces on the floor, and Alpha all over him. As he does.) By the time they get rid of Eric and get busy again, Charlaine is bored and we are cut off as Bill “bends his head to other things”. No afterglow here. No sex on page either for that matter.

“Things” are heading decidedly pear shaped between Bill and Sookie by the time we get our first post coital scene, well over three quarters of the way into LDID.

When he collapsed on top of me, I was exhausted…
…”Are you okay?” he mumbled.
“Except for having run into a brick wall a few times,” I said, indistinctly.
We both drifted off to sleep for a little, though Bill woke first as he always did at night.
“Sookie,” he said quietly. “Darling wake up.”
“Oo”, I said, slowly coming to consciousness. For the first time in weeks, I woke with the hazy conviction that all was right with the world. With slow dismay, I realised things were far from right…
“We have to talk”, he said…
“So talk.” I was awake now. What I was regretting was not the sex, but having to discuss the issues between us.

What they talk about, at length, is Bill’s self control issues (oh yes, this again) and specifically his inability to restrain himself from eating the FOTS people after the shoot out. Of course he has a good reason for this, and we all know what’s coming. He is VAMPIRE. Just in case we forgot.

The discussion then briefly turns to Bill’s parading around Bon Temps with Portia Bellefleur to make Sookie jealous. Finally, Eric gets a look in as Bill furthers his “Make Sookie Think Eric Is The Devil” agenda in a post-bullet sucking scare campaign.

I guess Sookie and Bill are having some problems, because this isn’t very warm and fuzzy. It is also the last time Bill and Sookie have consensual sex on the page. Charlaine has had enough of this mess, and so have we.

In the immortal words of Everclear – “So much for the afterglow”.

THE AFTERGLOW – ERIC

Comparing Bill and Eric’s behaviour after sex? Night, meet day. The differences are stark, and I know I’m harping on this but I just cannot fathom how Charlaine could be writing Eric’s sex scenes with such detail and completeness and glossing over everyone else’s, unless she has a purpose in mind. Namely, to hook the reader on Eric. As usual we have lots of talking, playful banter, touching and holding, and eye contact. Is that getting boring yet?

Hardly.

Dead to the World

From Eric and Sookie’s first love scene it was clear that in Eric, we were not getting a roll over and fall asleep kind of guy. DTTW Eric is not his complete self – however he is operating from his core, instinctive being. Since sexual behaviours are instinctive, I’ve always felt that Eric’s sexual behaviour in DTTW was probably not far off the mark for how “real” Eric would behave. It took five more books before we got any real Eric sex to judge whether that assessment was correct, and I think it was. Eric’s sexual behaviour in DAG really isn’t much different to that of DTTW. As it has remained throughout the previous two stages, his afterwards MO is consistent over both books…and of course it involves every hot move known to man, and some that most men have no clue about.

“Tell me about us. How long have I known you?”..
…“I’m cold,” I said gently, and he let me lie beside him, pulling the covers up over us. I propped myself up on one elbow and he lay on his side, so we were facing each other. “Let me think. I met you last year at Fangtasia, the vampire bar you own in Shreveport. And by the way, the bar got attacked today. Last night. I’m sorry, I should have told you that first, but I’ve been so worried about my brother.”
“I want to hear about today, but give me our background first. I find myself mightily interested.”

He was holding me, and my head was on his shoulder. I murmured into his neck, “You are so beautiful.”….
…“What part do you like best?” he asked, his voice teasing.
“Oh, your butt,” I said instantly.
“My… bottom?”
“Yep.”
“I would have thought of another part.”
“Well, that’s certainly… adequate,” I told him, burying my face in his chest. I knew immediately
I’d picked the wrong word.
“Adequate?” He took my hand, placed it on the part in question. It immediately began to stir. He moved my hand on it, and I obligingly circled it with my fingers. “This is adequate?”
“Maybe I should have said it’s a gracious plenty?”
“A gracious plenty. I like that,” he said.

I love this passage, it demonstrates perfectly the playful flirtation that has always characterised Eric and Sookie’s relationship. From the very beginning they’ve played off each other, openly teased and flirted, and shared a sense of humour no one else around them seems to understand. Even Bill admits they’re compatible and very alike in DAAD. They bring that playfulness into their lovemaking, and there are numerous examples of their sexual banter through out the books, not all of it occurring in the bedroom:

Lest we part on too lovey-dovey a note, I said, “Eric, when I’m back to being myself, I’m going to nail your ass for putting me in this position of being pledged to you.”
“Darling, you can nail my ass anytime,” he said charmingly, and turned to go back to his table.

