Hello and welcome to my reading web log! This blog is my reading journey. Here you can find my book reviews, anything related to books, and even some of my original writing. Keep going down for posts and don't forget to look around the blog. Thank you! (this blog is best viewed in desktop mode/web version)
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Friday, October 28, 2022
My Favorite Quotes from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (AMC)
“You've grown old, Daniel.
Yeah, well, mortality beats a heavy drum.” (Louis, Daniel, S1E1)
“Are we the sum of our worst moments? Can we be forgiven if we do not forgive others ourselves?” (Louis de Pointe du Lac)
- Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (AMC Series, 2022, S1E6)
“We are vampire.” (Lestat, S1E6)
That sassy delivery! XD I love it!! <3
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Review: Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire by Anne RiceMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
My last reading session was 53 mins. I finished reading this book for the second time in my life on Thursday, October 27, 2022 at around 2:45 p.m. You can find my full review here. I finished reading this book for the third time in my life on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 12:31 a.m. Started 3rd time reading on August 31, 2023.
View all my reviews
Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles Book 1) by Anne Rice-Notes & Highlights
I was going to wait a while before rereading The Vampire Chronicles again because of Anne Rice's passing, but then I saw the new TV show based on the books and I saw how much they respected Anne Rice's work and I got really inspired to reread it again! I was so excited!!!!!
I first read this book in high school.
I found this book at a Savers for $1.99 and that was such an exciting day!!! I love how this book smells too! It was the Savers on 27th Ave. and Camelback.
“You weren't always a vampire, were you?” he began.
“No,” answered the vampire. “I was a twenty-five-year-old man when I became a vampire, and the year was seventeen ninety-one” (5).
I saw the movie again on Saturday, October 1st, before the TV show came out on October 2nd. In the movie Louis said this age, but in the TV show he said 33 or 35 (I can't remember which one).
Who did Louis tell his story to? I think maybe Armand.
‘Ah, that's the accent . . .’ the boy said softly.
For a moment the vampire stared blankly. ‘I have an accent?’ He began to laugh” (5).
lol This part made me hehe! XD *covers mouth with hand and giggles* 🤠This line is also in the comparison vid down below.
“He was so different from us, so different from
everyone, and I was so regular!” (6).
This made me laugh! XD "I was so regular!" Haha lol XD 😄
- Louis built his brother an oratory, and I just keep thinking about my paternal grandmother's oratory that she had on her property in Mexico. That was really cool. It's like their own personal prayer space.
“‘People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed
know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult” (13).
“I was reduced to nothing” (14).
“I saw my life as if I stood apart from it, the vanity, the self-serving, the constant fleeing from one petty annoyance after another, the lip service to God and the Virgin and a host of saints whose names filled my prayer books, none of whom made the slightest difference in a narrow, materialistic, and selfish existence. I saw my real gods … the gods of most men. Food, drink, and security in conformity. Cinders’” (14 Part 1 of Interview with the Vampire).
“‘As I told you, this vampire Lestat, ... but he was not a very
discriminating person” (16).
Ah! "Non-discriminating!" That was in the show! <3 XD
“As we beat the body, bruising the face and the shoulders, I
became more and more aroused. Of course, you must realize that all
this time the vampire Lestat was extraordinary. He was no more
human to me than a biblical angel” (17).
Aroused, Louis?! Wtf?! XD I totally get it, Louis! <3 Hehe! *covers mouth & laughs*
“‘Listen, keep your eyes wide,’ Lestat whispered to me, his lips moving
against my neck. I remember that the movement of his lips raised the
hair all over my body, sent a shock of sensation through my body that
was not unlike the pleasure of passion. . . .’” (19).
Oh! ;)
“I saw nothing but that light then as I drew blood. And then this next thing, this next thing was … sound. A dull roar at first and then a pounding like the pounding of a drum, growing louder and louder, as if some enormous creature were coming up on one slowly through a dark and alien forest, pounding as he came, a huge drum. And then there came the pounding of another drum, as if another giant were coming yards behind him, and each giant, intent on his own drum, gave no notice to the rhythm of the other. The sound grew louder and louder until it seemed to fill not just my hearing but all my senses, to be throbbing in my lips and fingers, in the flesh of my temples, in my veins. Above all, in my veins, drum and then the other drum; and then Lestat pulled his wrist free suddenly, and I opened my eyes and checked myself in a moment of reaching for his wrist, 15 grabbing it, forcing it back to my mouth at all costs; I checked myself because I realized that the drum was my heart, and the second drum had been his.” The vampire sighed. “Do you understand?” (20).
