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I am currently reading Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn (Grand Central Publishing, 2006). It is the second book in the series. Here's a quote that seems very incisive in regards to biases of many types.
That's the thing with all the "special" methods used to kill supernatural beings: A stake through the heart or a silver bullet will kill anyone.
pp. 115-116
Why I am into the speculative fiction genre? Seems to me the supernatural beings in the genre stand in for a lot of issues: how we identify and look at minorities; how we feel about people with special abilities. There was a lot of talk about True Blood being about the gay rights movement.
Also, I think a lot about how we label groups. We call vampires the undead. That somehow makes it okay to kill them. They walk, talk, and eat (after a fashion). Why aren't they just a different sort of alive?
I think it bears examination. After all, in literature even if something is a trend, it is rarely an accident or without meaning. Look at the book's title even. It is titled after an old Jimmy Stewart film, "Mr. Smith goes to Washington." That film is about a nice guy being set up in Washington by corrupt businesspeople and politicians. But, he prevails against them. I am looking forward to seeing if Kitty has the same outcome.