Jeez! They're at it again! All lovey dovey, and touchy, and gazing into eachother's eyes. Laughing, talking...acting like a goddamn married couple. Get a room!

DEAD AND GONE

This time Sookie is the one to get the conversational ball rolling, before dodging out when Eric completely blindsides her with an unexpected offer:

“Can I tell you what happened today?” I asked after we’d drowsed for a few minutes.
“Of course, my lover.” His eyes were half open. He was lying on his back beside me, and the
room smelled of sex and vampire. “I’m all ears—for the moment, at least.” He laughed.
…Eric was a good listener, at least in his postcoital relaxed state.

So off I babbled like a brook in the spring, telling him about my rendezvous with Claude and
Claudine and all they’d told me about Breandan and Dermot.

This conversation is very long and covers alot of emotional ground. While it began blandly enough with Sookie relating her encounters with some nasty fairies, things soon moved into heady emotional territory. Pretending to be acting out of concern for her safety (while we are all thinking what a big fat liar he is), Eric asks Sookie to leave Bon Temps and stay with him in Shreveport. Sookie immediately panics that she’ll end up fessing up her feelings before she’s sure that they’re reciprocated, and starts putting up her brick wall at lightening speed. Eric keeps trying, coming closer than he’s ever been to telling her exactly how he feels about her. Sookie – who obviously has no idea when to shut up – tells him not to even go there. They then discuss her feelings for Quinn, Andre’s final death, the blood bond and Eric turning her…even the L word is raised, in a roundabout fashion. This was a landmark conversation for a couple whose ability to dodge emotional issues is the stuff of Sookieverse legend.

The reversal of “traditional” roles in this scene is striking. It is Eric who ends up laying himself emotionally bare in this scene, albeit unwittingly. He displays the kind of emotional vulnerability traditionally associated with the woman in a relationship that is still finding its feet. Sookie behaves more like a man; rambling about her orgasms, closing down his attempts to discuss their feelings and leaving him completely confused as he tries to work out what she needs from him – [“What are you after?”]

Along with their talk at Fangtasia earlier in the book during which Eric shared the details of his human life, his turning and his maker, this pillow talk certainly stands as a milestone in their relationship. Eric put more out there emotionally in Dead and Gone than he has in all eight previous books combined. The vampire quite obviously has it bad.

Finally, with dawn approaching Eric leaves for Shreveport:

He bent to kiss me, and I put my arms around his neck. For a second, I knew he was thinking of crawling back in the bed with me; I hoped it was his body language and his murmur of pleasure that cued me to his thoughts….
“I want you again,” he said, sounding a little surprised. “But I have to go.”
“I’ll see you soon, I guess?” I was awake enough to feel uncertain.
“Yes,” he said. His eyes were bright and his skin glowed. The mark on his wrist was gone. I touched where it had been. He leaned over to kiss the place on my neck where he’d bitten me, and I shivered all over. “Soon.”

This exchange is so incredibly…human. I love that she knew what he was thinking as he was saying goodbye – was she reading his mind as she has done briefly in the past? Was it the effects of the blood bond? Or was it nothing more complicated or magical than a “knowing” we all experience at some time – the knowing that comes with feeling a deep emotional connection with the person we love.

VERBS AND ADJECTIVES

Bill Scenes: kiss, tracing, shyly, skilled, wonderful, indistinctly, drifted, hazy, dismay, regretting, sex, discuss.

Eric Scenes: tell, gently, interested, holding, beautiful, teasing, burying, stir, drowsed, lover, laughed, relaxed, babbled, kiss, murmur, pleasure, want, uncertain, touched, shivered.

Screencaps

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Loved by a Vampire – The Act

In the first of three posts looking at Bill and Eric’s sexual behaviour and what it may reveal about their character and their vampiric nature, we took apart the MO used by each vampire to initiate sex and noted several stark differences in their approaches.

Today in the second post I’m getting down and dirty. It’s time to get these vampires between the sheets to see what they can do.

I would like to state for the record that writing these posts has given me the best excuse ever to pore all over the steamy bits of my books again…as if I really needed an excuse. I did, however, need to explain to my husband why my whole SVM series is sprawled around my desk with all the sex scenes dog eared and notes scrawled through them. Being a dirty perv in the name of research certainly sounds better than being…well, just a dirty perv.

And on that note, we shall begin. With an apology for the epic length.