“The burden of the past Was on him with full force;
and the present, which was only death, which he fought with all his
will, could do nothing to soften that burden” (55).
“It was so strong in me,
this desire, that it made me feel the depth of my capacity for loneliness” (68).
“And with that same sensibility that you cherish you will see death in all its beauty, life as it is only known on the very point of death. Don't you understand that, Louis? You alone of all creatures can see death that way with impunity. You . . . alone . . . under the rising moon . . . can strike like the hand of God!’
…
‘Vampires are killers,’ he said now. ‘Predators. Whose all-seeing eyes were meant to give them detachment. The ability to see a human life in its entirety, not with any mawkish sorrow but with a thrilling satisfaction in being the end of that life, in having a hand in the divine plan.’
…
“ ‘Why do you do this, Lestat?’ I asked.
“ ‘I like to do it,’ he said. ‘I enjoy it.’ He looked at me. ‘I don't say that you have to enjoy it. Take your aesthete's tastes to purer things. Kill them swiftly if you will, but do it! Learn that you're a killer! Ah!’” (83-84).
“‘Evil is a point of view,’ he [Lestat] whispered now. ... God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately He takes the richest
and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we
are, none so like Him as ourselves, dark angels not confined to the
stinking limits of hell but wandering His earth and all its kingdoms. I
want a child tonight. I am like a mother . . . I want a child!’” (88-89).
“I felt the chill of loneliness, the chill of guilt” (89).
“Lestat was impressed, overcome. What a picture he made of her, the infant death, he called her. Sister death, and sweet death; and for me, mockingly, he had the term with a sweeping bow, Merciful Death! which he said like a woman clapping her hands and shouting out a word of exciting gossip: oh, merciful heavens! so that I wanted to strangle him” (104).
“I leaned over and said, ‘I hear Claudia's tap on the stairs. Be gentle with her. It's all done’ (107).
I saw Claudia do this when I watched one of the trailers for the AMC series, “Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire”.
“We've tarried too long with him. Come out. Let the flesh instruct the mind.’
‘I think I felt a tremor of delight when she said these words, Let the flesh instruct the mind” (121).
“He always wanted me,
along. I think I must have seen Macbeth with him fifteen times. We
went to every Performance, even those by amateurs, and Lestat would
stride home afterwards, repeating the lines to me and even shouting
out to passers-by with an outstretched finger, “Tomorrow and
tomorrow and tomorrow!” until they skirted him as if he were drunk” (128).
“‘When I returned later, satiated and for a while too sluggish for my
own thoughts to bother me...” (129).
The part where Louis says that he ate a lot that he couldn't hear himself think made me relate so much to him because I do that too, Louis! Sometimes I eat more than I should and I get a horrible food coma. LOL!
“I could see his profile and her small face beyond, looking up at him. ‘What is it now!’ he said, turning the page and letting his hand drop to his thigh. ‘You irritate me. Your very presence irritates me!’ His eyes moved over the page.
“ ‘Does it?’ she said in her sweetest voice” (131).
“ ‘I came to make peace with you, even if you are the father of lies. You're my father,’ she said. ‘I want to make peace with you. I want things to be as they were’ (132).
“ ‘Louis …’ he was saying. I could hear it now … ‘Louis … Louis….’
…
“ ‘Louis …’ he whispered, finally lifting his head just for an instant. It fell back on the couch. ‘Louis, it's . . . it's absinthe! Too much absinthe!’ he gasped. ‘She's poisoned them with it. She's poisoned me. Louis….’ He tried to raise his hand. I drew nearer, the table between us.
…
‘Louis . . . put me in my coffin.’ He struggled to rise.
…
He looked up at me, the hair falling down into his eyes. ‘Louis! Louis!’
…
‘Louis, Louis!’ he gasped over and over, struggling, trying desperately to throw her off” (135-137).
