Nyx in the House of Night

Both tours will incorporate sites such as the Philbrook Museum, the Tulsa tunnels, and the Union Depot. Needless to say, these tours seem like promising ways to encourage tourism and exploration of Tulsa, as well as promote the House of Night novels. Many of the local businesses that are mentioned in the novels, from the Street Cats charity to the Utica Square shopping center to the Little Black Dress boutique, are actively helping to bring the tour plans to life.
    Not everyone, however, seems as happy as I am that the House of Night series is turning new attention to Tulsa. Representatives of Cascia Hall have elected not to cooperate with the book-related Tulsa tours. From this I infer that some Cascia Hall officials, at least, don’t appreciate the way in which their institution is portrayed in the novels.
    To be fair, Cascia Hall does not receive terrific praise from the Casts. In Marked , Neferet tells Zoey that the House of Night purchased its campus five years earlier from Cascia Hall after making the “arrogant headmaster an offer even he couldn’t refuse.” Zoey recognizes that this purchase came after “a whole herd of kids who went to Cascia Hall had been busted for drugs.” Of course, the Casts don’t portray any school body as perfect; even sympathetic Broken Arrow students such as Heath are shown to abuse alcohol and smoke marijuana. But in Zoey’s mind, at least, the memory of Cascia Hall seems synonymous with stuck-up rich kids behaving badly. Meanwhile the forbidding buildings of the campus, although exotic and elegant, appear to Zoey “like something out of a creepy dream.”
    Perhaps it’s also worth noting that early on in Marked the authors link Cascia Hall by name with the People of Faith rather than with the Tulsa Catholic community, despite the school’s Catholic affiliation. This may be significant because, throughout the novels, the People of Faith are often depicted as judgmental, dogmatic, and hypocritical, not to mention patriarchal in practice. (Note that Neferet refers to the headmaster at Cascia Hall as a “he.”) In contrast, specific Catholic organizations such as the Street Cats rescue and the Benedictine Abbey are often depicted as tolerant, generous, and humanitarian, represented by powerful feminine forces (various nuns and the Virgin Mary herself). This subtly suggests that the leadership at Cascia Hall demonstrates more of the negative qualities that the Casts identify in contemporary Christianity than the positive ones.
    In other words, the House of Night series won’t be used as promotional literature for Cascia Hall anytime soon. (I for one won’t be staying up nights worrying about the school’s enrollment figures.) Nevertheless, the tours offer school representatives the chance to show Cascia Hall in its best light and employ the House of Night-generated publicity for their institution’s advantage. If its leaders do not choose to take advantage of this, that’s a shame.
    ENJOY YOUR STAY
    While the Cascia Hall leadership may not embrace the attention brought by the House of Night series, other Tulsans and former Tulsans, myself included, will continue to celebrate the creative manner in which P.C. and Kristin mythologize Tulsa in their fiction. Thanks to widespread interest in their bestselling books, others worldwide will come to know and appreciate the city, as well. As Tulsa enriches the House of Night novels, it also is enriched by them, and will continue to be for many years to come.
    Perhaps the saying is correct, and you really can’t go home again. These days when I return to Tulsa, whether in body or just in spirit, I see a vampyre fledgling here and a Raven Mocker there in places I hadn’t found them years ago. That’s fine by me. Through this new lens the town appears larger than life and mythological in proportion, but it’s also true to itself in every way that’s meaningful.
    P.C. and Kristin Cast have made Tulsa once again the “Magic City,” and I heart them for that.
AMY H. STURGIS earned her PhD in intellectual history at Vanderbilt University. A specialist in science fiction/fantasy studies and Native American studies, Sturgis is the author of four books and the editor of another five. Her essays have appeared in dozens of books, journals, and magazines. In 2006, she was honored with the Imperishable Flame Award for J.R.R. Tolkien Scholarship. In 2009, she received the Sofanaut Award for her regular “History of the Genre”