THE ACT – BILL

Bill and Sookie have a number of sexual encounters during which the tone of Sookie’s narration is generally…well, harrowing.

Dead Until Dark (graveyard scene)

..I could feel the turmoil in him, I could taste his rage.
Directing that energy in another way might save me. I leaned that inch, put my mouth on his chest…
The next moment his teeth grazed my shoulder, and his body, hard and rigid and ready, shoved me so forcefully I was suddenly on my back in the mud. He slid directly into me as if he were trying to reach through me to the soil…
I had thought he might kill me without meaning to.

Living Dead in Dallas

His hands were under my sweater and my bra was in two pieces. He was relentless. I almost collapsed after the first time I came. “No” he growled when I was flagging, and he kept pounding. Then he increased the pace until I was almost sobbing, my sweater tore and his teeth found my shoulder. He made a deep, awful sound, and then, after long seconds, it was over.”

The first passage above from DUD is borderline rape. Sookie initiates sex with Bill sensing that he has completely lost control and that she is in immediate and serious danger. This scene is actually an interesting precursor to the trunk rape. In the trunk rape scenario, the defence centres around the fact that Bill had been tortured and starved and that he never would have done it in his right mind. I call bullshit. In this scene we see a well fed, untortured Bill in his right mind on the verge of raping Sookie or worse, because he cannot control his urges. Naturally a tortured and starved Bill can control them even less, however this scene demonstrates that the issue exists long before Sookie ends up locked in a trunk with him. Bill has self control issues and Harris deliberately points it out, over and over again.

In the second passage, Sookie almost sounds like she is relaying her grocery list rather than describing an intimate interaction with her boyfriend. Her voice is detached and I think that is meant to clue us into where she is mentally. What is noteworthy is not just the fact that this is rough sex – since there are other times that Sookie enjoys Bill’s “intensity” and what goes on between consenting adults is their business. But what I notice about some of these scenes is how at first Sookie is generally consenting and comfortable with what’s happening, as she is in this scene until she orgasms. Then Bill crosses a line, and Sookie often doesn’t speak up. I wonder whether this is a combination of her sexual inexperience in these earlier books, and her history of sexual abuse. Regardless, Bill crosses her line…and then he just keeps right on going.

A common coping mechanism adopted by victims of sexual abuse is to “leave their bodies” during the experience. As a victim of childhood sexual abuse, it’s reasonable to assume that as an adult, Sookie’s response to aggressive sexual behaviour is to just “mentally check out” – and this perhaps goes some way to explain her tone in these scenes, and also why she doesn’t put up more of a fight when Bill loses control. Her fear, or discomfort about what is happening is easily detected by the reader through her narration, even when she isn’t verbalising it to Bill.

The lack of dialogue noted between Sookie and Bill in the initiation stage continues through the act itself. Unless they’re communicating immediate physical needs, they use only their bodies to communicate during sex. The act is often brief, intense…and mostly silent. Kind of like Bill. Bill/Sookie sex involves very little eye contact, however Bill’s penchant for taking her from behind, bent over something or in darkened cars, porches and graveyards would seem to make eye contact a challenge.

Look behind you Sookie! He's BEHIND YOU! And what's with the arm grabbing? We CU Beel...

Screencap

Now I do realise that Sookie and Bill have a couple of sex scenes during which Bill manages to behave himself – they aren’t all as dark as the examples above. But even in their “lighter” scenes, I still feel a vibe from Bill that I just find unsettling. Witness his vengeful fit killing of Uncle Bartlett after Sookie shared something private with him in her post coital glow. Sookie is not very impressed with this and she dumps him. No sooner are the words out of her mouth and he’s trying to have sex with her. Again. Really, Bill?

It was at about this point I realised I was utterly and completely over Bill Compton.

Interestingly, there aren’t any dark sex scenes with Eric. Could it be that Harris doesn’t really want us to think he’s the bad guy, after all?

THE ACT – ERIC

Ladies, hold onto your panties. Gentlemen, you may wish to take notes.

Dead to the World

I was so on fire for him I was surprised that flames didn’t flicker out of my fingertips. I curled my fingers around him and stroked.
Suddenly Eric was on top of me, about to enter. I was exhilarated and very ready. I reached between us to put him at just the right spot, rubbing the tip of him over my nub as I did so.
“My lover,” he said hoarsely, and pushed.
Though I’d been sure I was prepared, and I ached with wanting him, I cried out with the shock of it.
After a moment, he said, “Don’t close your eyes. Look at me, lover.”
The way he said “lover” was like a caress, like he was calling me by a name no other man had ever used before or ever would after.
His fangs were completely extended and I stretched up to run my tongue over them.