Lestat called out Louis’ name eleven times when he was dying! :’(((((
“He lay now on his back.
…
But his eyes, they remained the same, staring wildly at the ceiling, the irises dancing from side to side,
…
Finally the irises rolled to the top of his head, and the whites of his eyes went dim. The thing lay still.
…
and this horror that had been Lestat, and I staring helplessly at it” (137).
“I felt a pull suddenly, as if some force were urging me to go down with
him, to descend into the dark water and never come back. It was so
distinct and so strong that it made the articulation of voices seem only
a murmur by comparison. It spoke without language, saying, ‘You
know what you must do. Come down into the darkness. Let it all go
away’” (139).
I thought it was scary that Louis thought that Lestat might have grabbed his ankle from underneath the water! 😱
“Now I thought of that moment; that fear in me at the very sight of the altar, the sound of the Pange Lingua. And I thought again, persistently, of my brother” (142).
“And he was perfectly miserable” (149).
I just want to say that I love that phrase: perfectly miserable. I feel that way sometimes.
“Now she said to me in such a whisper that I bent my ear to her, ‘Louis, it troubles you. You know the remedy. Let the flesh . . . let the flesh instruct the mind.’ She let my hand go, and I watched her move away from me, turning once to whisper the same command. ‘Forget him. Let the flesh instruct the mind. . .’” (152).
“But he was only Lestat, as I've described him to you: devoid of mystery, finally, his limits as familiar to me in those months in eastern Europe as his charms. I wanted to forget him, and yet it seemed I thought of him always. It was as if the empty nights were made for thinking of him. And sometimes I found myself so vividly aware of him it was as if he had only just left the room and the ring of his voice were still there. And somehow there was a disturbing comfort in that, and, despite myself, I'd envision his face—not as it had been the last night in the fire, but on other nights, that last evening he spent with us at home, his hand playing idly with the keys of the spinet, his head tilted to one side. A sickness rose in me more wretched than anguish when I saw what my dreams were doing. I wanted him alive! In the dark nights of eastern Europe, Lestat was the only vampire I'd found” (196).
<3
I feel entranced by Anne Rice's words when I read her books. It's as if I can see the atmosphere through the pages when I read her scenes.
“I think the very name of Paris brought a rush of pleasure to me that was extraordinary, a relief so near to well-being that I was amazed, not only that I could feel it, but that I'd so nearly forgotten it.
“I wonder if you can understand what it meant. My expression can't convey it now, for what Paris means to me is very different from what it meant then, in those days, at that hour; but still, even now, to think of it, I feel something akin to that happiness. And I've more reason now than ever to say that happiness is not what I will ever know, or will ever deserve to know. I am not so much in love with happiness. Yet the name Paris makes me feel it.
“Mortal beauty often makes me ache, and mortal grandeur can fill me with that longing I felt so hopelessly in the Mediterranean Sea. But Paris, Paris drew me close to her heart, so I forgot myself entirely. Forgot the damned and questing preternatural thing that doted on mortal skin and mortal clothing. Paris overwhelmed, and lightened and rewarded more richly than any promise.
“It was the mother of New Orleans, understand that first; it had given New Orleans its life, its first populace; and it was what New Orleans had for so long tried to be. But New Orleans, though beautiful and desperately alive, was desperately fragile. There was something forever savage and primitive there, something that threatened the exotic and sophisticated life both from within and without. Not an inch of those wooden streets nor a brick of the crowded Spanish houses had not been bought from the fierce wilderness that forever surrounded the city, ready to engulf it. Hurricanes, floods, fevers, the plague—and the damp of the Louisiana climate itself worked tirelessly on every hewn plank or stone facade, so that New Orleans seemed at all times like a dream in the imagination of her striving populace, a dream held intact at every second by a tenacious, though unconscious, collective will.
“But Paris, Paris was a universe whole and entire unto herself, hollowed and fashioned by history; so she seemed in this age of Napoleon III with her towering buildings, her massive cathedrals, her grand boulevards and ancient winding medieval streets—as vast and indestructible as nature itself. All was embraced by her, by her volatile and enchanted populace thronging the galleries, the theaters, the cafes, giving birth over and over to genius and sanctity, philosophy and war, frivolity and the finest art; so it seemed that if all the world outside her were to sink into darkness, what was fine, what was beautiful, what was essential might there still come to its finest flower. Even the majestic trees that graced and sheltered her streets were attuned to her—and the waters of the Seine, contained and beautiful as they wound through her heart; so that the earth on that spot, so shaped by blood and consciousness, had ceased to be the earth and had become Paris” (203-204).
