Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes is the David Bowie song playing in a pivotal scene of temptation for Jared Copeland. As the video unfolds, he finds himself drawn toward a bottle of vampire blood that Eve has been trying to ration. The song marks the moment when abstention, initially a settled principle, becomes an immediate personal test.

Appearance in Jared’s scene

Eve has been drinking from the bottle but stops and says she will save it for the next day. Jared is comforted by this restraint, though he recognizes that she is exercising it largely for his sake. After she goes to bed, he remains on the sofa watching music videos. An older video of Ashes to Ashes comes on; Jared had once been a devoted Bowie fan, but now feels distant from the way music used to affect him. He watches the procession of harlequins as his attention shifts toward the open bottle nearby.

The scene places Eve’s decision to stop beside Jared’s increasingly difficult effort to keep his own distance. The bottle’s aroma draws him closer, and the day’s unpleasant household smells sharpen its appeal by contrast. Music continues in the room, but Jared’s focus turns to the bottle and the choice it presents.

Abstention and the lure of blood

Jared’s hesitation is framed as a conflict with beliefs he has repeatedly defended: he recognizes the bottle as vampire blood and tells himself he cannot drink it. He then bargains with himself, imagining that a very small sip might be harmless and that he could take it merely to know what it is like. As the song continues, he brings the bottle to his lips and closes his eyes. The passage stops at this threshold; it does not establish whether he drinks.

The scene echoes the warning in The Abstainer’s Handbook (second edition): “Blood doesn’t satisfy cravings. It magnifies them.” Elsewhere, Rowan Radley sits holding a bottle of vampire blood, recalls the bullying he experienced at school, and drinks; the immediate result is relief from his worries and physical discomfort. That episode gives the handbook’s warning a concrete narrative counterpart, while Jared’s scene returns the question of drinking to the moment before action.

Music as a frame

Ashes to Ashes is identified in the scene as an older music video, not as a lyric or an explanation of Jared’s decision. Its specific place in the sequence matters: Eve leaves the bottle for tomorrow, Jared stays behind, and the song plays as his resolve weakens. The contrast between her expressed restraint and his private bargaining makes the music-video scene a quiet turning point in the book’s treatment of abstention and temptation.