Final Post

For me this class was enlightening in many ways.  First, I was a little apprehensive about blogging.  It is something that was completely new to me both in a personal and educational setting.  After experiencing what it is all about and the collaboration between all of us throughout the semester, I really enjoy it.  It was engaging to read other posts as well as what everyone thought about my ideas.  Blogging is definitely something that I will continue to do!
Second, I had not read any of the selections we were required to before this class.  Also the horror/vampire genre was something that was also foreign to me.  These novels have opened me up to a whole new category of books and is something that I will continue to look for when selecting a new novel to read.  I also enjoyed connecting the dots between the dawn of vampire novels to our latest book.  There are many overarching themes when it comes to vampires but the current social, economic, and cultural conditions of the times these books were written always seems to show itself.  After a while, I tried to focus my blogs on how these have changed because I found it so interesting.  Best of luck to everyone on their finals!  

Final Project

On the surface these characters do not share much in common; one is a vampire in a world of prey, while the other is the prey in a world of vampires.  One searches for a cure to the ailment that has crippled his society, while the other tries to fit into a society that does not think the same as him.  These characters are Louis from Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, and Robert Neville from Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend.  Louis and Neville, although completely unrelated in so many ways, do share one very important commonality when analyzing their characterization in each novel; they are both unique members of the society in which they live.  Louis represents that only vampire who approaches his condition with a conscience making him extremely unique when compared to his contemporaries.  Neville is the sole human in a world consumed by vampire-like creatures.  Louis and Neville share the eerie title of one of a kind.  Through examination of passages from each novel and examples from the popular movie titles of these novels, it can be seen that, although different in almost every conceivable way, Louis and Robert Neville share the commonality of uniqueness to their society. 

            Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire presents the reader with a totally new form of this classic horror character.  Louis, the interviewee, is a man at the end of his rope.  After the death of his brother, Louis cannot bear to live longer, but cannot find the gusto to end his own life.  He encounters Lestat, a vampire, and is turned himself.  Louis begins a long journey of finding himself in this new role of no longer living, but not dead.  He is not like any other vampires we have encountered in literature prior to this in one distinct way; he cannot bring himself to feed on humans.  This begins a unique and telling evolution of the death of the man within the vampire.  By looking at a few keys passages from Rice’s novel, the evolution of Louis into full blown vampirism can be seen. 

            The first passage we will look from Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire comes from page 54 of the novel. 

I had to kill him.  He started to run.  He would have alarmed everyone.  Perhaps it might have been handled some other way, but I had no time.  So I went after him, overpowering him.  But then, finding myself in the act of doing what I had not done for four years, I stopped.  This was a man.  He had his bone-handled knife in his hand to defend himself.

Rice describes Louis first encounter with feeding on human blood.  Before this time, Louis relied on animal blood to sustain his vampirism.  Louis emphasizes the necessity of the act.  He seems as though he is a man with no other option.  Louis stresses that he “had” to chase after and kill this human.  Furthermore, Louis reminds the reader that he had “no time” to mull over the situation and think of a better course of action.  Finally, Louis stops this act of vampirism when he finally realizes what has happened.  It seems as though he feels a sense of remorse for his actions, commenting that this is “a man” who is trying to defend himself from an attacker.  In this passage the reader sees Louis in his infant stages of becoming a vampire.  He does kill for fun or sport like his maker Lestat, but rather looks at this act as a necessity to preserve his own well-being.  Louis rationalizes the act by saying the man would have told everyone about the vampires in New Orleans therefore putting his safety in serious jeopardy.  After this encounter, the reader understands a new form of the vampire.  Louis is compassionate and conscious of the effects vampires have on the world around them.   

            Our next passage furthers the evolution of Louis as a vampire.  Although the reader may feel some sympathy to the condition of the compassionate vampire, this does not last for long. 

I could feel the fever for the kill rising in me, a knot of hunger in my insides, a throbbing in the temples as if the veins were contracting and my body might become a map of tortured vessels (Rice 122).