After reading this passage I can understand why some people say that the city of New Orleans is a character in Anne Rice’s books. How beautiful her words are!
“...its tiny feet tinkled like a bell. ‘It's a lady doll,’ she said, looking up at me. ‘See? A lady doll.’ She put it on the dresser.
“ ‘So it is,’ I whispered.
“ ‘A woman made it,’ she said. ‘She makes baby dolls, all the same, baby dolls, a shop of baby dolls, until I said to her, “I want a lady doll” ’ (207-208).
I thought that it was cute that Claudia asked for a lady doll instead of a baby doll. Awwww ☺️
After reading the start of part three I noticed that Anne Rice’s vampires sweat.
“I sat watching, listening, one hand shielding my lowered face from anyone and no one, my elbow resting on the rail, the passion in me subsiding…” (226).
“It was the terrible ‘Triumph of Death’ by Breughel…‘The Fall of the Angels’” (227-228).
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“‘I didn't know I thought these things. I spoke them now as my thoughts. And they were my most profound feelings taking a shape they could never have taken had I not spoken them, had I not thought them out this way in conversation with another” (235).
“the wakening of a need so terrible that the very promise of its fulfillment contained the unbearable possibility of disappointment.
...
I think I put my hands to my head as mortals do when so deeply troubled that they instinctively cover the face, reach for the brain as if they could reach through the skull and massage the living organ out of its agony” (236).
“It seemed more than ever absurd to me that Lestat should have died, if in fact he had; and looking back on him, as it seemed I was always doing, I saw him more kindly than before. Lost like the rest of us. Not the jealous protector of any knowledge he was afraid to share. He knew nothing. There was nothing to know.
“Only, that was not quite the thought that was gradually coming clear to me. I had hated him for all the wrong reasons; yes, that was true. But I did not fully understand it yet.
...
I whispered it now,
trying to withdraw it from the dark, inarticulate pool of my mind” (240).
“And yet through this sadness, this confusion, came the clear realization: Why should it be otherwise? What had I expected? What right had I to be so bitterly disappointed in Lestat that I would let him diet Because he wouldn't show me what I must find in myself? Armand's words, what had they been? The only power that exists is inside ourselves . . . . …the Madonna and Child” (253).
“And I know
your loneliness even with her love is almost more terrible than you can
bear’” (255).
“I settled before his canvas, weak, at peace, gazing down at him, at his vague, graying eyes, my own hands florid, my skin so luxuriously warm. ‘I am mortal again,’ I whispered to him. ‘I am alive. With your blood I am alive.’ His eyes closed. I sank back against the wall and found myself gazing at my own face.
“A sketch was all he'd done, a series of bold black lines that nevertheless made up my face and shoulders perfectly, and the color was already begun in dabs and splashes: the green of my eyes, the white of my cheek. But the horror, the horror of seeing my expression! For he had captured it perfectly, and there was nothing of horror in it. Those green eyes gazed at me from out of that loosely drawn shape with a mindless innocence, the expressionless wonder of that overpowering craving which he had not understood. Louis of a hundred years ago lost in listening to the sermon of the priest at Mass, lips parted and slack, hair careless, a hand curved in the lap and limp. A mortal Louis. I believe I was laughing, putting my hands to my face and laughing so that the tears nearly rose in my eyes; and when I took my fingers down, there was the stain of the tears, tinged with mortal blood” (258).
“And Madeleine, on the couch, was working with that regular passion, as if immortality could not conceivably mean rest, sewing cream lace to lavender satin for the small bed, only stopping occasionally to blot the moisture tinged with blood from her white forehead” (275).
Here is another confirmation that vampires sweat blood.
“And, wandering out of the graves and out of the
cemetery, I went over a plan in my mind, a plan on which I was willing
to gamble my life with the powerful freedom of a being who truly does
not care for that life, who has the extraordinary strength of being
willing to die” (308).
