Blood's Will: Speculative Fiction, Existence, and Inquiry of Currere

by Morna McDermott McNulty

In Blood’s Speculative Fiction, Existence, and Inquiry of Currere, main character Campbell Cote Phillips—a successful university professor, mother, and wife—faces the question "what would she give up to have everything else?" Her comfortable life takes an unexpected turn when she discovers that not everything is always as it appears to be. The story unfolds between the 1970s and contemporary Baltimore, weaving together the experiences of Finn (an unusual vampire with a strange history) and Campbell—along with a cast of characters across different generations—whose stories are portrayed in base-relief against the promise, or peril, of immortality. Blood’s Will is about love and desire, but it is also about family, friends, and the choices we all make. To be human is to sacrifice. To be vampire is to have endless opportunities.


As Noel Gough writes, "Understanding curriculum work as a storytelling practice has been a key theme in the reconceptualisation of curriculum studies during the last three decades, encapsulated by Madeleine Grumet’s formulation of curriculum as ‘the collective story we tell our children about our past, our present, and our future.’" Situated as a story embedded in the four stages of currere, the journey of the book’s main characters exemplifies the journey of the regressive, the progressive, the analytical, and the synthetic. Blood’s Will is an example of speculative fiction that "can contribute to an aspect of effective deliberation that Schwab called ‘the anticipatory generation of alternatives’" (Gough). This book is a useful reading for courses examining roles of narrative, fiction, and currere as fields of inquiry.

255 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2018

Reviews

[Ann Bracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book and very thought-provoking. What would you choose if you could change your life? Would you give up everything? I don't know anyone who hasn't asked these questions. McNulty explores these issues in a creative and imaginative format. The characters will grab you from the start and the read is well-worth your time.

[Carmela Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this author's style of writing and the story was exciting from the beginning. I appreciated the mix of literature review with the science fiction storytelling and once I learned who Dr. Finn McGinnis was, I couldn't put it down. Personally, I'd love to know what's next for Finn and Campbell!