Jasmine Mei, Period 6, 03/11/24

 Jasmine Mei 

Period 6

Blog #3 

03/11/24

Literacy & Learning

As the school year comes to an end, we’ve entered into our Vampire Unit in Mythology class with a focus on Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Going into it, I thought that this would be something like Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, other vampire works that I’m familiar with. However, upon actually reading the material, I realized that I would be corrected. An observation I’ve made is that the pop culture works of vampirism today are merely entertainment and while Rice’s piece can also fall under that category, the symbolism and themes that she imbeds into her work makes it more of the essence than the typical supernatural-romance trope. 

Interview with the Vampire has been a refreshing read since our last book, Beowulf. I found that I could read the text and actually understand what Louis was trying to tell us. When reading Beowulf, I would try to understand what was going on but despite my efforts, the class discussions and conversing with Ms. Fusaro would only show that my interpretation of the text was entirely off most of the time. Interview with the Vampire didn’t appeal to me just because I was able to understand the text, but I was also drawn to the themes present. I found it impressing how Anne Rice was able to portray the inner battle of good vs. evil within Louis’s character. I think this part stood out to me because it gave Louis’s vampirism a level of depth that we don’t typically see in the traditional vampire. Like Louis’s understanding of what a vampire is, the media often portrays them to be monsters and “children of Satan”, as Louis puts it. But the constant back and forth Louis has with himself on wanting to be a servant of God, but also not being able to help his new nature gives vampirism a whole new definition that I’ve never seen before. 

Although there were aspects of the book that I thought were incredible, there were also parts that I felt repulsed by. The entirety of Claudia’s character and how she came to be was very strange. Claudia came into Lestat and Louis’s lives when Lestat turned her into a vampire. This, in itself, was horrible as there was no mention of consent for various reasons: not only was Claudia a child and cannot give consent but she really wasn’t given a choice at all. Lestat decided to bring Claudia in for his own selfish desires, thinking that with a child, Louis couldn’t leave him. At first, I interpreted Claudia and Louis’s relationship as a father and daughter solely. It was clear that both of them hated Lestat and found solace in each other through this shared hatred. However, as Claudia grew in age, her relationship with Louis seemed to take a turn. Louis was meant to be her father, stepping into the role when she was just a child, yet he was describing her in a way that a person would speak of their lover. This reminded me of the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, the concept being the pedophilic nature of a man and the way his mind sexualizes a 14 year old girl. The book is written from the perspective of the man and so it’s told from a standpoint where it seems as though the young girl is aiming to seduce the grown man when in reality, it’s the man’s perverted mind that leads him to believe this. Though the text doesn’t insinuate that Claudia meant to seduce Louis, the idea of pedophilia in Rice’s book reminded of Nabokov’s Lolita. I also posed the question of morals and ethics in Claudia and Louis’s case since Claudia is only a child physically but at this point, she has the mind of a grown woman. Despite this, Louis still raised Claudia as his own and that would bring the question of grooming into the situation. There’s also the factor of whether or not Claudia consents to this position. As someone who’s watched the movie and is currently reading the book, I’d say that Rice did not create Claudia’s character to have a romantic relationship with Louis. However, I do remember the movie taking a different approach in which Louis is the one who insists on their strict father-daughter relationship and it’s Claudia who seeks Louis as a lover. 

All in all, I think that Anne Rice is an exceptional author for writing Interview with the Vampire. As I said, there are parts of the text that amaze me and then there are others that make me feel uneasy. Oddly enough, I like that a singular book has that duality because it allows me to question the characters, the author, and myself. Though I’ve watched the movie, it’s clear that it doesn’t parallel the book entirely so I’m excited to read more and see how Anne Rice concludes Louis’s story.