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megwritesI've been told I think too much, and I believe it is true. Because I have some burning questions concerning the scientific nature of the whammy* the supernatural.
For instance, if vampires don't breathe, how do they speak?
What bits of the sunlight are so bad for vampires? Could they hop in a tanning bed and be just fine? Is the UV rays, the light in general?
After vampires drink blood, where does it go? If it doesn't go anywhere wouldn't they get bloated like a tick? Do they metabolize it? The implications of this are both staggering and disgusting. Somewhere in my head, there's a story that starts with the line: "He pissed blood every day".
If you're a werewolf and you lose an organ as an animal that you don't possess in human form, does it affect you?
What if you ate something that was poisonous to you as a human, but not as an animal or vice versa. Canines are well documented for their inability to eat chocolate and birds can eat holly berries, but humans can't. Do the contents of your stomach remain constant? Would you kill yourself by eating a huge thing of chocolate just before a full moon?
Not to mention questions of what happens if a werewolf/shapeshifter is pregnant. Especially if they shapeshift into something that's not a mammal.
Can you retain language and consciousness as an animal? Animal brains are often very different in shape, size, and structure from ours. Even close primate relatives don't have our exact brain make up. There are areas of the human brain or structures that don't exist in other creatures. If you do become a complete animal in your animal form, where do your human consciousness and brain patterns go?
Yep. I definitely think too much. And as I'm nearing the end of "Dead Witch Walking", I get the distinct impression that finishing it will hurt less if I stopped confusing the situation with facts.
* This is funnier if you have seen X-Files and remember "Pusher".
For instance, if vampires don't breathe, how do they speak?
What bits of the sunlight are so bad for vampires? Could they hop in a tanning bed and be just fine? Is the UV rays, the light in general?
After vampires drink blood, where does it go? If it doesn't go anywhere wouldn't they get bloated like a tick? Do they metabolize it? The implications of this are both staggering and disgusting. Somewhere in my head, there's a story that starts with the line: "He pissed blood every day".
If you're a werewolf and you lose an organ as an animal that you don't possess in human form, does it affect you?
What if you ate something that was poisonous to you as a human, but not as an animal or vice versa. Canines are well documented for their inability to eat chocolate and birds can eat holly berries, but humans can't. Do the contents of your stomach remain constant? Would you kill yourself by eating a huge thing of chocolate just before a full moon?
Not to mention questions of what happens if a werewolf/shapeshifter is pregnant. Especially if they shapeshift into something that's not a mammal.
Can you retain language and consciousness as an animal? Animal brains are often very different in shape, size, and structure from ours. Even close primate relatives don't have our exact brain make up. There are areas of the human brain or structures that don't exist in other creatures. If you do become a complete animal in your animal form, where do your human consciousness and brain patterns go?
Yep. I definitely think too much. And as I'm nearing the end of "Dead Witch Walking", I get the distinct impression that finishing it will hurt less if I stopped confusing the situation with facts.
* This is funnier if you have seen X-Files and remember "Pusher".
no subject
Date: 2009-07-09 10:26 pm (UTC)Blood gets burned, or some essence in it gets consumed. Sunlight burns because it's the embodiment of a purifying power in the universe; maybe that can be invoked on smaller scales, maybe not, but the search for it could make for an interesting story. (*makes note to self*) Shapeshifting doesn't cost intelligence because the vampire's soul carries its consciousness across forms. This also suggests the possibility of human magicians learning to do the same. (*makes another note*)
As for breath: vampires still have lungs. They can still respire for speech even though they don't need it for oxygenation or the discharge of waste gases.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-10 11:00 am (UTC)Well, yeah. If you just say, "Oh, well, they're magic", you can accept a lot of things. And sometimes, for the sake of reading a book or watching a TV show that's otherwise fabulous, I do exactly that.
But every once and a while I really do wonder about these things, because I don't like the idea that some authors/creators of urban fantasy/paranormal works feel like they have no obligation to have any kind of internal logic or to make their worlds and characters make sense.
And that frustrates me sometimes, because I think it gives the genre a bad rap for being very pretty but very dumb - like a lot of the heroines I'm frustrated with.
As for the "they just don't exchange oxygen for C02" answer, I've heard that before and it doesn't satisfy me in the slightest. Because they used that excuse for the Jossverse in explaining why the vampires had breath you could see during filming on cold nights.
And if that is true, then Angel is an idiot. Because at the end of the season 1, when Buffy drowns, Angel turns to Xander to tell him that he CAN'T do CPR because he has no breath.
CPR isn't about giving the person oxygen. If you're breathing into their mouth, you're just keeping air moving at all. Because that's the point.
So, if the "there's air, just no oxygenation" explanation is true and Angel can still press air in and out of his body, then he's an idiot. Because if he can do that, he's perfectly capable of administering CPR. But when the love of his life is laying there, he says, "I can't. I have no breath."
This is what I mean about internal logic. Okay, if vampires push air in and out but don't oxygenate, fine. But they better not say they can't do CPR because that's the authorial equivalent of pissing down my back and telling me it's raining.