Interview With a Vampire

One thing surprising to me about Interview With a Vampire was that there were comical scenes. The book is considered very dark and dramatic, and though it is i was still surprised that Rice would go through the effort of putting in any comedy at all.

One example is Louis' first night as a Vampire. The scene it's self is powerful and we have louis reflecting on his humanity and watching the sky before the sun rises. But Lestat, essentially ruins this poetic moment when he awkwardly mentions that he only had one coffin, meaning that the two men would have to share a coffin for the day. Louis got angry and frustrated but in the end they did share a coffin, lying on top of each other, and it was awkward and hilarious.

In class we mentioned this could be a homoerotic scene on purpose. When I was reading the relationship between Lestat and Louis, it didn't seem homoerotic since Louis would merely hate Lestat (and himself) while Lestat would become frustrated at Louis for repressing the vampire urges. But looking back at the two I can call the duo a couple. After all they are two men in a very close relationship, they do everything together. Lestat chose a man to turn into a vampire, not a woman. They even "adopt" Claudia. Lestat and Louis clearly don't have a good relationship but I still see a relationship between them.

Another bit of comedy happened shortly after Louis drank human blood for the first time. This is another HUGE moment in Louis's life. For the first time in years after trying so hard to not drink human blood he takes a bite out of a young girl, Claudia. He is so distraught and once again Lestat ruins another dark poetic moment with glee. Lestat is so happy he's singing and dancing with the corpse of the mother in the room. Louis is in absolute anguish and Lestat is overjoyed. Louis becomes so frustrated that he just runs away among the rooftops with Lestat chasing behind, jeering. And in the Chase Louis closes a large window behind him and Lestat runs into it "arms outstretched like a bird, he then slowly slid down the glass." At this point the book had me chuckling to myself. It was like a scene out of Screwy Squirrel.

These moments, that I find hilarious, do serve a purpose. Later on when Louis meets other vampires in France, he learns that Lestat is not thought that highly of. It might be surprising at first since he is LESTAT, one of the most famous vampires of fiction. But he does make basic mistakes. Forgetting to order a second coffin for Louis, running into windows, turning a child into a vampire: these are all mistakes. Lestat isn't very good at being a vampire. (Louis is much worse at it since he doesn't want to be a vampire.) Reading this book I felt like I was witnessing two people that didn't really know what they were doing trying to make it through life.

I didn't read anything past when Claudia killed Lestat, but I do plan on finishing this interesting and entertaining book.

Frankenstein

Something I find very interesting in the book is how obsessed Frankenstein is with his creation. He's working so hard on his creation he's just a shell of who he was (Kinda similar to the CA's working on their thesis every night) and there's a moment when he might actually speaking of love. "No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs" he's certainly very excited of about his the completion of his creation, but he's also patting himself on the back. He's a very self centered scientist already boasting on how he could build a new species. All that joy goes away when he actually brings life to his creature. I appreciate that the scene is actually quite short. We get a lot of build up and then the "spark or life" part of the book is only a few lines. It still hits pretty hard with the reader. He is absolutely disgusted at his creation!

This kinda reminds me of an old saying "You're a father when the baby is born, but you're a mother when you're pregnant." In way Frankenstein's 2 years of work on the project meant absolutely nothing emotionally. Only when he witnessed the creature was finally breathing and blinking (being alive) does Frankenstein finally realize what he did by creating life. And he runs away from this creature, that he earlier called a child. He abandoned his child.

I really do feel pity for the creation. Maybe I cannot judge Frankenstein since he described the creature like a hellish monster and who wouldn't find that shocking? But the creature was a stupid infant. It didn't choose to be frightening, Frankenstein made him that way. He enters the world and no one makes a place for him. I wonder what it would be like if Frankenstein didn't abandon his creation.

While reading the book i wasn't picking up on the gothic references. Maybe i just wasn't looking for them. They were very clear visually though like in Young Frankenstein and Nosferatu.