Fangs....so pretty....sigh...what was I saying? Oh yes - I hold some hope for True Blood watching the two dream sequences. They captured the spirit of E/S perfectly.

Dead and Gone

His jeans were off, and his shirt, too, and my panties vanished. His long cool body pressed full length against my warm one. He kissed me over and over in a kind of frenzy. He made a hungry noise, and I echoed it. His fingers probed me, fluttering against the hard nub in a way that made me squirm.
“Eric,” I said, trying to position myself underneath him. “Now.”
He said, “Oh, yes.” He slid inside as if he’d never been gone, as if we’d made love every night for the past year.
“This is best,” he whispered, and his voice had that accent I caught occasionally, that hint of a time and place that were so far distant I could not imagine them.
“This is best ,” he said again. “This is right .”

I rose and fell faster and faster, and then I took his wrist, and I bit with all my strength, sucked on the wound. He yelled, an incoherent sound of release and relief. That was enough to finish me, and I collapsed on top of him. I licked his wrist lazily, though I didn’t have the coagulant in my saliva that he possessed.
“Perfect,” he said. “Perfect.”

Let us take a moment to collect ourselves before continuing.
Because I am very fucking distracted.
.
.
.
Okay then.

The first thing I notice about Eric and Sookie’s sex scenes is the complete change of tone in Sookie’s narration. She is very much present, physically and emotionally in every scene and there is not a hint of the mental detachment so often evident with Bill. The Eric scenes are quite long – the DTTW scene runs for 8 pages, and the scene in DAG for 15 pages. In contrast to the Bill/Sookie scenes, none of which are anywhere near as lengthy, Sookie describes the actual events, what is said, what she’s thinking, how Eric is reacting, and her feelings in great detail. You certainly don’t feel as though she’s rattling off her grocery list when she’s relating sex with Eric. Sookie (*ahem* Charlaine) makes sure we get every…single…juicy…detail. I wonder why she thinks we’d need to know all of that about Eric, but not about Bill? Or Quinn for that matter.

Just as we saw in the initiation post, as they move onto the act itself E/S remain physically on level with each other, they are always face to face, always in eye contact, and they are talking to each other throughout. No one partner is ever dominant – in both scenes, they make love twice. The first time is more intense and Eric takes the lead. The second time is always slower, with Eric noticeably stepping back and encouraging Sookie to take things where she wants to. Sookie tends to play a wait and see game a little in bed with Eric. She takes her cues from him – then she responds fully when she’s confident she’s not misreading him. I think this springs from her still not understanding what he might see in her beyond her telepathy and fae blood, and her intimidation by the extent of his experience over hers – something she comments on often. He seems to be aware of these feelings, and appears to be trying to encourage her.

In Dead to the World, Sookie reflects on her first time with Eric: “It wasn’t just the dynamic sex that had given me so much pleasure (though that had contained moments I’d remember till the day I died); it was the companionship. Actually, the intimacy”. In contrast to Bill, Eric actually initiates a lot of the more intimate aspects of their encounters – asking her to look him at him rather than close her eyes, asking her to bite him just because it feels good, asking her to tell him about their history when he lost his memory. These behaviours indicate to me that Eric understands women. Not only does he understand them, but he genuinely likes women. He chose to turn a woman as his companion in Pam, after all. While I’m under no illusions that he doesn’t rate himself in the sack, I think it’s clear from these scenes that sex for him is as much about making Sookie happy as it is about his own satisfaction. I don’t feel this is necessarily the norm for him anymore – vampire that he is – which makes it even more fascinating to see this side of him reawakened through her.

Far beyond two people having sex, Eric and Sookie are most certainly making love.

VERBS AND ADJECTIVES

Eric scenes: fire, stroked, exhilarated, ready, lover, pushed, ached, wanting, shock, caress, stretched, kissed, frenzy, hungry, probed, fluttering, squirm, made love, best, right, whispered, release, relief, bit, kissed, licked, lazily, perfect.

Bill scenes: relentless, collapsed, growled, came, no, flagging, pounded, sobbing, tore, awful, turmoil, rage, grazed, hard, rigid, shoved, forcefully, slid, kill.

So are we seeing a pattern here yet?

NEXT POST: Loved by a Vampire – The Afterglow

Loved by a Vampire – The Initiation

For nine books now, most of us have probably argued the suitor pros and cons back and forth on forums, made lists, traded insults and experienced dark moments of doubt in the great “Suitor Debate”.

