Blood is Life

Posted on Saturday March, 20 2010 | 8 Comments

“Blood is life.” I can’t even tell you how many times I have read that in various vampire novels. Picture it - you’ve got the wise and ancient vampire spouting out his long thought provoking monologue and, as if on cue, he tosses in that one line we know so well, “blood is life.” But what does that even mean? Well let’s take a look at the blood itself.

First off, without blood we simply can’t exist… obviously. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to every part of our body. It is 90 percent plasma, which itself is 55 percent water. The other 45 percent consists of amino acids, hormones, proteins, glucose and a handful of other much-needed antibodies that protect our body. Then you have that other 10 percent of blood that isn’t plasma, that part is the red blood cells that transport oxygen and white blood cells that are vital to our immune system. On top of that there are also platelets that clot the blood after an injury, you know, so you don’t bleed to death from a small paper cut.

This tasty blood is created in our bone marrow, oxygenated by our lungs and pumped through our bodies by our hearts. It keeps us at the correct temperature, and it’s absolutely essential for the brain to be constantly supplied with freshly oxygenated blood (it only takes about four minutes for irreparable damage to be done to the brain if the heart stops pumping lovely blood). Then, if all that wasn’t complicated enough, blood comes in an assortment of tasty flavors (as True Blood has shown us) - negative and positive O, A, B, and AB.

So with all that science in mind, maybe that’s what those vampires mean when they say “blood is life,” because as you can see, we need it to live. Or maybe that don’t mean it so literally, but more on the lines of “you are alive and therefore have blood, I am undead and don’t have it… unless I steal it.” You know, having blood means you are alive. Or maybe it’s just this big metaphorical issue. I suppose it depends on the author and the character saying the line.
What do you guys think?

- Moonlight

About the Author

Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. She writes for top genre sites like vampires.com and werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way). You can stalk her via her Twitter http://twitter.com/deaaqua

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