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To Join the Living
Sunday, June 27th, 2010 07:40 pmIn the LJ conversation on a previous post, the subject of whether or not FK vampires can starve to death came up and, in that context, so did the interpretation that Lacroix treated Nick as he did throughout Forever Knight "because Nick was very suicidal."
That is Lacroix's view, and it's not an uncommon view in the fandom. Lacroix thinks that Nick is suicidal for desiring and pursuing mortality, for preferring humanity to vampirism. If Lacroix's premise of the futility of humanity is accepted, the interpretation that Nick is suicidal follows.
I disagree with that premise. I hold that pursuing humanity should not be construed as pursuing death. In the baseline metaphor of FK as I see it, personally, Nick is Everyman and humanity is salvation; Nick will never get it in this life, but that doesn't make it the wrong goal. Regardless of metaphors, the hero's fictional desire to escape vampirism by returning to humanity should not be taken as equivalent to a real human desiring to end his/her life. That's grotesque. Nick, undead, is striving to rejoin life, not to join death. That death comes to all living things does not void the life lived.
I interpret that Nick is not suicidal except at two distinct, somewhat bizarre, points in the series. TPTB suddenly crammed Nick's assisted suicide down our throats in "Last Knight," the final episode of third season, and there's a gesture in the direction of suicide for Nick with "Near Death," which originally aired near the end of second season (not in the order now on the DVDs), but before and aside from those two episodes, the guiding text is "Last Act," from near the start of first season, in which Nick forcefully, explicitly rejects suicide.
( Read more... )
That is Lacroix's view, and it's not an uncommon view in the fandom. Lacroix thinks that Nick is suicidal for desiring and pursuing mortality, for preferring humanity to vampirism. If Lacroix's premise of the futility of humanity is accepted, the interpretation that Nick is suicidal follows.
I disagree with that premise. I hold that pursuing humanity should not be construed as pursuing death. In the baseline metaphor of FK as I see it, personally, Nick is Everyman and humanity is salvation; Nick will never get it in this life, but that doesn't make it the wrong goal. Regardless of metaphors, the hero's fictional desire to escape vampirism by returning to humanity should not be taken as equivalent to a real human desiring to end his/her life. That's grotesque. Nick, undead, is striving to rejoin life, not to join death. That death comes to all living things does not void the life lived.
I interpret that Nick is not suicidal except at two distinct, somewhat bizarre, points in the series. TPTB suddenly crammed Nick's assisted suicide down our throats in "Last Knight," the final episode of third season, and there's a gesture in the direction of suicide for Nick with "Near Death," which originally aired near the end of second season (not in the order now on the DVDs), but before and aside from those two episodes, the guiding text is "Last Act," from near the start of first season, in which Nick forcefully, explicitly rejects suicide.
( Read more... )