Personality flaws and attributes have been endlessly dissected in an effort to determine the best partner for Sookie. Sexual behaviour is a reflection of personality, and we can tell a great deal about a person – and a relationship – from what goes down in the bedroom.

With that in mind, I thought it could be interesting to compare Bill and Eric’s sexual behaviour and the way they relate to Sookie in bed. One way to do this is to break the sex scenes down into phases – the initiation, the act, and the afterglow.

INITIATION – BILL

As the younger vampire, Bill has more issues with self control [both in and out of bed] than Eric does, but I don’t think this is solely due to his age. His personality is generally dark, secretive and more introverted than Eric’s and I think this is expressed most clearly in the way he relates to Sookie sexually.

From the outset it is clear that Bill has alot of trouble reigning himself in when it comes to sex. His approach to initiating it is often intense and very physical:

Dead Until Dark:

He scooted across the seat towards me, his arms scooping me up before I could say anything else. Then his mouth was on mine and after a second his tongue began licking the blood from my face.
I was really scared. I was also really angry. I grabbed his ears and pulled his head away from mine using every ounce of strength I possessed…
His eyes were like caves with ghosts dwelling in their depths.
“Bill!” I shrieked. I shook him. “Snap out of it!”

Living Dead in Dallas:

“As I unlocked the front door, Bill came out of the darkness. Without a word he grabbed my arm and turned me to him…we stumbled into the house and he turned me to face the couch. I gripped it with my hands and, just as I’d imagined, he pulled down my pants and then he was in me.”

The Mood tends to take Bill quite suddenly, it overwhelms him often, and he really does have trouble controlling his urges. This would seem to be partly because he doesn’t really understand why he should have to. There is usually very little dialogue between him and Sookie – Bill is an Action Man – and sex is not usually preceeded by conversation or intimacy. A notable exception is the very first time when Bill shows up the evening of Gran’s funeral and proceeds to brush her hair like his dolly and talk with her a little about his human life. The time he chose to make his move, and the fact that Sookie gave it up to him that night makes the motivation for his sharing [which incidentally, never happens again] dubious. Although this scene appeared intimate on the surface I think it’s reasonable to question it, given that it doesn’t gel with his sexual behaviour thereafter.

Foreplay for Bill often includes a bit of underwear ripping and “manhandling”. I can think of at least three instances where Sookie’s underwear/clothing is ripped by Bill, and many more where he has physically handled her person. This happens both in and out of the bedroom.

And notice that I haven’t even mentioned the OTHER incident. Interestingly, it’s not even necessary to refer to that in order to flesh out Bill’s self control issues. They clearly still exist, even outside the gray area of the trunk.

Bill puts on his moves. On the porch, in the dark...as is his habit. Nice t-shirt Sook - that colour suits you very well...

INITIATION – ERIC

Eric approaches sex in a very different way to Bill, and his approach is consistent. Vampire he may be, but he demonstrates patience and self control that Bill either cannot muster, or has no desire to.

Club Dead

[Sookie wakes after the staking with Eric already in the bed beside her]
“Thank you Eric” I didn’t care for how shaky I sounded but an obligation was an obligation.
“For what?” His hand stroked my stomach.
“For standing by me in the club. For coming here with me. For not leaving me alone with all these people”.
“How grateful are you?” he whispered, his mouth hovering over mine. His eyes were very alert now, and his gaze was boring into mine….
“That kind of ruins it, when you say something like that,” I said, trying to keep my voice gentle. “You shouldn’t want me to have sex with you just because I owe you,”
“I don’t really care why you have sex with me, as long as you do it,” he said, equally gently.
…His mouth was on mine then…

Dead to the World:

“I’ll do that for you,” Eric said, pulling back the curtain to step into the shower with me…
…While I stood stock-still, paralyzed by conflicting waves of emotion, Eric took the soap out of my hands and lathered up his own…
“Have we ever made love?” he asked.
I shook my head, still unable to speak.
“Then I was a fool,” he said, moving one hand in a circular motion over my stomach. “Turn around, lover.”

Dead and Gone:

Then he got under the blanket with me and propped himself up on an elbow. He was looking down at me…
[Conversation about Quinn and Nevada]
“Then I am high handed.” Eric said with no shame whatsoever. “I’m also very . . .” He dipped his head and kissed me slowly, leisurely.
“Horny,” I said.
“Exactly,” he said, and kissed me again. …”It’s time I claimed what is mine.”

