cloudsinvenice:

i-want-my-iwtv:

katzenfabrik replied to your post: anonymous said:So, David is an or…

I think the body’s original owner is described as Anglo-Indian, a term that makes me think of the British Raj, though Wikipedia says it’s still in use today.

mickimonster said:

he was either pakistani or indian
the body belonged to the son of indian immigrants [if I am not mistaken. idk, read that book a month ago but not very carefully]

Does anyone remember the first time it’s mentioned? If you don’t mind sending me a quote, just curious. Just can’t find it myself 😛

Some people of mixed English and Indian descent self-describe as Anglo-Indian; I’m thinking of a friend of my mother’s in this case. But that’s not to say that’s what Anne Rice meant in this instance – I’m digging through the text online but no luck finding the quote so far.

However! I did find an academic paper that, at a glance, looks super-relevant: 

Becoming-Other: (Dis)Embodiments of Race in Anne Rice’s Tale of the Body Thief – Trevor Holmes, University of Guelph: http://www.erudit.org/revue/ron/2006/v/n44/014004ar.html

cloudsinvenice: #vampire chronicles, #david talbot, #the tale of the body thief, #i get that it’s super bad form to delete stuff from posts you reblog but I took out the question with the racist slur, #because what the fucking fuck

Thanks for answering that, will have to read that article, I’m intrigued that someone tackled it as a subject!

Also, re: your other good point in your tags, I should have deleted that racist thing myself, but when I published that question I addressed in my response that the term is deragotory. I published it bc it did raise the question regarding how David must have felt about being a different ethnicity.

So, David is an oreo right? You know, white inside and black outside.

I’m pretty sure that’s a derogatory term, Anon. *tsk tsk* 

True, the ethnic appearance of that body certainly drew Lestat’s interest from the beginning, and now it holds a caucasian’s soul inside. 

For what it’s worth, the first time that body is described (I did a quick search so this may not be the first time, oh well), the skin color isn’t even mentioned:

“Yes, there stood the same tall, powerfully built body, and the hair was the same thick, wavy brown hair…How his large brown eyes glittered. And what shining teeth he had.” – Tale of the Body Thief

Anyway I don’t have time to go find more quotes describing that body’s appearance but you get the idea. 

David Talbot probably had/has difficulty adjusting to the racial reactions he gets from this adopted ethnicity. It was hard enough adjusting to being young again. The looks an old white man gets are certainly not the looks a young – did we ever find out his actual ethnicity? I can’t remember – ethnic man gets.