“So what if we had to sleep on lumpy pallets, and the neighbors woke us up with fighting.” -Lestat, The Vampire Lestat
Was it the first night? The second? Third? It had all been a whirlwind to me, the excitement of arriving in Paris, the world suddenly such a different place from where I’d spent the last 21 years. People everywhere, the stench of shit and piss in the streets, the sounds of horses and church bells and music everywhere. How I loved it.
We’d rented a tiny room at the top floor of a building–one bed, two windows, a shelf and a basin in which to wash. Such a small space! Such heaven to me, such cramped and glorious beauty.
The first night we’d made wild, happy love, tumbling into the lumpy, uncomfortable bed twisted and entwined and endlessly delighted in each other. The bells of a church chimed the hour in the distance, the moonlight spilling into the little window and onto the floor of the flat. I remember this image as I drifted off to sleep, a strange thought coming to me that I hoped my mother was okay, that she was becoming well again, perhaps.
It was maybe an hour later that I was roused, abruptly, by shouts. The wall above our head thudded as something hit it–something heavy.
“Nicolas–” I shook him, then, his eyes snapping open.
“What is it? What the hell–?” He sat up, nearly conking heads with me, both of us turned to face the wall behind the headboard.
The screaming continued, followed by the shattering of glass. I know my eyes widened, then–I’d experienced plenty of abuse and yelling in my years, yes, but never had I been privy to the violent fighting of complete strangers, not in such an intimate way. I’d grown up in a damn castle, for God’s sake–the walls were thick and the place devoured sound.
Then Nicolas began to laugh.
I snapped my eyes to his, “How can you laugh? It’s terrible!”
He fell back against the bedclothes, snatching my pillow as he laughed and throwing it at me.
Because the Lestat I love isn’t the one Anne’s interested in writing. The Lestat I love isn’t an infallible, untouchable prince whom everyone falls in love with at first sight. He’s a fuckup who never stops trying.
I love the Lestat who came out of an abusive home and still wanted desperately that there was good in the world, and that he could be a good person. Who wanted to make people happy and who was desperately in love with his depressed as fuck proto-hipster boyfriend. Who lived as a queer man without shame.
I love the Lestat who had panic attacks about death and the unknowable enormity of the universe.
I love the Lestat who was a victim and a survivor, who was moved not to exert his power over others but make sure they didn’t suffer like he had.
I love the Lestat who tried to take care of his loved ones even when he was spectacularly bad at it, who wore his heart sincerely on his sleeve and lived in terror of his loved ones throwing him away because they didn’t need him anymore.
I rooted for the Lestat who realized the enormity of the wrongs he did to Louis by keeping him ignorant and by indulging his need to be needed. I loved the Lestat who was willing to show all of his fears and his fuckups in print, when his whole life had been dedicated to pretending he was untouchable, just to apologize to the man he loved.
I loved a Lestat who was allowed to be wrong, to be punished, to be humbled and rejected and keep going. Whose bravado and bluster was a cover for a sincere heart, not a hard and empty shell. The Lestat I love isn’t a rapist, an autocrat, a power hungry monster. He had countless flaws, but he was meant to fix them, not wait around for the universe to concoct a reason why his bad behavior and disregard for others’ agency is okay.
I don’t know where that Lestat went. But I miss him.
once upon a time young young teenage me used to write fan fiction like my life depended on it, new fics every week and I had no idea there was someone out there printing out my fics and putting them in a box to read when they needed something to cheer them up
anyways fast forward to 20 year old me on my third date with Emily and she mentions offhand that she’s got this box of fic she printed out and saved
it’s a few months later after that and she shows me one of the fics in the box and holy shit that’s my garbage fic from so long ago
anyways my point is life is a fucking trip my dude
i still remember when we found this out. i don’t think either of us stopped yelling for hours
look it’s been eight years and I’m still like LMAO I MARRIED A FAN
This is the cutest thing I’ve ever read in my whole life
Back in September I bought cheap used copies of all the Vampire Chronicles (and New Tales) for myself so that I could reread them in time for PLatRoA. And I wrote in them and stuff. It was pretty fun. I crammed all 14 books in 10 weeks and it was PRETTY EXHILARATING.
So anyway, for as long as it interests me, watch this space as I flip through them again and make posts of quotes and passages that I enjoyed. 🙂
I’ve been wanting to do this myself for the longest time!! Do the different colors of highlighted passages mean anything? 🙂
yisssss
I was mostly just using the pink primarily (sometimes I switched to green because I went through like 4 packs of highlighters and tbh Marius is a Highliter Ruiner and I kept running the pink ones out), but I’d switch to blue if I wanted to extra emphasize something in the paragraph, or I’d switch back and forth with pink & blue if there were two paragraphs/sentences back to back that I wanted to highlight for different reasons, like I found each section to be a complete idea etc. Then I saved purple for EXTRA IMPORTANT STUFF.
It was really fun and enlightening and definitely heightened my enjoyment of these stories. Plus like, I’ll be honest, not every step of the way was the most academic endeavor, because I was highlighting and noting a mix of “This is really important to the plot and this character” and “THIS GIVES ME THE LOLS”
You should do it! IT WAS FUN. 😀
^There is SO MUCH humor in VC!!! I feel like ppl forget that sometimes…
^This would be all over everything if I did this… w/ tons of 😀 and D:
Relatively quick piece of Lestat and Louis I did after learning that Anne Rice and her son are currently writing a screenplay for a miniseries adaptation of The Vampire Lestat. I remember when I first read Interview With A Vampire, Louis’ constant complaining drove me nuts.
And then I realized that Lestat just generally elicits complaints because he continually–inadvertently–ends up almost destroying Christendom. So really, I can’t blame Louis and his grandpa sweaters because he puts up with a lot.
This is absolutely brilliant, I actually chuckled out loud..! :–D Both idea and the art deserves an applaud! I know I’m horribly late but I want to thank you for this piece, it warms my cold heart and soul and I’m glad I had a chance to be blessed with such a sight! Virtual good vibes and hugs on that way!
I’ll be sure to check out all this new VC related content tumblr has to offer.
I hope your Christmas was good and I wish you Happy New Year 2017!
I-want-my-IWTV 