Again the reader experiences the thirst of a vampire, but for the first time this is coming from Louis.  He describes the need for the kill in a very graphic way.  Furthermore, it is important to note than many of the terms Louis uses seem to echo that of the heart.  He focuses on words like throbbing, veins, contracting, and vessels.  This passage is a fantastic example of the syntax Rice uses throughout the novel to stress the need for blood that courses through a vampires psyche.  Louis is beginning to sound very similar to his other vampire companions.  The reader feels a sense of need for blood, more specifically human.  Louis no longer laments over the kill, or does it out of necessity.  He feels the “fever for the kill” mounting inside him.  Louis is no longer satisfied with animals and clearly needs something more.  In addition, the need for a kill gives Louis “a knot of hunger inside him.”  He is starving for the taste of blood.  This stands in stark contrast to the Louis the reader encounters with the old man running from him.  He is no longer looking to kill simply for necessity, but is searching for a victim to feed on. 

            Louis transformation is almost complete.  The last passage we will examine comes from page 254 of Rice’s novel. 

Not physical love, you must understand.  I don’t speak of that at all, though Armand was beautiful and simple, and no intimacy with him would ever have been repellent.  For vampires, physical love culminates and is satisfied in one thing, the kill.

One of the most human acts discussed in the novel is physical love.  It is one of the few things that is common between us and vampires.  Although this is true, Louis equates this act to the kill.  He even goes as far to say that it “culminates and is satisfied” by a singular act of taking a victim.  In this, his transformation from fully human to completely vampire has occurred.  He no longer has the shreds of humanity that hold him back in the beginning of the novel.  His transformation is one of the more fascinating themes of the novel for two reasons.  First, Louis is the first character we have encountered that seems to hold onto his humanity even after he has become a vampire.  He does so with his compassion for victims, the recognition of his actions, and their effect on others.  Secondly, Louis shows compassion for his fellow vampires.  Not until his, and his companions, lives are threatened does Louis commit an act of vampirism on another human.  He is conscious of the peril his society lives in and does his part to protect it.  The idea of the unique case within a society can also be seen in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. 

            Although on the surface Matheson’s I Am Legend is a simple, last man on earth novel, it presents the reader with a deeper psychological question; What do you do when everything, everyone, and the structure of your society has been destroyed?  Robert Neville begins a search to not only understand the condition that has afflicted his society, but to also find a cure.  Neville does this by studying the creatures.  Through this investigation, the loneliness and psychological aspect of the novel becomes apparent.  Furthermore, the uniqueness of Neville’s situation is evident. 

            A passage that illustrates this point in Matheson’s novel comes from page 206 of I Am Legend. 

When you were lonely and wanted to talk and laugh and be alive?  And someone spoke to you finally and asked you to go out with them?

            This passage illustrates the unique condition and psychological problems that being the last man on earth presents.  The context of the passage is much less important than the syntax that Matheson chooses.   He uses words like talk, laugh, and most importantly, be alive.  To the reader this signals the intense loneliness that having nobody to speak with presents.  The society that Neville used to know relied on verbal communication to start and maintain relationships.  Without anyone else to further this, Neville is very much alone.  Furthermore, this passage implies that verbal communication is a sign of the living.  The creatures of the novel have lost almost all of these skills and thus can be considered not human. This is a very important distinction. 

            Another instance of Neville’s unique condition in this new society comes from page 21 of the novel.

He walked on rigid legs to the kitchen and flung the piece into the trash box.  Then he stood in the dark kitchen, eyes tightly shut, teeth clenched, hand clamped over his ears.  Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone!  No use, you couldn’t beat them at night.  No use trying; it was their special time. 

Matheson attempts to show Neville inability to deal with his new condition early on in the novel.  It is important to note that humans of this time, the 1960’s, had mastered the night.  Using technology like street lights, head lights on cars, and the incandescent light bulb, night simply became an extension of the daylight.  Not in this new society.  Neville no longer has control of the night the way he was used too.  Furthermore, he becomes frustrated by his lack of control, which becomes a driving force for his search to fix things.  Neville is unique in that he has nobody to aid him in his search for a cure.  He does not have someone to bounce ideas off of, keep him motivated when all hope seems lost, or as a shoulder to lean on.  Here in lies the much understated psychological terror of the novel.  Louis and Neville conditions are also echoed in the contemporary forms of these novels; their movies. 

