Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I found the ending to Interview With The Vampire not so terrible. To be honest, I was expecting a lot worse and I was relieved that Daniel lived and that Lestat did not wind up in his car as in the movie.
I did find it kind of disturbing that Daniel would wish to become a vampire after hearing Louis's tale. Louis tells Daniel of all the suffering he has endured as a result of becoming a vampire. Even after hearing all of the heartbreak of watching Claudia struggle with her age and finally die, while being able to do nothing about it, it is crazy that Daniel would want a life such as that. I do not see the glory in being a vampire as Daniel obviously does. I think Louis ought to have roughed him up a bit to give him a healthy dose of fear.
I really felt for Louis all throughout the book. Even in his human life, he was deeply sad and this did not change as he hoped it would upon becoming a vampire. The sadness was only eternally prolonged, not nullified. To bear such a heavy burden as Louis does for all of time sounds like the worst nightmare I could imagine. Far worse than being a vampire. I would even go so far as to say that I would rather be Louis or Lestat's prey than have to live forever.
This whole living forever thing that is associated with vampires seems to be something that humans really covet. I really don't understand why, though. Immortality is not human, natural, or normal. Humans have deep ties to each other and I can't see why someone would want to live beyond everyone they know and love.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with you that it is baffling that Daniel would want to become a vampire after Louis's story. I think the draw may not be the immortality part but the not aging part. Aging in our society is seen as a disease and something that people dread and try to stave off for as long as possible. I think the idea that someone could stay young (and attractive) forever would be tempting.

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  2. I think people will always have a romantic view of what it is to be a vampire. They only see the good things about it, most notably being able to live forever. No one really thinks about seeing everyone they love die, or of having to kill innocent people. I think that is why Louis went so indepth with his suffering and unhappiness in this novel, to try to change anyone's mind about it being a good thing.

    Perhaps that's something Anne Rice was trying to portray? That the draw to vampires (and for some people, to become one) will never fade.

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  3. I both agree and disagree with this. The fact that Daniel wants to become a vampire after everything he has just heard does seem very appalling but I believe that Daniel does not see himself like Louis; I believe he sees himself as Lestat. Louis seems throughout the story to be a special case of a vampire. He seems to have more feelings than he should and he also does not forget his past or live in the moment. Perhaps Daniel believes he will be a different sort of vampire, more like Lestat maybe, and not only that, he has heard of all the ways to be unhappy from Louis so he knows what not to do. Many people believe they can do things better when they are equipped with the both the knowledge of what not to do and the fact that the are a different type of person.

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