"..she lived to put her arms around my neck and press her tiny cupid's bow to my lips and put her gleaming eye to my eye until our lashes touched and, laughing, we reeled about the room as if to the wildest waltz. Father and Daughter. Lover and Lover."
Thanks to the Twilight 'phenomenon' and the TV-series made watchable only by Ian Somerhalder(Vampire Diaries), the vampire is a well known being. While vampire ficiton writers might disagree on some of the basics such as: can vampires walk during the day(Anne Rice and Bram Stoker don't think so but Stephanie Meyer says they can. The only reason they don't is because they sparkle in the sunlight though God knows what use can that be to any creature other than for blinding its prey. Though, the prey might have burst into peals of laughter just after the sparkling begins. That might be how those vampires hunt. Maybe. Superior speed and strength and sparkling. But I digress.), are they truly evil ? (Again, Bram Stoker and Anne Rice don't think so- there is Louis who tries but he succumbs as well- but Stephanie Meyer has given us Edward, the mythical good vampire) and are they mindless immortals driven just by blood lust or are they the cadre of intelligent predators above us, they agree on the most basic thing about a vampire. Blood is essential for survival.
Question upon question about a phenomenon that may or may not even exist.
Interview With The Vampire(Anne Rice, 1976; also made into a movie in 1994 starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas) has Louis, a 200 year old vampire, revealing his story of suffering and despair to a human male. From the years he spent as human to the second birth he went through(with Lestat as his master) to the daughter he loved and cherished and to the part of himself he lost forever, Louis holds the reader spellbound with his gift for words.
Lestat converts Louis for his money, plantation and his skill at managing money; Louis soon becomes disenchanted with Lestat upon discovery that Lestat cannot answer any of his burning questions about where they came from, are they the sons of the devil. etc. Lestat looks at everything with mockery and takes joy in the seduction and the kill. To the vampires, the kill is above everything; it gives greater joy than sex and is something that cannot be satisfied with just animal blood. Louis describes it as an erotic process,
"...for vampires, it is the ultimate experience."
To keep Louis with him, Lestat converts a little five year old, Claudia and they live in a mockery of domesticity. Claudia matures mentally but not physically, an old soul in a very young body. Her bitterness wounds Lestat and Louis and drives them apart. Claudia kills Lestat to escape from him and they set off to find other vampires so that they can satisfy their own curiosity instead of being permanently trapped by Lestat in New Orleans. They find Armand and his company in Paris (Theatre des Vampires). The company suspects them of killing their maker(a grave offense) while Louis falls rapturously in love with Armand who reciprocates his passion. Louis knows he cant leave Claudia who suspects his passion and asks him to convert a human to become her keeper. Louis agrees under mental influence from Armand and converts Madeline(a woman who lost her child) who becomes devoted to Claudia. This nearly breaks something in Louis because he's sworn to himself that he would never convert someone to his miserable existence. Armand convinces him that it is he who is at fault and not Louis. However, Lestat is not as dead as they think and he returns to have revenge on Claudia and to take Louis with him.
The company, upon discovery of her attempt to kill Lestat, overpowers locks Louis into a coffin and burns Claudia and Madeline alive in the sun. Louis breaks down when he escapes and becomes witness to their ashes and even Lestat is remorse-stricken for the daughter that he has lost("...I didn't think they'd do this..."). He sets the theater on fire to revenge his daughter. He loses a vital part of himself; the part that feels passion upon the monstrosity committed by Armand(who in the end was the one who killed Claudia) and ends up, wandering alone; the grieving human-vampire. The most human of them all.
The story is a warning, not a beckon; a tale of passion and grief and eternal wandering. Louis wants nothing more than to be human again; he is compassionate and emotional in a world of vampires with no humane qualities but only filled with evil and coldness. He realizes he cannot be anything but damned in body and mind. He was evil and the only way out was to attain a depth of evil that would end his pain and make him a cold, merciless destroyer. He becomes weary of immortality and everything he has undergone. He lives alone, without companions. His story ended in Paris when Claudia died; his life meanders on until the world ends or he chooses to end i. He even loses the hatred he feels for Lestat, the love for Claudia and drifts as a wanderer, cold and bereft of the 'mortal passion' that drew everyone to him.