            By examining a still from each film, Louis and Neville’s unique condition becomes apparent.  First, looking at one from Interview With a Vampire.  Here we see Louis, played by Brad Pitt on the left, and Lestat, played by Tom Cruise on the right.  Some things that indicate the conscience that Louis still possesses are evident in his characterization in the film.  First, Louis is not as pale as Lestat.  He still has some coloration that indicates he is still more human than vampire.  Also, he is standing with his arms crossed and mouth closed; a very closed off, private position.  This is not significant until compared to Lestat’s pose.  He has his mouth open and arms at his sides.  Lestat is more ready for whatever comes his way, thus more aggressive.  Furthermore, the fact that Lestat’s mouth is open while Louis is closed-lip indicates that Lestat is ready to feed.  All these factors from a still of the film support the idea that Louis still holds onto some aspect of his humanity.  These same comparisons can be made by examining a still from I Am Legend.  

 Robert Neville, played by Will Smith, is the only human left on earth.  The only other human figure that he encounters are manikins Neville has named.  They are manikins.  They are lifeless.  As a result, they present the viewer with a stark contrast to exhilaration and exuberance of Robert Neville.  He is not a manikin.  He is not lifeless.  None the less, he is alone.  This visually reinforces the viewer that Neville is completely alone.  He does not even relate to the only other human forms in the movie. 

            Although Louis of Interview with a Vampire and Robert Neville of I Am Legend do not seem to be related in any way, shape or form; they are.  Both characters give the reader a point of reference in a world not fully understood.  Louis can be characterized as a link between the world of the human and that of the vampire.  He is unique in this way.  Louis still has human characteristics but must feed on blood to maintain his life.  As a result he is not human, but unique in his ability to distinguish right from wrong.  Robert Neville is clearly unique in that he is the sole human left on earth.  The reader is presented with other living things, the creatures, but in no way have they retained their human qualities.  As a result, Robert Neville and Louis are one in the same; a link for the reader between the world of the know and the world of the unknown. 

Links to pictures:

http://bayareabibliophile.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/interview-with-the-vampire.jpg

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:54r96ZNTnX8VTM:http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/4557/1198911084064ro4.jpg&t=1

Revised Lit. Crit.

In Anne Rice and the Queering of Culture, George Haggerty analyzes the homoerotic nature of Rice’s vampire novels.  Haggerty makes the assertion that these characters, although they reflect the homoerotic nature of Stoker and Le Fanu’s creations, are much more interesting and endearing to the reader.  He basis this assertion on two reasons.  “I think Rice's vampires  express our culture's secret desire  for and  secret fear of the gay man; the need  to fly with  him beyond the  confines  of heterosexual  convention  and bourgeois  family life  to an exploration of unauthorized desires, and at the same time to taste his body and his blood; to see him bleed and watch him succumb to death-in-life” (Haggerty 6). Haggerty believes that these vampires both express our cultures need and fear of the homosexual lifestyle.  This is as a result of their place in society.  Gay culture, for many people, represents a counter-culture to their own.  Haggerty also touches on this in the quote above.  He says that the homosexual lifestyle “flys beyond the confines of heterosexual convention and bourgeois family life.” By analyzing this aspect of Haggerty argument his foundation can be seen.  Homosexual lifestyle goes beyond the social confines that the conventional lifestyle cannot.  Furthermore, the family structures of these people are much different than that of the rest of the dominant culture.  Both of these aspects of Haggerty’s argument are present in Rice’s novel.  The vampire lifestyle can be analogous to that of the homosexual.  They are not confined by the conventional needs of humans.  They do not die, do not need to grow or maintain food, or sustain health with anything more than blood.  Furthermore, the structure of the relationship of Lestat, Louis, and Claudia is much different than that of the bourgeois family.  In essence, Claudia has two fathers making this family unlike anything else in society.   Haggerty continues this comparison later in his article. 

            Robert Haggerty furthers his argument, the vampire is analogous to homosexuals, with the assertion that their techniques are the same.  “In The Vampire Chronicles, Rice is aware of the vampire as the surplus of the real in western culture. The vampire moves with the suave invisibility of the prototypical gay man: offering companionship, friendship, even love, before revealing his  true and deadly  nature; appearing silently and taking his pleasure ruthlessly; and suffering for his sexual transgression by being shut out from the light and condemned  to  an eternity of darkness” (Haggerty 9).  Again, Haggerty’s argument is supported by the structure of relationships in Rice’s novel.  “The suave invisibility of the prototypical gay man” is an interesting way to equate these lifestyles, but effective.  Louis, Lestat, and Claudia rely on the night, companionship, and others to feed.  They exploit their talents at making meaningful relationships before revealing their true nature.  According to Haggerty, the prototypical gay man does the same when looking for a partner.  Many homosexuals hide their sexuality, revealing it only to their closest friends, relatives, and partners.  This is very much the same way vampires operate in Rice’s novel.  Haggerty wraps up his argument by commenting on the conventional family structure. 

