October 31, 2014

Oregon House candidate’s vampire erotica comes back to bite him (sorry)

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This book is graphic, and bad, but probably shouldn't disqualify its author from public office.  Image via Salem Statesman Journal

This book is graphic, and bad, but probably shouldn’t disqualify its author from public office.
Image via Salem Statesman Journal

Where is the line between authors and their work? Does depicting an action in a novel implicitly condone it? Paul Evans, a state senate candidate from Oregon, is under fire from an organization called the Oregon Family Council for an erotic vampire novel he co-wrote while stationed in Iraq between 2003 and 2006 as part of the Oregon National Guard. Salem’s Statesman Journal sets the scene.

“The glorification of sexual and physical violence and abuse of women is unacceptable in any form,” council spokeswoman Teresa Harke said in a statement. “The horrific abuse in Paul Evans’ novel is hurtful and sends the wrong message to the members of this community. Today, I ask the organizations supporting his candidacy to send the right message to the community by denouncing the despicable content in this book.”

The book is called Springtime in Babylon. It tells the story of a civil war soldier named David Alexander who discovers he is destined to fight an army of demon vampires led by Judas Iscariot.

The activities of those vampires are described in explicit detail throughout the book and include violent sexual acts, rape, orgies, incest and murder.

The folks at the Oregon Family Council may have been the first people to actually read Springtime in Babylon. The book is…not good.  Even Evans knows that, telling the Williamette Week back in 2008, “The writing was pretty bad.” (If you really want to read it, the Statesman Journal has some excerpts, but I can’t recommend that; it really is graphic, and bad.) And, of course, it was a flop. But what, the Oregon Family Council would ask, does it reveal about Evans’ deepest innermost beliefs; why does he hate women?

We can never truly know what lurks in the hearts of men, but for what it’s worth, a few of Evans’ many endorsements come from the Basic Rights Oregon (Equality PAC), NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, and the End Violence Against Women PAC.

 

Julia Fleischaker is the director of marketing and publicity at Melville House.

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