“ ‘But why are you afraid?’ I asked. ‘Don't you know what these things are?’ And as I looked down at him, as I saw his yellow hair pressed against my coat, I had a vision of him from long ago, that tall, stately gentleman in the swirling black cape, with his head thrown back, his rich, flawless voice singing the lilting air of the opera from which we'd only just come, his walking stick tapping the cobblestones in time with the music, his large, sparkling eye catching the young woman who stood by, enrapt, so that a smile spread over his face as the song died on his lips; and for one moment, that one moment when his eye met hers, all evil seemed obliterated in that flush of pleasure, that passion for merely being alive” (329-330).
💔
“He stared blindly ahead, his tongue moistening his lip, his voice low, almost natural. ‘I went to Paris after you. . . .’
“ ‘What was it you wanted to tell me?’ I asked. ‘What was it you wanted to talk about?’
“I could well remember his mad insistence in the Théâtre des Vampires. I hadn't thought of it in years. No, I had never thought of it. And I was aware that I spoke of it now with great reluctance.
“But he only smiled at me, an insipid, near apologetic smile. And shook his head. I watched his eyes fill with a soft, bleary despair.
“I felt a profound, undeniable relief” (330).
What was Lestat going to say to Louis?
Update: Someone on reddit said that in "The Vampire Lestat" Lestat said that this scene never happened.
* Other Quotes I Like:
“moaned aloud”
“with the same smile playing on his lips”
“which was as simple and as satisfying as taking a person's hand. Clasping it. Letting it go gently. All this in a moment of great need and distress.”
“...her eyebrows knit as if she were coming around. A moan escaped her lips.”
“my hands pressing down on the velvet spread.”
“One night, long gone by, was as material to me as if I were in it still…”
* Here is an afterthought I had as I read Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's Story by Anne Rice, art and adaption by Ashley Marie Witter: Armand did lie to Louis! Just to have his love! Why, Armand?! No wonder Louis didn't forgive him!
* Another note to add here is that the third time I re-read this book I read the book in my head. The images in my head were more clear when I read it in this way.
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| I am so obsessed! XD |
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| Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 5:13 a.m. |
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice YouTube Playlist:
These are some songs and artists that were mentioned in the mythically beautiful vampire chronicle books by Anne Rice.
Interview with the Vampire - Books vs Show by @nocontextlestat
Monday, October 17, 2022
Sleeping into a Saucer
Doctor Lance Gharavi
THF 160
05 October 2017
Sleeping into a Saucer
Michael wakes up on the porch again from another night of sleepwalking out of his bed.
He never knows where he will end up when he opens his eyes. Lately, he has been in the porch, garage, and in the horse’s stalls in his wake. He opened the squeaky door into the house and smelled delicious eggs frying in a pan as he passes the kitchen. He saw his mom in front of the stove and his little sister sitting at the dinning table.
“On the porch again, hun?” his mom said.
“Yeah, better than anywhere near the animals I guess,” Michael chuckled lightly and quickly went up the stairs.
He got dressed for school and saw his dad from his window; he was in the field watering the corn. Michael thought about how he might be like his dad one day. He dreamed of having a family and a farm of his own, just like his dad. He looked at his wrist watch; it read eight thirty. He grew frantic because school started promptly at nine. He grabbed his backpack, ran downstairs, out the door, and hopped onto his bike.
Michael made it to class one minute early and was quite relieved. He sat next to his friend Andy and saw that the teacher was reviewing for the final that was on Friday. The teacher gave the class a review packet that had to be finished a day before the exam. Michael hadn’t worked on it since he received it because he was too busy shooting hoops with Andy. He had to review for finals when he got home or else he couldn’t take the test. After class was over he spent the rest of the school day stressed out over finals for all his classes. He had to finish a review for every class he was taking.
When he got home, he immediately started on his final review packets. He was definitely going to do an all-nighter because most of the packets were due the next day. Around one in the morning, he eventually fell asleep with his face on one of the review packets. After he was snoring and in a deep sleep he started to get up for his nightly sleepwalking. Unconscious, he walked downstairs, across the living room and kitchen, past the porch into the backyard. Barefoot, he walked into the cornfield without any knowledge he was doing so. All of a sudden, there was a bright, white light that was shining directly down onto Michael. It seemed to be emanating from a dark, circular object up in the sky. In an instant, he was floating upwards in the air towards the object. All the while, Michael was in the midst of slumber dreaming sweet dreams.
