Hunger for Blood Redux

Vampires. They are the tyrannical terror of the undead world, the horror that cannot always be detected for they often hide behind a mask of beauty and charm. But how did they become this way? How has literature evolved them into these seductive creatures?

That is where our reading came in. Though Dracula introduced the vampire as a charming count, Anne Rice took her stories further. Not only do her books bring forth the beauty and majestic quality that vampires have developed but they make them people. Not only that but vampires become personable in Interview with the Vampire. Louis tells his horrifying and yet mystifying story to Daniel who becomes entranced by it. Louis does not seem evil... but rather the victim of a curse as he sees it... while it is also described as a gift. He tells of how he feeds and how Lestat taught him how to feed.

Louis does not seem like the monster that vampires are described as. Even Lestat whom Louis comes to despise is not a truly nefarious character. We come to see that there is something hidden in Lestat's past as to why he is the way he is. If you read more in The Vampire Lestat, you come to find that that is true. His maker forced vampirism on him but instead of hating himself and what he had become, he cherished the gift and sought to enjoy the life that had been given to him.

So why is it that people like me have such a fascination with these beings? These creatures of the night? Do they live some sort of morbid fantasy that we all have? Is it that by putting a name on a monster that looks so like ourselves that we can feel more human? I saw vampires as a higher evolution of humans. They are immortal and strong, a predator that can keep humankind in check. That is a point I believe Lestat made in the Vampire Chronicles- trying to teach Louis that "God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creature under God is as we are, none so like Him as ourselves." I think that truly lies in the point of view that I think of them as. An evolution, an adaptation and the closest to immortality that humans could ever get.

But is immortality really worth that weight of your soul? I guess it would depend on how it was that you saw your kills. Marius taught Lestat (who then teaches Louis) that you are to kill only evil doers. Use your mind powers to find those who commit wrong and kill only them. They are not human so is it really murder to kill humans for food? That would be like saying that a wolf is a murderer for killing an elk to survive.

It is an interesting moral dilemma.

Immortality, to Louis, is a curse and not a gift. It is a way for him to spend the ages mourning Claudia and the life he could have had if Lestat had not found him. He will always remember that he was made not out of love but of need- not even of him but for his wealth and property. But unlike Lestat, he doesn’t accept his fate and learn to be as he is. Instead, he mourns for a life he will not have and people he will never see again.

"The world changes, we do not, there in lies the irony that finally kills us."