Reading these passages together, a pattern emerges. Eric has always initiated with Sookie in the same way. First, he makes his physical presence equal to hers [lying down in bed with her, lying down on the floor, getting into the shower with her]. This might be to make himself less physically threatening, or perhaps just a reflection of his desire for them to be on an even footing. It’s an interesting contrast to Bill – rather than using his body to put her at ease as Eric does, Bill uses his physical strength to dominate her and maneuver her body for his satisfaction. I always get the sense that Bill’s determination to satisfy Sookie is rooted in the desire to satisfy himself.

Eric’s next move is to emotionally engage through conversation. The talking leads into the sex and even though Eric initiates, Sookie is always in control of how far it goes. When she says stop, he does – without hesitation or sulking [recall CD when they are interrupted by Bubba, and LDID – “Yield to me, Sookie” and she says no.] He always initiates in a slow, non threatening way. He always makes sure that she knows she is in control. He always makes sure that she can see him coming.

He behaves as though he knows about Sookie’s childhood sexual abuse. But he doesn’t know. We also have no evidence that he knows about the rape – they have never discussed it on the page and while he would have seen that she’d been drained after getting her out of the trunk, it would not have been obvious that she had been raped. So we can only assume that Eric’s behaviour speaks of the man, rather than the circumstances.

From the small taste we’ve had of Dead in the Family, Sookie is physically battered and psychologically traumatised. Eric is continuing to show an awareness that Sookie needs to be the one to set the parameters of their sexual relationship. Sookie tells Amelia he had asked her several times if she was sure she wanted to engage in sex.

Compare Eric’s self restraint to this Bill/Sookie exchange in LDID:

He was ready again, and he was rough with it, as if he were trying to prove something.
“Be sweet,” I said, the first time I had spoken.
“I can’t. It’s been too long, next time I’ll be sweet, I swear”.

This is one of a number of examples of Sookie telling Bill no, slow down, stop, or be gentle and he is unable or unwilling to comply. He is VAMPIRE. He relishes his nature because it gives him an excuse to behave like an oaf. He constantly uses it to defend himself when his self control is lacking.

Eric makes a move. And look! They're holding hands and smiling! There's connection, there's intimacy...there's talking! OK it's a dream, but we all know that this was major foreshadowing. This is how Real Eric rolls.

It’s also interesting to compare the verbs and adjectives used in the selection of passages above, which are taken from different scenes and books.

Bill scenes: scooted, scooping, licking, scared, angry, grabbed, pulled, shrieked, shook, snap, stumble, gripped.

Eric scenes: stroked, whispered, hovering, gaze, gently, emotion, made love, lover, kissed, slowly, leisurely, mine.

CH’s choice of words sets the tone of the scenes, and sheds light on the nature of the relationships. Bill’s words convey the physicality and urgency of the sex and are a reflection of the essentially physical nature of he and Sookie’s relationship, and Bill’s lack of self control. Eric’s words are “relationship” words. They are words you find in love scenes, as opposed to sex scenes – and this is the case even as far back as Club Dead, before love was ever part of the equation for either of them.

Next: Loved by a Vampire – The Act
Screencaps

Book 10 – Eric/Sookie Nookie?

This post on EricNorthman.net caught my attention today.  locketlove has some interesting spoilers for Dead in the Family (due out next May):

New info about DITF from CH (from Q&A at a ball in New Orleans on 10/30)

Claude will be in the book.

E/S are in a relationship, and there is an E/S sex scene.

Juicy!

If Claude is in Book 10, then he has remained behind after Niall closed the fae portal. The leaked synopsis for Book 10 states that Sookie will “come face to face with one of her more distant relatives” in the next book. Some have speculated this may be Dermott, her distant fae kin. Claude remaining in the human world certainly seems to indicate that the fae storyline is not dead after all.

And of course it’s nice to see CH confirm again that Sookie and Eric are in relationship as opposed to just having hot monkey sex. Of course we all know this domestic harmony won’t last long, but after nine books, I think we are owed at least a little quiet time with these two!

Update: The Eric/Sookie sex scene in DITF now confirmed by Charlaine during an interview with BlogTalkRadio.

Host: One of your fans wants to know if you’re willing to give a little tidbit about Eric in Book 10?
CH: [laughs loudly] That fan is not the only person who’s asked that!…
…What she really wants to know is “Will Eric and Sookie have sex in the next book” and yes, they will.
Host: Eric and Sookie will be doin’ it in Book 10…you heard it here first!
CH: Yes, they will.