“The ‘Love of Men and Women for one another and for their Children’ is the measure against which all the transgressive desire of these works must finally be measured” (Haggerty 17).  Haggerty measures his against the reader’s conventional thoughts of the western family structure.  This is not to say that readers of these novels conform to that, but it is an overarching idea.  Vampires, especially those that appear in Rice’s novel, can be used to compare culture and counterculture.  They are different from humans in every conceivable way; their lifestyle, sustenance and ability to cheat death.  It is an interesting comparison and his qualification is necessary.  Haggerty’s argument fits perfectly into the structure of Rice’s novels that, can be said to, queer culture.  

Evolution of the Child

I would like to expand on something from Colleen's blog.  Throughout the semester we have encountered a few child vampire characters, all giving us points of reference to see how this type of character has changed through the evolution of the vampire novel.  Our first child character came from Carmilla.  She was almost the embodiment of the Victorian ideal of womanhood except for the fact that she was a vampire.  Next we have Claudia from Interview with a vampire.  Again she seems innocent, like Carmilla, but has a dark and ruthless nature.  Finally Eli from Let the Right One In.  These three characters, although very different in their mannerism and era, do share a common thread.  
First, all three girls are searching for some sort of companionship.  This is obvious with Carmilla and Claudia, but slightly more dynamic with Eli.  Not only does she have Oskar, but also Hakan.  I would argue that Eli simply keeps Hakan around as a source of companionship.  She does not hesitate to kill him in order to save herself, and, most importantly, run away with Oskar.  The desire for companionship is the strongest of all three in Eli.  Secondly, all three characters are products of their time.  Carmilla is the essence of a Victorian woman (minus the vampirism of course), Claudia is the orphan child that "finds a home" with her fellow vampires, and Eli can be characterized as the needy type, searching for someone to literally "sink her fangs into" and latch onto.  All three of them are extremely fascinating when compared to each other.

Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In reminded me a lot of Carmilla.  It seemed to deal with the same issues and characters but with an updated feel.  Oskar, the main character of the novel, is very similar to Laura in that they are both young kids searching for companion.  Furthermore, like many of the Victorian vampires we have read about, Eli fills that void and befriends Oskar.  Although this is true, Let the Right One In seems to take on a different tone than these novels. Oskar is obsessed with forensic/murder cases.  This seems to be a weird obsession for a young child, and more of a modern idea.  Furthermore, Hakan, Eli's caretaker, is a convicted pedophile.  Here in lies another very modern idea in literature.
I also want to discuss a bit about the main relationships that are presented in the novel; Hakan and Eli and Oskar and Eli.  The relationship between Hakan and Eli is very interesting.  Hakan is basically a blood scout for Eli but desires to be much more.  He is paid for his services, but would gladly do it for free if Eli would allow him to be intimate with her.  This is gross.  Even though Eli is over 200 years old, she is still a young girl.  Their relationship can be characterized as very one-sided.  Eli does not necessarily need Hakan but he very much needs her.  This is evident at the end of the novel when Eli feeds on Hakan, who later jumps froma window to avoid becoming a vampire.
The relationship between Eli and Oskar is completely different.  Unlike her and Hakan, Eli and Oskar seem to need each other.  Oskar is searching for a companion/way out of a bad home and Eli looks to free herself from Hakan.  This is also evident at the end of the novel when Eli flees with Oskar presumably to like "happily ever after.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I would like to continue to explore the idea of the evolution of the vampire.  I think in most of the novels we have read involve some sort of evolution/change experienced by the main characters.  I enjoyed picking apart the passages of Interview very much.  Once you look between the lines of Rice's novel, a lot can be discovered about the character progression.  I would like to compare Louis with Neville from I am Legend.  Although Neville is not a vampire, he shares the same transformation/uniqueness in the society which he lives.  Neville is the sole human left in a world of vampires, and Louis is the only vampire who still holds onto his humanity.  Like Louis, Neville eventually looses his fight to grip his reality and shape it into a more desirable one. This is a powerful and interesting comparison.