As Michael regains consciousness, he starts to feel cold to the bone. He opens his eyes, looks around, and doesn’t recognize his surroundings. To the right of him there are what look like medical tools on a table. Confused, he tries to lift himself up, but to no avail. He looks down at his arms and realizes that he is strapped down to an operating table. Michael panics when he sees some creatures enter the room. They had large black eyes on gray heads that were disproportionate with their small bodies. As they walked closer, Michael tried to free his restraints with his fingernails. One of the alien-like devils came to the medical tools table and picked up a sharp object. Michael thought the worst and started to scream at the top of his lungs. The first thought in his head was that he had to get away, and fast. The alien was inching closer to him; fortunately, he got his foot out of the straps and kicked hard. Just before the other alien had a chance to touch Michael, he used his free leg to untie the other straps and ran away.
As he was running, a blaring alarm went off and it made him a little disoriented. He looked through the window, what he saw can only be known in textbooks. All he could see was a sea of stars dotted with two small balls that looked familiar. At first, he thought it was just the night sky, but as he looked closer he could swear that he was peering into a telescope. He squints and sees what he knows as the sun, “This is ludicrous!” thought Michael, “Am I in space?” He couldn’t believe that he was so far away from home. Michael freaks out and starts running again to find a way out of this place. There had to be some type of machine that would take him back to Earth. The beeping of the alarm paired with his beating heart was causing him to get dizzy. Racing across the ship like a mad man, he didn’t see the alien that he bumped into. He was dumbfounded as he stared into the creature’s dark, vast eyes. Michael couldn’t move, the alien was causing him to stay in place with its wicked gaze. It was holding a spray bottle that contained a strange, green liquid and sprayed it in Michael’s face. The next thing he knew, he passed out once again.
The saucer plummeted towards Earth and lowered Michael to the ground. He was startled at the sound of the ship heading up into the sky, the noise rattled him awake. “What just happened?” Michael said to himself. His traumatized brain gathered enough sense to inform him that he had school in a couple of hours. With knotted brows, he got his stuff and went to school. During lunch, he told Andy about his adventure and word quickly spread. Sooner than later, he received calls from interview shows to talk about his experience. He would be paid for this and able to save money for his future farm.
THF 160
05 October 2017
Sleeping into a Saucer
Michael wakes up on the porch again from another night of sleepwalking out of his bed.
He never knows where he will end up when he opens his eyes. Lately, he has been in the porch, garage, and in the horse’s stalls in his wake. He opened the squeaky door into the house and smelled delicious eggs frying in a pan as he passes the kitchen. He saw his mom in front of the stove and his little sister sitting at the dinning table.
“On the porch again, hun?” his mom said.
“Yeah, better than anywhere near the animals I guess,” Michael chuckled lightly and quickly went up the stairs.
He got dressed for school and saw his dad from his window; he was in the field watering the corn. Michael thought about how he might be like his dad one day. He dreamed of having a family and a farm of his own, just like his dad. He looked at his wrist watch; it read eight thirty. He grew frantic because school started promptly at nine. He grabbed his backpack, ran downstairs, out the door, and hopped onto his bike.
Michael made it to class one minute early and was quite relieved. He sat next to his friend Andy and saw that the teacher was reviewing for the final that was on Friday. The teacher gave the class a review packet that had to be finished a day before the exam. Michael hadn’t worked on it since he received it because he was too busy shooting hoops with Andy. He had to review for finals when he got home or else he couldn’t take the test. After class was over he spent the rest of the school day stressed out over finals for all his classes. He had to finish a review for every class he was taking.
When he got home, he immediately started on his final review packets. He was definitely going to do an all-nighter because most of the packets were due the next day. Around one in the morning, he eventually fell asleep with his face on one of the review packets. After he was snoring and in a deep sleep he started to get up for his nightly sleepwalking. Unconscious, he walked downstairs, across the living room and kitchen, past the porch into the backyard. Barefoot, he walked into the cornfield without any knowledge he was doing so. All of a sudden, there was a bright, white light that was shining directly down onto Michael. It seemed to be emanating from a dark, circular object up in the sky. In an instant, he was floating upwards in the air towards the object. All the while, Michael was in the midst of slumber dreaming sweet dreams.
