Non-fiction Section
Beneath the Surface, Michael Phelps (TB)
On Sam’s coffee table when he serves hoe cakes to Tara 3.12.
Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche (TB)
Godric’s lesson to Eric about there being no right and wrong is based on this book. IMO the series is introducing Neitzsche’s most common ideas and refuting them. That’s why in the end, Godric says that he was wrong.
Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Frued (TB)
The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, Friedrich Nietzsche (SSN, TB)
Nietzsche sets up the Dionysian and Apollonian dichotomy that the Sookieverse explores by contrasting the nature oriented, feelings driven maenad and werewolves with the coldly calculating vampires. Neitzsche raised the Dionysian over the Apollonian. The series shows that society cannot function that way and suggests a balance of the two poles.
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, written by Aldous Huxley about his experiences with mescaline and LSD, are probably the most widely known accounts of psychedelic drug use that the writers could draw on for the experiences that Jason had when taking V. (Anna Tsogyal)
The Ego and the Id, Freud (TB)
Female Serial Killers, Peter Vronsky (TB)
This book includes accounts of Elizabeth Bathory and Jane Toppan, a serial killer from Massachusetts who is probably the reason Amy and Maryann were both from that state.
The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche (TB)
At the Monroe nest, Malcom’s coffin bears the inscription “Gott ist tot” (God is dead). Cue the joke: No. Malcolm is dead, but God is still alive. Ba-dump-dum.
The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Joseph Campbell (TB)
Man and his Symbols, Jung (TB)
The Republic, Plato (SSN, TB)
The theme of reality vs. allusion that threads through Western lit starts with the Allegory of the Cave in The Republic. CH imprisons her readers in the cave of Sookie’s mind and works diligently to convince them that what they see through Sookie’s point of view is an accurate representation of reality. AB frees us from the 1st person point of view, but he still filters what we see through the characters’ perceptions and continues the theme of reality vs. illusion.
The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein (SSN, TB)
The Symposium, Plato (SSN, TB)
Technology in Teaching, B.F.Skinner (TB)
Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning, David A. Kolb (TB)
Demonstrated or alluded to by Andy, Jason, Tara, and Eric.
Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche (SSN, TB)
Nietzsche uses Renard the fox, the character from folktales as a “dialectician. Wikipedia explains it as “complementary opposites and the interactions thereof. In popular usage, the central feature of dialectic is the concept of ‘thesis, antithesis, synthesis‘ – when an idea or phenomenon (thesis) arises, it carries within itself the seed of its opposite (antithesis), and the interplay of these polarities leads to a synthesis which is somehow beyond the scope of either polarity alone. In turn, the synthesis is now itself a new thesis, and the entire process can begin again.”
This is one of the reasons for the alter egos, parallel stories, and wheels within wheels play out in the fictional Renard parish.