The Evolution of Louise the Vampire: Literary Criticism

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire presents the reader with a totally new form of this classic horror character.  Louis, the interviewee, is a man at the end of his rope.  After the death of his brother, Louis cannot bear to live longer, but cannot find the gusto to end his own life.  He encounters Lestat, a vampire, and is turned himself.  Louis begins a long journey of finding himself in this new role of no longer living, but not dead.  He is not like any other vampires we have encountered in literature prior to this in one distinct way; he cannot bring himself to feed on humans.  This begins an interesting and telling evolution of the death of the man within the vampire.  By looking at a few keys passages from Rice’s novel, the evolution of Louis into full blown vampirism can be seen. 

            The first passage we will look from Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire comes from page 54 of the novel. 

I had to kill him.  He started to run.  He would have alarmed everyone.  Perhaps it might have been handled some other way, but I had no time.  So I went after him, overpowering him.  But then, finding myself in the act of doing what I had not done for four years, I stopped.  This was a man.  He had his bone-handled knife in his hand to defend himself.

Rice describes Louis first encounter with feeding on human blood.  Before this time, Louis relied on animal blood to sustain his vampirism.  Louis emphasizes the necessity of the act.  He seems as though he is a man with no other option.  Louis stresses that he “had” to chase after and kill this human.  Furthermore, Louis reminds the reader that he had “no time” to mull over the situation and think of a better course of action.  Finally, Louis stops this act of vampirism when he finally realizes what has happened.  It seems as though he feels a sense of remorse for his actions, commenting that this is “a man” who is trying to defend himself from an attacker.  In this passage the reader sees Louis in his infant stages of becoming a vampire.  He does kill for fun or sport like his maker Lestat, but rather looks at this act as a necessity to preserve his own well-being.  Louis rationalizes the act by saying the man would have told everyone about the vampires in New Orleans therefore putting his safety in serious jeopardy.  After this encounter, the reader understands a new form of the vampire.  Louis is compassionate and conscious of the effects vampires have on the world around them.    

            Our next passage furthers the evolution of Louis as a vampire.  Although the reader may feel some sympathy to the condition of the compassionate vampire, this does not last for long. 

I could feel the fever for the kill rising in me, a knot of hunger in my insides, a throbbing in the temples as if the veins were contracting and my body might become a map of tortured vessels (Rice 122).

Again the reader experiences the thirst of a vampire, but for the first time this is coming from Louis.  He describes the need for the kill in a very graphic way.  Furthermore, it is important to note than many of the terms Louis uses seem to echo that of the heart.  He focuses on words like throbbing, veins, contracting, and vessels.  This passage is a fantastic example of the syntax Rice uses throughout the novel to stress the need for blood that courses through a vampires psyche.  Louis is beginning to sound very similar to his other vampire companions.  The reader feels a sense of need for blood, more specifically human.  Louis no longer laments over the kill, or does it out of necessity.  He feels the “fever for the kill” mounting inside him.  Louis is no longer satisfied with animals and clearly needs something more.  In addition, the need for a kill gives Louis “a knot of hunger inside him.”  He is starving for the taste of blood.  This stands in stark contrast to the Louis the reader encounters with the old man running from him.  He is no longer looking to kill simply for necessity, but is searching for a victim to feed on. 

            Louis transformation is almost complete.  The last passage we will examine comes from page 254 of Rice’s novel. 

Not physical love, you must understand.  I don’t speak of that at all, though Armand was beautiful and simple, and no intimacy with him would ever have been repellent.  For vampires, physical love culminates and is satisfied in one thing, the kill.

One of the most human acts that is discussed in the novel is physical love.  It is one of the few things that is common between us and vampires.  Although this is true, Louis equates this act to the kill.  He even goes as far to say that it “culminates and is satisfied” by a singular act of taking a victim.  In this, his transformation from fully human to completely vampire has occurred.  He no longer has the shreds of humanity that hold him back in the beginning of the novel.  His transformation is one of the more fascinating themes of the novel for two reasons.  First, Louis is the first character we have encountered that seems to hold onto his humanity even after he has become a vampire.  He does so with his compassion for victims, the recognition of his actions, and their effect on others.  Secondly, Louis shows compassion for his fellow vampires.  Not until his, and his companions, lives are threatened does Louis commit an act of vampirism on another human.  He is conscious of the peril his society lives in and does his part to protect it.  In this, an analysis of Louis as a character in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire is one of the most intriguing and fruitful in the vampire literature we have read this semester.