As Michael regains consciousness, he starts to feel cold to the bone. He opens his eyes, looks around, and doesn’t recognize his surroundings. To the right of him there are what look like medical tools on a table. Confused, he tries to lift himself up, but to no avail. He looks down at his arms and realizes that he is strapped down to an operating table. Michael panics when he sees some creatures enter the room. They had large black eyes on gray heads that were disproportionate with their small bodies. As they walked closer, Michael tried to free his restraints with his fingernails. One of the alien-like devils came to the medical tools table and picked up a sharp object. Michael thought the worst and started to scream at the top of his lungs. The first thought in his head was that he had to get away, and fast. The alien was inching closer to him; fortunately, he got his foot out of the straps and kicked hard. Just before the other alien had a chance to touch Michael, he used his free leg to untie the other straps and ran away.
As he was running, a blaring alarm went off and it made him a little disoriented. He looked through the window, what he saw can only be known in textbooks. All he could see was a sea of stars dotted with two small balls that looked familiar. At first, he thought it was just the night sky, but as he looked closer he could swear that he was peering into a telescope. He squints and sees what he knows as the sun, “This is ludicrous!” thought Michael, “Am I in space?” He couldn’t believe that he was so far away from home. Michael freaks out and starts running again to find a way out of this place. There had to be some type of machine that would take him back to Earth. The beeping of the alarm paired with his beating heart was causing him to get dizzy. Racing across the ship like a mad man, he didn’t see the alien that he bumped into. He was dumbfounded as he stared into the creature’s dark, vast eyes. Michael couldn’t move, the alien was causing him to stay in place with its wicked gaze. It was holding a spray bottle that contained a strange, green liquid and sprayed it in Michael’s face. The next thing he knew, he passed out once again.
The saucer plummeted towards Earth and lowered Michael to the ground. He was startled at the sound of the ship heading up into the sky, the noise rattled him awake. “What just happened?” Michael said to himself. His traumatized brain gathered enough sense to inform him that he had school in a couple of hours. With knotted brows, he got his stuff and went to school. During lunch, he told Andy about his adventure and word quickly spread. Sooner than later, he received calls from interview shows to talk about his experience. He would be paid for this and able to save money for his future farm.
Interview with the Vampire Movie
In the movie Interview with the Vampire there are a few examples of narrative structure, including a free motif that involves dolls. The character Claudia is a six-year-old vampire who is trapped in her never changing shell. She represents the dolls that she is constantly given by her maker, Lestat de Lioncourt. For example, in the film one of the scenes shows Lestat giving Claudia yet another doll. In the far right of the screen we can see a large collection of dolls on her bed. All of those dolls were given to her on her birthday and shows how old she truly is. Another example of a free motif is when Claudia visits a doll store and pretends to be an innocent child who wants to buy a doll. Her outer appearance can fool any sympathetic mortal, but once Claudia has the doll maker in her trap she pounces on him and feeds. Towards the end of the movie, she feels hatred for her maker because she can never grow to be a woman. She is essentially frozen in time with a young girl’s body and an adult mind. These examples display Claudia’s strong power over her prey and demonstrates her overall thematic meaning. Although the story can be told without this free doll motif, its repeated visuals makes it clear that there is a connection with Claudia and her dolls.
In the film, there is one public goal for the characters Louis de Pointe du Lac and Claudia: to attain the knowledge of where they came from. For example, in the beginning of the the movie Louis is turned into a vampire and over the years he spends with Lestat, his maker, he asks a lot of questions. Lestat will not tell him directly where all vampires came from, but he does say something about how he was made into a vampire in France. Louis takes this as a clue to his question and plans to go there to seek vampires other than Lestat, Claudia, and himself. Since Lestat will not tell them anything related to their public goal, they take a ship to France from New Orleans and eventually find other vampires. They talk to the leader of a vampire group to obtain their answer. The leader hints at where all vampires came from, but it is still a vague answer. Louis and Claudia’s public goal to reach the answer is resolved, one way or the other because they found an answer that satisfied their curious minds.
