Interview with a Vampire

This was the week of the vampire, one that I wasn't so much looking forward to, because unlike almost all of the other genre's that we are to cover during the semester, the vampire genre isn't one I've ever been very fond of.  Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice certainly didn't make me want to go out and buy a fake pair of sharp canines or a coffin to sleep in.  Not only do I dislike vampires, but Rice's writing style (not that it wasn't written well) is definitely not one that could easily hold my attention.  The story often felt to be dragging severely with large amounts of description when it wasn't even needed.  Maybe if the book was about half as long it would be sufficient.

The more I think about it however, I don't really dislike the idea of a vampire.  The thought of a ghoulish phantom that attacks people directly with the most primitive of weapons, their own teeth, draining their victims of so much blood that they become incapacitated and left to die, is definitely in a horror fan's appeal.  I think what I don't like about vampires is that in novels and other forms of entertainment the idea is romanticized and taken from it's “monster” roots just as it is in Interview with a Vampire.  In movies like Blade, Vampire Hunter D, or Underworld, the vampire(s) aren't really horrific monsters, but they certainly aren't romanticized either.  They all hold true to the common characteristics of a fictional vampire, and turn it more into an action oriented gory show of blades and mutilation of humans and even other monsters.  I feel that the vampire genre like many others is rather diverse and can appeal to all different types of people, but I feel because of it's romantic view on the otherworldly creature Interview is primarily written with the female reader in mind.

There are a few things that I did find interesting about Rice's novel however;  I enjoyed how she described the vampires as being bone pale and possessing extremely smooth features tightly pulled over their facial structure to give them more of a ghastly appearance that they had to hide in the dimmest of lights when conversing with a normal person.  In most vampire fiction, including the film adaptation of the book Interview with a Vampire, as long as it's night the normal humans have no suspicion that they're actually in the company of a vampire.  I also liked the scene, though it was extremely short when Claudia and Louis run into the European vampire, who seems almost zombie-like with his brutish strength and nothing driving him but a crazed hunger for, in this case, blood.  Lestat was a great character with an arrogant personality, due to his experience and expertise in all things vampire, which gave him the ability to be extremely manipulative.  In Rice's novel vampires aren't harmed by the common garlic and cross weakness' that they're often thought to have, but the community is aware of the myth, which was pretty unique.

It wasn't a terrible book, but it certainly wasn't my favorite, romanticized vampires just aren't part of testosterone fueled interests, and I won't be reading any of the other books in The Vampire Chronicles, I'll just stick with Castlevania and Blade.