Week Two: Interview With a Vampire
In week two we ventured into the world of vampires. The novel we had to read was An Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. To say the least the story was very good. It starts by immediately introducing our protagonist as the vampire, which is different than some vampire stories. The typical vampire story has the vampire as the antagonist. The difference between this story and the others is that we can sympathize with the vampire. Outside of the Twilight series, there are not many vampire stories like this.
Something else that I found interesting was the idea that the vampires were homosexual. It is an idea that for time of publication is rare. It made the story even more compelling because it added another dimension to the characters. This one detail, as small as it is, makes the story that much better. What's even more interesting is that the relationship is driven not by sexuality, but by sensuality. The two vampires do not seem to be driven by sexual attraction, but instead by the fact that they truly like one another.
One other thing that stands out is the sad backstory behind Louis. His story is one of tragedy. He lost his brother, who he built a special room in his plantation for. The sad story immediately sets the tone for the remaining portion of the novel.
Anne Rice's beautifully written Interview with a Vampire is a masterpiece of the contemporary vampire. It is this novel that gives us the modern vampire.
Something else that I found interesting was the idea that the vampires were homosexual. It is an idea that for time of publication is rare. It made the story even more compelling because it added another dimension to the characters. This one detail, as small as it is, makes the story that much better. What's even more interesting is that the relationship is driven not by sexuality, but by sensuality. The two vampires do not seem to be driven by sexual attraction, but instead by the fact that they truly like one another.
One other thing that stands out is the sad backstory behind Louis. His story is one of tragedy. He lost his brother, who he built a special room in his plantation for. The sad story immediately sets the tone for the remaining portion of the novel.
Anne Rice's beautifully written Interview with a Vampire is a masterpiece of the contemporary vampire. It is this novel that gives us the modern vampire.
I agree that it's interesting she used a vampire as the protagonist. In this way, Anne Rice was able to push the audience to connect to Louis. This enables her to show human struggles with the added supernatural implications.
ReplyDeleteEveryone experience the loss of loved ones. People deal with this in different ways. It's interesting when it's presented as an immortal going through this grief. How his pain continues to follow him as his body and mind remain young. He doesn't experience a fall into old age that brings memory troubles with it. This reflects the author's fresh pain of her own loss but extends it over multiple lifetimes for Louis.
When I read the book I also felt that Claudia remaining young through supernatural circumstances reflected the forever young memory the author had of her daughter. This gave a haunting image of the pain left behind when someone passes. All of this was based on the fact that we got the story from the point of view of a vampire.