("...and that's the end of it. There's nothing else.")
Thanks to the Twilight 'phenomenon' and the TV-series made watchable only by Ian Somerhalder(Vampire Diaries), the vampire is a well known being. While vampire ficiton writers might disagree on some of the basics such as: can vampires walk during the day(Anne Rice and Bram Stoker don't think so but Stephanie Meyer says they can. The only reason they don't is because they sparkle in the sunlight though God knows what use can that be to any creature other than for blinding its prey. Though, the prey might have burst into peals of laughter just after the sparkling begins. That might be how those vampires hunt. Maybe. Superior speed and strength and sparkling. But I digress.), are they truly evil ? (Again, Bram Stoker and Anne Rice don't think so- there is Louis who tries but he succumbs as well- but Stephanie Meyer has given us Edward, the mythical good vampire) and are they mindless immortals driven just by blood lust or are they the cadre of intelligent predators above us, they agree on the most basic thing about a vampire. Blood is essential for survival.
Question upon question about a phenomenon that may or may not even exist.
Interview With The Vampire(Anne Rice, 1976; also made into a movie in 1994 starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas) has Louis, a 200 year old vampire, revealing his story of suffering and despair to a human male. From the years he spent as human to the second birth he went through(with Lestat as his master) to the daughter he loved and cherished and to the part of himself he lost forever, Louis holds the reader spellbound with his gift for words.
Lestat converts Louis for his money, plantation and his skill at managing money; Louis soon becomes disenchanted with Lestat upon discovery that Lestat cannot answer any of his burning questions about where they came from, are they the sons of the devil. etc. Lestat looks at everything with mockery and takes joy in the seduction and the kill. To the vampires, the kill is above everything; it gives greater joy than sex and is something that cannot be satisfied with just animal blood. Louis describes it as an erotic process,
"...for vampires, it is the ultimate experience."
To keep Louis with him, Lestat converts a little five year old, Claudia and they live in a mockery of domesticity. Claudia matures mentally but not physically, an old soul in a very young body. Her bitterness wounds Lestat and Louis and drives them apart. Claudia kills Lestat to escape from him and they set off to find other vampires so that they can satisfy their own curiosity instead of being permanently trapped by Lestat in New Orleans. They find Armand and his company in Paris (Theatre des Vampires). The company suspects them of killing their maker(a grave offense) while Louis falls rapturously in love with Armand who reciprocates his passion. Louis knows he cant leave Claudia who suspects his passion and asks him to convert a human to become her keeper. Louis agrees under mental influence from Armand and converts Madeline(a woman who lost her child) who becomes devoted to Claudia. This nearly breaks something in Louis because he's sworn to himself that he would never convert someone to his miserable existence. Armand convinces him that it is he who is at fault and not Louis. However, Lestat is not as dead as they think and he returns to have revenge on Claudia and to take Louis with him.
The company, upon discovery of her attempt to kill Lestat, overpowers locks Louis into a coffin and burns Claudia and Madeline alive in the sun. Louis breaks down when he escapes and becomes witness to their ashes and even Lestat is remorse-stricken for the daughter that he has lost("...I didn't think they'd do this..."). He sets the theater on fire to revenge his daughter. He loses a vital part of himself; the part that feels passion upon the monstrosity committed by Armand(who in the end was the one who killed Claudia) and ends up, wandering alone; the grieving human-vampire. The most human of them all.
The story is a warning, not a beckon; a tale of passion and grief and eternal wandering. Louis wants nothing more than to be human again; he is compassionate and emotional in a world of vampires with no humane qualities but only filled with evil and coldness. He realizes he cannot be anything but damned in body and mind. He was evil and the only way out was to attain a depth of evil that would end his pain and make him a cold, merciless destroyer. He becomes weary of immortality and everything he has undergone. He lives alone, without companions. His story ended in Paris when Claudia died; his life meanders on until the world ends or he chooses to end i. He even loses the hatred he feels for Lestat, the love for Claudia and drifts as a wanderer, cold and bereft of the 'mortal passion' that drew everyone to him.
("...and that's the end of it. There's nothing else.")
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