The entire film centers around the flashback of the main character of Louis. For example, he tells the story of how he was created into a vampire to a young mortal reporter. The story leaped back and forth from Louis’ past to the present scene of Louis being interviewed. The certain places that the story cuts back to the present creates exceptional plot structure. The flashbacks can be very quick to go back and forth because the reporter can ask a question and we see the visuals of what Louis is saying for his answer. Such as when the reporter asks what he saw right after he was turned into a vampire and Louis explained that it seemed like everything changed but didn’t; all the while we are seeing what he saw through his vampire eyes. Resulting in the present coming back into view with Louis and the reporter sitting at the table. The past comes back when Louis mentions something about what happened in the past. For instance, the reporter asks him about coffins and Louis say that coffins are a necessity. The next scene we see is when Louis first sleeps in his coffin and he describes how that felt like to him.
Professor Peter Lehman
FMS 100
02 October 2017
Mid-term Examination
In the film, there is one public goal for the characters Louis de Pointe du Lac and Claudia: to attain the knowledge of where they came from. For example, in the beginning of the the movie Louis is turned into a vampire and over the years he spends with Lestat, his maker, he asks a lot of questions. Lestat will not tell him directly where all vampires came from, but he does say something about how he was made into a vampire in France. Louis takes this as a clue to his question and plans to go there to seek vampires other than Lestat, Claudia, and himself. Since Lestat will not tell them anything related to their public goal, they take a ship to France from New Orleans and eventually find other vampires. They talk to the leader of a vampire group to obtain their answer. The leader hints at where all vampires came from, but it is still a vague answer. Louis and Claudia’s public goal to reach the answer is resolved, one way or the other because they found an answer that satisfied their curious minds.
The entire film centers around the flashback of the main character of Louis. For example, he tells the story of how he was created into a vampire to a young mortal reporter. The story leaped back and forth from Louis’ past to the present scene of Louis being interviewed. The certain places that the story cuts back to the present creates exceptional plot structure. The flashbacks can be very quick to go back and forth because the reporter can ask a question and we see the visuals of what Louis is saying for his answer. Such as when the reporter asks what he saw right after he was turned into a vampire and Louis explained that it seemed like everything changed but didn’t; all the while we are seeing what he saw through his vampire eyes. Resulting in the present coming back into view with Louis and the reporter sitting at the table. The past comes back when Louis mentions something about what happened in the past. For instance, the reporter asks him about coffins and Louis say that coffins are a necessity. The next scene we see is when Louis first sleeps in his coffin and he describes how that felt like to him.
FMS 100
02 October 2017
Mid-term Examination
Saturday, October 15, 2022
Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery by Becket (My Favorite Quotes)
"And I remember still the pain, the anguish, the frustration that I could not confide to anyone about what the swing meant to me. I was almost ashamed of how much it meant" (Introduction XXV).
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| I read this introduction as I waited for Ale to do her two hour volunteering at the Burton Barr library branch. |
"So this is how the Vampire Chronicles came about. It was created as an alternative reality in much the same way as my secret paracosm had been created and always with trust in the characters to create the story, and to elevate in their speech the painful themes I could never escape: Why are we here? What is the meaning of all this? How can we conceive of immortality so easily while facing the horrible fact of our own inevitable death? Can art save us if religion can't? Does art—in its most splendid and transcendent forms—prove that God exists? Are dancers and singers and actors and writers like Mary Shelley really saints of a new secular faith that can make heaven on earth in magnificent ballets, and operas, and films, and novels?" (Introduction xxviii).
"I can only go to that 'rag and bone of the heart' through complete creative surrender. That is the way I fall deeper and deeper into pain and darkness—listening to Lestat, following him as he smiles and winks and beckons. That is the way I construct a sustained response to the life I've lived that invites the reader to the very same surrender.
—Anne Rice
MARCH 2018" (Introduction xxix).
Lestat's Illiteracy
If Lestat is illiterate, then how did he write his autobiography? I would assume that he learned how to read and write in all the years that he has to live.
Friday, October 7, 2022
Saturday, October 1, 2022
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