Monday – Warning: Reading Too Many Trashy Vampire Novels Can be Hazardous

[ninanevermore]

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Today on my drive into work, I was thinking about the peculiar allergy that surfaced in me last Spring, and wondering if it could have anything to do with my having read too many trashy vampire novels. It started with all those Anne Rice novels I read in high school and college and has cumulated in my recently devouring the Twilight novels and the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. My fiction with fangs additions is compounded by my consumption of screen vamps: from watching The Lost Boys as a teen to my obsession with the TV programs Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

My repeated exposure to the literary and Hollywood undead has seemingly had a really nasty, undesired effect on me: I'm now allergic to sunlight.

Really.

I first noticed it last spring when I took my son to a local arboretum to explore the nature trails. That evening I noticed my skin was itchy and red: I'd broken out into hives. I wondered if I'd exposed myself to something poisonous on the trails. Perhaps I'd brushed against some poison ivy or poison oak? At least it wasn't on my face, I noticed with relief.

A month or so later I spent the day at another park and noticed the same thing. This park was not a nature trail, and there were definitely no poison plants that I could have exposed myself to. The only common element the two days had in common was that I got several hours of sun exposure. Once again, I did not have hives on my face, but I just so happen to wear make up that has an SPF 15 sunscreen in it. My face did not receive as many UV rays as the rest of me.

I suppose things could be worse: I could burst into flames. Instead, my skin bursts into flaming red welts. I starting keeping a tube of sun block in my car and applying it before I went outside. Problem solved.

Yesterday, I took my little boy to a local park for an afternoon of fun. Over the winter I'd forgotten about my new-found sensitivity. At least, I did until my arms started to itch like crazy. Today, I feel lethargic and vaguely sick: I seem to have a sunshine hangover. I need to find the tube of sun block and put it back in my car and remember to use it before I step out into the light again and expose my nature as a creature of the night, intolerant of daylight.

I've just started the 6th Sookie Stackhouse book, Definitely Dead. I know for my own good that I should stop reading it lest I get any more allergic to UV rays than I already am. I can't stop myself, though. The books are so deliciously trashy and fun. They are an addiction for me: I can quit anytime, but I just don't want to.

The best I can do is keep buying sunscreen, and hope for the best.


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Comments

[simplecity2htwn.livejournal.com]

My mom started having the same issue not long ago. I think that there's an allergy God that just likes to pick on Houstonians from time to time.

[mugglemomjsw.livejournal.com]

Is that what's wrong w/ me?? I sat in the sun yesterday and itched on my arms all night last night... And here I thought it was the drugs that I'm on for Crohn's. haha

Have you read the MaryJanice Davidson series? I say series b/c she has the series about Betsy the Vampire Queen AND a series about the Alaskan Royal Family (if the US hadn't bought Alaska).

Definitely Dead is pretty good, but made we want to cry at the end. Let me know what you think... I'm just as addicted to said trashy vamp stories.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I bet if you go through your mother's things, you will find a secret stash of Vampire novels, full of sex and violence (at least, the good ones have sex with the violence).

I'm telling you: smoking causes lung cancer, saturated fats cause heart disease, and Vampire novels cause sun allergy. TrueFact.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Nope, haven't found those yet. Must check them out.

If it itchy thing happens again, try wearing a sunscreen when you go out. It works for me, at least. I don't even need enough UV to cause a sunburn; the hives hit way before that. I have to get at least an hour of sun before I start to itch, but it keeps up even after I'm in doors.

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

I always knew you were a Goth in Cute clothing! *ducks*

Weren't the Twilight books simply SCRUMPTIOUS?!? Rich and I devoured them in days. The movie didn't hold a candle to the first book, but then that's nothing new. At least it gave us some nice faces to go with the characters. I do wish they'd done better justice to the Meadow Scene.

[willowwanders.livejournal.com]

Ah that allergy doesn't sound pleasant; my family has a running problem with eczma and skin-related conditions. I had severe acne as a teenager and it took very heavy doses of antibiotics (messing with my liver) to clear it up.

This post makes me feel itchy *scratches* owee.

:)

[simplecity2htwn.livejournal.com]

I would agree with you if not for the fact that Babe has an entire library full of vampire novels and she still seems to be okay.

(begin rant)
I swear, there's not a flat surface in the house that doesn't have at least 6 vampire or romance or vampire-romance novels on it. I think I'm drowning in paperbacks.
(/end rant)

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

Poor Nina. It is good that you don't burst into flames. How does one explain that to a child? :P

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Some people can smoke for years before they get lung cancer. It's the same with vampire novels. Just wait.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the Twilight movie. Vampire mom down the hall liked it, but she has a crush on the guy who plays Edward.

Twilight caused me a dilemma; I've never wanted to characters in a book to get it on so bad in my life.

Sookie Stuckhouse makes up for that. Lots and lots of sex in those books, and her a nice Methodist girl from small town Louisiana.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Sunscreen helps, I just have to remember to wear it. I'll all better today. :)

It's a very odd thing to be allergic to. I mean, we need it to live (and make vitamin D); it's like being allergic to air or water.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I agree, he'd be in therapy for years after something like that. I better wear sunblock so he doesn't have to worry. ~_^

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

lol

[sarcasmoqueen.livejournal.com]

Ok, now I'm going to have to go out and find the Sookie Stackouse books. I never even heard of her (?) before reading this entry, but I ADORED the Twilight series, so I will just have to try it out. Is it a continuing saga, or a bunch of different stories about different vampires?

[mugglemomjsw.livejournal.com]

Ch-ch-ch-check it out... haha

Thanks! I'll do that! We're so weird. ha!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

The Sookie Stackhouse books are less like Twilight and more along the lines of Buffy the Vampire slayer as far as tone goes. The best word I can use to describe them is "fun."

There are 9 books in the series. 1 through 7 are out as paperbacks, 8 is about to be out as a paperback but was only in hardback last I looked, and nine is going to be released this May. If you look into them, the first book is Dead Until Dark. If you like that one, the rest are listed inside the book in the order they were written, which is the best order to read them in.

[abstract-truth.livejournal.com]

I know for my own good that I should stop reading

Honestly, I think it's too late for me. Between the Anne Rice Novels, True Blood, Moonlight, Blood Ties, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Angel, etc....I think I've been permanently turned.

My vamp exposure has manifested itself in my inability to sleep at night. On a nice sunny day, all I want to do is sleep...but as soon as the sun goes down I am all energy.

I'm afraid to go within 10 feet of the whole Twilight thing. The last thing I need is to take on more vampires. =)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I was a night owl to begin with (perhaps that explains why I was first drawn to vamps). Being actually allergenic to daylight is a new twist, though.

Oh, you must read the Twilight books. You must. But skip the movie.